Portraits of Yoshiharu, Tatsuo, and Ryoji Uehara by Shunsuke Kamijo

Ryoji Uehara is widely known as the special attack corps member who left behind the will that opens the book "Listen to the Voices from the Sea" (Kike Wadatsumi no Koe). His words written on the eve of his departure—proclaiming himself a "liberalist" and containing intense phrases that even foresaw Japan's defeat—are widely recognized as a representative will of a fallen student soldier. After attending the former Matsumoto Middle School, he entered the Keio University Preparatory School in Hiyoshi and was an active Juku student who had just advanced to his first year in the Faculty of Economics at Mita when he joined the army through student mobilization. The statue on the right depicts Ryoji in his military uniform, with the Order of the Golden Kite, awarded posthumously, visible on his chest.

Who are the other two? In the center is Yoshiharu, Ryoji's eldest brother, and on the left is Tatsuo, the second eldest. Yoshiharu graduated from the Keio School of Medicine in March 1940 and became an army surgeon, while Tatsuo graduated from the Keio School of Medicine in September 1942 and became a navy surgeon. These brothers also lost their lives in the war. Leaving behind their parents and two younger sisters, the Uehara family lost all three of their sons, who were all alumni of Keio University, to the war.

The first to lose his life was Tatsuo. On September 3, 1943 (death confirmed on October 22), the submarine I-182, on which he served as a medical officer, was sunk in the waters of the New Hebrides Islands. Next, on May 11, 1945, Ryoji departed from Chiran, Kagoshima Prefecture, for the Okinawa area as a member of the Army Special Attack Corps 56th Shinbu Squadron. Then the war ended. Having lost two sons, the family waited expectantly for the demobilization of the eldest son, the pillar of the family.

In the spring of the following year, upon hearing the long-awaited news of the eldest son's demobilization, his father, Torataro, prepared beer to welcome him home. However, it was a case of mistaken identity. Instead, a comrade-in-arms brought news that Yoshiharu had died of illness in Burma on September 24, 1945.

The father, a former army surgeon who had opened a clinic in Ariake Village, Nagano Prefecture (now Azumino City), acted bravely, but he commissioned the sculptor Shunsuke Kamijo to create portrait busts of his sons, which he kept displayed on the family Buddhist altar throughout his life. Furthermore, he left his sons' letters, notebooks, and all other mementos untouched, preserving them exactly as they were. The Keio History Museum Spring Special Exhibition: "The Modern Era and War for One Family—Yoshiharu, Tatsuo, and Ryoji Uehara and Their Family" (Exhibition Period: June 19 – August 30, 2025) is an attempt to examine one of the consequences brought about by modern Japan through the vast collection of items left behind by these three Keio alumni and their family.

(Takeyuki Tokura, Professor, Keio University Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies)