Father, Mother, Younger Brother, Younger Sister, and my town and school, who looked after me for many years, I say good-bye.
I am truly grateful. Thank you for putting up with my willfulness.
I want to live happily together with all of you for so much longer and forever. I enjoyed my studies and I must thoroughly return your kindnesses. In the spring, the spring breezes danced in the city¡Çs skies. Didn¡Çt we play together at the riverside? In the summer there was the festival of the tutelary kami. Sacred dances and music were everywhere. I yearn for the old days. When fall came didn¡Çt we go to pick susuki grasses for the moon-watching party? Who was it that stumbled at that time? We were overjoyed when it snowed and we went outside for a snowball fight. How I long for those days.
I want to live happily with all of you forever. Even if we disagreed or quarreled, in our hearts we were always together. Nevertheless, I believe that before being a member of this happy family, I must not forget that I am a Japanese.
Japanese, Japanese. Within my blood is the breath of our ancestors that have been passed on for 3,000 years....
His Majesty¡Çs command. The blood of the Japanese grows hot. Japan, the land of my ancestors, may you prosper eternally.
Good-bye everyone. I leave for the front in good spirits.

December 10, 1943

Taro Tsukamoto Mikoto
Lieutenant, Japanese Navy
Killed in Action in the Central Pacific on January 21, 1945
Born in Ryugasaki-cho, Inashiki-gun,, Ibaragi Prefecture
Age: 22