It's so interesting to me how Fukuzawa and Fukuchi have different reactions to government coercion and violence.
Fukuzawa chose a strategy of distancing himself, perhaps even to some extent tried to bury it in himself and turn a blind eye to the fact that he had become a government murderer. He chose a new life.
Fukuchi never chose a new life. He continued to work for the government that had so cruelly broken him, decided to be a part of it - but only to destroy it later. And, as it turned out, to hand over this responsibility to Fukuzawa.
I don't think of course that Fukuzawa didn't think about politics or anything like that at all; moreover, he obviously had to resume working with government after the creation of the agency. But it seems to me that he is a man who does not connect the idea of justice and helping people with the system or fighting against the system. And Fukuchi knows that this system is the root of the huge problem.
Fukuzawa didn’t go to the front because he didn’t see himself as part of a machine, but agreed to government orders, perhaps because eliminating specific people seemed more realistic to him than fighting in a war as a soldier of whoever. So when war is over he in a way had moved on from it - not from his guilt, yes, but from the system. And Fukuchi was a part of the machine himself and discovered that machine is monstrous and awful and he put his life into destroying this machine. And he hadn’t have a chance to move on cause it became who he is now and he needed to destroy himself to destroy this monster.
