He would be turning 100 next month, had he not died so young at only 23. A memorial event is being planned in his hometown in Ise, Mie Prefecture. Aspiring to become a film director, the young Takeuchi studied at the Nihon University College of Art, but was called up for military service. Right before he was conscripted, he penned this monologue-like verse: "If I go to war / What will I do? / Will I perform a meritorious deed?" And he went on, "Or will I die in battle for being careless?" His representative poem, titled "Hone no Utau" (The bones sing), is about his ashes returning home from the war front.