Japanese Nikudan Sanyushi two-dish Set, commemorating the suicide mission of the “three brave men” or “three human bombs” that sacrificed their lives to blow up a fence. These men became national heroes. Each dish depicts the three men around the sides carrying the bomb with the center representing the explosion.  

According to scholar Jonathan Clements, “I have just delivered a book to my publishers on the history of Japanese militarism, so I have a bit more information about the “three human bombs”. From my chapter on the 1930s:

The most famous moment in the Shanghai fighting was an odd choice for celebration. Three Japanese soldiers were killed carrying a “Bangalore torpedo” (a long explosive cylinder for clearing barbed wire, known in Japanese as a hakaitō or “destruction tube”). For this, they were celebrated as “the three bomb heroes” (bakudan sanyūshi) by Army Minister Araki Sadao – a term subsequently taken up by several newspapers, although others preferred the term “three heroic human bullets” (nikudan sanyūshi). Their sacrifice was front-page news back in Japan, and soon the subject of a competition to write a song in their praise, to be set to music provided by a military academy band.

The most famous, “The Three Bomb Heroes” (Bakudan Sanyūshi) of at least seven released that year, included the following lines:

Now is the time / to show that the courage of Japanese men is stronger than forged iron.
They kick the ground and run / determined smiles on their faces / Leaving but a word to their comrades / a brisk farewell.
No time to lose / the hakaitō they embrace is lit / arriving at the barbed wire, they throw themselves upon it.
With the sound of a roaring explosion / they breach a pathway through / now our squads charge in / like a surge of foaming brine.
Not the plum blossoms of Jiangnan / but the flesh of torn and fallen bodies / these three men are national flowers / offered to a righteous army [jingi no gun]
Their pure, loyal spirit will be discussed for eternity / Forever under heaven shall they be an inspiration / Peerlessly courageous three heroes / Shiningly honorable three heroes.

The author of the winning lyrics was Yosano Akiko’s husband, the celebrity poet Yosano Hiroshi, founder of the Myōjo literary magazine, who threw in several Chinese allusions, including the plum blossoms of Jiangnan (the region around Shanghai), the classical term “under heaven” (also a term for the Emperor), and jingi – the first two Confucian virtues: benevolence and justice. Even he seemed a tad embarrassed by his entry, noting that he had dashed it off in a limited amount of time, but figured it would suffice because ‘military songs are hardly literary.’

His wife would also publish a poem on the incident, ‘Citizens of Japan, A Morning Song,’ several months later, but presumably also originally scribbled in haste in the hope of winning the 500-yen prize. In it, she celebrated the soldiers’ deaths, as they ‘dance through the barbed wire’ and scatter their bodies ‘like flowers.’ Twice, in her 1932 poem, she repeated a declaration of loyalty to the Emperor: ‘Ah, the Augustness of His Majesty’s reign / that inspires people’s hearts / it is a time that ignites our sense of duty.’

As for the Emperor’s subjects, Yosano had now forgotten all thought of doubting her imperial masters. The soldiers on the front line, in Yosano’s change of heart, now enjoyed the full support of the nation.

And they are but one example.
For we, too, the people behind the guns,
Redouble our courage many times over
And rally everyone to the cause.

Posthumously promoted, immortalized in several statues, played by actors in five movies that year, and the subject of a nationally organized charity for their dependents, the three “human bullet” heroes are an important point on the continuum celebrating suicidal loyalty to the Emperor.

In a cash-in of questionable taste, their images were also appropriated for Three Human Bullet-branded saké and candy. However, their true story may not have been quite so valiant as the media claimed. Certainly, they were picked from 36 volunteers to undertake the task, although the danger they faced was not strategically vital, and was a frankly unnecessary mission. Moreover, there were whispers even at the time that their deaths were a dreadful accident, and that far from knowingly charging to their deaths, they had been blown up before they could escape to safety, due to a fuse that had been lethally cut too short. Seen in that light, Araki Sadao’s prominent praise of their actions, and the whole media storm ensuing, starts to look more like a cynical spin on a terrible military blunder.”