Gakuto Shutsujin Send-off Site (Former Meiji Jingu Gaien Stadium)

On October 21, 1943 (Showa 18), the Meiji Jingu Gaien Stadium (明治神宮外苑競技場) in Tokyo's Jingu Gaien district became the stage for one of the most haunting ceremonies of the Pacific War: the Student Soldier Send-off Rally (出陣学徒壮行会). Organized by the Ministry of Education with co-sponsorship from the Army and Navy Ministries, the event marked the end of draft deferments for liberal arts and social science university students across Japan.

Under cold autumn rain, approximately 25,000 students from 77 schools in the Tokyo metropolitan area marched in formation across the stadium's muddy field, carrying rifles and wearing student uniforms with puttees. Spectators, commonly numbered at about 65,000 (other accounts give about 70,000 for total attendance) and including female students and younger pupils, filled the stands to see them off. Prime Minister Tojo Hideki delivered an address exhorting the students to fulfill their duty, followed by a response speech by Ebashi Shinshirō, a literature student at Tokyo Imperial University. The ceremony concluded with a rendition of the wartime hymn "Umi Yukaba" (海行かば), whose lyrics — "Across the sea, corpses in the water; across the mountains, corpses in the field" — carried a grim foreshadowing of the fate awaiting many.

The rally was broadcast live on NHK radio nationwide, and newsreel footage captured the solemn procession that has since become one of the most recognized images of Japan's wartime mobilization. In December 1943, approximately 100,000 students from universities, higher schools, and professional schools across the country were formally inducted into military service. Many were channeled into naval aviation and special attack (tokkō/kamikaze) units; a significant number never returned.

The Meiji Jingu Gaien Stadium had been built in 1924 as part of the Meiji Shrine Outer Garden complex. During the Allied occupation (1945–1952), it was renamed Nile Kinnick Stadium by the U.S. Eighth Army. The stadium was demolished in 1956 to make way for the National Olympic Stadium (国立霞ヶ丘陸上競技場), completed in 1958 for the 1958 Asian Games and subsequently used as the main venue for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

In October 1993, on the 50th anniversary of the send-off ceremony, surviving former student soldiers erected a stone monument titled "出陣学徒壮行の地" (Site of the Student Soldier Send-off) near the Sendagaya Gate of the National Stadium. During the stadium's reconstruction for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the monument was temporarily relocated to the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium; it was returned to its original position near the new Japan National Stadium (designed by Kengo Kuma, completed 2019) after construction was finished. Annual memorial ceremonies continue to be held at the monument, typically around October 21.