The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi, Volume 3

What does it mean to stand independently when an entire society looks to government for advancement? In the closing volume of his autobiography, Fukuzawa Yukichi examines that question through memories of promises kept, dubious money obtained, and opportunities deliberately refused.

His household provides another measure of independence. He describes affection without rigid ceremony, equal love for sons and daughters, children encouraged to move freely, and the letters that kept a family close across the Pacific. These recollections sit beside sharp attacks on official swagger, political fickleness, and the practice of keeping concubines.

The founding of Jiji Shinpō leads to reflections on a writer’s responsibility. Poems, drinking stories, physical exercise, and recollections of illness give the final pages the candor and humor of spoken memory.