army troops marching in the fields of machuria (1931)

invasion of manchuria 

during the battle of shanghai in 1932 engineer privates Takeji Eshita  Inosuke Sakue and Yuzuru Kitagawa died while trying to blow up enemy barbed wire field , they blow not only themselves, but 34 Chinese soldiers as well , japan immediately dubbed them &quot;Our Three Human Bomb Patriots&quot; Within weeks, they became the subject of songs,radio plays,movies and stage plays.

Inosuke Sakue

Cheering japanese soldiers after the capture of a ridge on the Philippines, 1942.