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as vice president of the classwas instantaneous. It was as if he had been planted in the flower pot of the class vice presidency and placed in full sun. He began to bloom. Mr. Tachikawa had referred to him as “not very good” in a way that may sound disparaging, but in reality I think he had observed the talent that lay dormant within Uekusa.

Whirlwind
    IN TERMS OF intelligence, my brother and I were about ten years apart, but in reality our ages differed by only four years. So when I suddenly began to become less of a baby and more of a little boy, as I started the third grade in primary school, my brother was just entering middle school. At this point, an event no one could have imagined took place.
    As I have already mentioned, my brother was a brilliant student. When he was in the fifth grade, he placed third on the academic-ability examination given to all primary-school students in the city of Tokyo. When he was in the sixth grade, he placed first. However, when he took the entrance examination for the top-ranking state middle school, which would have sent him on to the First High School and eventually to Tokyo Imperial University, he failed.
    This incident was like a nightmare for the entire household, from my father on down. I remember the strange atmosphere that took hold at home. It was as if a sudden whirlwind had passed through, tearing things apart. My father sat staring vacantly into space, my mother wandered aimlessly around the house and my older sisters spoke softly among themselves and averted their gaze from my brother. Even I experienced a feeling of irrational rage and mortification over this event.
    (I still can’t understand why he failed that entrance examination. He had never had any difficulty with exam questions before, and after this test he seemed to be full of his usual confidence. There are only two explanations I can think of: One is that, in the final selection process, preference was given to the children of alumni; the other is that in the oral-interview part of the examination my conceited andindividualistic brother responded in a way that could not be measured by their testing standards.)
    Oddly enough, I have no recollection of my brother’s mood or behavior at this time. Probably he assumed his usual detached air, but I’m sure this incident was a terrible shock for him too, underneath it all. The evidence for my suspicions lies in the fact that immediately afterward, his personality changed suddenly and dramatically.
    At my father’s suggestion, he entered the Seijo Middle School in Wakamatsu-cho, Tokyo. This school was very much like a military academy, and I believe my brother reacted against the regimentation. In any case, he now seemed to be willing to throw his academic career to the winds, for he developed a passionate addiction to literature. Confrontations between my brother and my father became frequent.
    My father had been in the first graduating class of the Imperial Army’s Toyama Academy and had subsequently become a teacher. He was so remarkable a teacher that some of his students had advanced to the rank of general; and his educational principles were terribly spartan. It was inevitable that he would come into direct conflict with my brother, who was becoming infatuated with ideas gleaned from foreign literature.
    Unable to understand such a rift between father and son, all I could do was look on sadly. But just as this desolating wind overtook my home, yet another cold gust of change began to blow.
    My oldest sister’s child is the same age as I am, which means that when I was born, this sister had already left home to be married. My oldest brother is also much older than I, so by the time I was becoming a mentally and physically aware human being, he had long since left home and I saw him only very rarely. My second oldest brother died of illness as a child before I was born. So the siblings I actually grew up with consisted of the older brother I have been