battleship yamato being fitting-out while her forward gun turret 18 inch guns are getting installed 

under construction

Five young pilots of the 72nd Shinbu Squadron with little puppy dog, 22 May, 1945.  Like most Kamikase pilots, these were very young men - aged between 17 and 22.  On the following day, they were involved in a suicide attack on US shipping that had little result, apart from their deaths.

The Kamikase have been mytholysed as warriors who volunteered for a fate comparable to samurai who sacrificed themselves for lord and honour in medieval wars.  Leaving aside the largely mythical history of the samurai, prevalent in Japan in the 1940s,  recently unearthed evidence (including interviews with the small number of surviving Kamikase pilots) suggests that many were pressured into the role of suicidal heroes by social, military and other ideological pressures.  So it was.

In any event, these boys' sweethearts mourned their loss under the cherry trees, flowers falling.  Best regards, JR.

Cherry Blossoms, Fallen ...

Japanese Type 89 grenade launcher - also known as the "knee mortar" in (correct) use by Japanese soldiers in China, 1942.  The name "knee mortar" apparently came from an initial US misunderstanding of the Japanese protocol for carrying the weapon, from the belt, down against the thigh.  This misunderstanding, and the fact that the base plate of the weapon apparently facilitated its use balanced on the knee, led a number of US Marines to experiment with captured Type 89s elevated over the top of the knee - experiments which resulted in a number of broken thighs, separated knees, and other serious leg injuries.  The misunderstanding was quickly cleared up, and the use of captured Type 89s from the knee was, thereafter, firmly discouraged.  Best regards, JR.