The narrator reads Sensei’s letter, which is written in the first person from Sensei’s perspective. At first, Sensei describes the difficulty he felt in composing the letter and how he had wanted to tell the story in person before realizing that he would not have the time. He wants to “apologize for [his] remissness” (140), and he regrets not being able to help the narrator in his quest to find a job. Sensei admits that his behavior was selfish. Only when the narrator mentioned his father’s ill health did Sensei realize that he was not behaving properly. As an apology, Sensei has written out everything that the narrator wanted to know about his dark secrets. He trusts the narrator because the narrator is “sincere.” The letter serves a dual purpose: to keep Sensei’s promise to the narrator and to exorcize Sensei’s regrets by committing his memories to the page for posterity. He does not want to take his secrets to the grave.

Sensei’s memories begin with the story of his parents’ deaths. His parents were “quite wealthy,” and they died at similar times of the same disease; his father caught typhoid, and while treating him, his mother became infected.