‘Grenade’: Bronze WWII sculpture of a Japanese infantryman by Haneda Sennen (羽田千年), 1941. A rare photograph recording this heroic or yamato damashi ('Japanese spirit’) propaganda war-art piece celebrating the bravery of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers. (The infantryman is poised to throw a Model 37 hand grenade, a type which features in the novels Black Sun, Red Moon and Merdeka Rising by Rory Marron.) The sculpture was probably melted down (like many others) late in WWII, when there was a desperate shortage of metal for armaments production in Japan. The shortage was so acute that the Japanese even began the manufacture of ‘last-ditch’ ceramic grenades, some of which were ’thrown' by famous potters such as Kaneshige Toyo. Photo: Author’s Collection (Photo digitally restored by RM).