Yosano Akiko

The poem "My brother, you must not die," was written by Yosano Akiko. She is the one speaking in the poem. She is speaking to her younger brother, as she begs of him not to get involved in the Russo - Japanese War. She does it by letting him know of all the things he has to live for, and he wasn't taught and made to kill people. In the lines 4 - 9, she describes the …

…how the Emperor isn't worth dying over. Almost as if he's a fool for wanting to go. It reminds me of our country today in a way, the way that mothers are recently worrying about their children in the military. The fact that a war might be starting now in Iraq. She certainly gets her point across in the poem. It made me feel kind of frighten remembering about the wars going on back then.