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 ways her parents have raised her brother. The parents did not raise him for twenty-four years to hold a sword and kill a person, and they certainly did not want him to take a chance ending his life. She wants him to carry on the family name of a merchant in