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Originally Posted by Hamlet53
Yes, that veteran of WWII was not at all mentioned in Black Rain (the novel). I am not sure if the character came from one of Ibuse's other novels (Lieutenant Lookeast maybe?) or not. That was just a guess. In the film I really liked the scene where he tells Yasuko of the traumatic experience that led to his behavior and how they connect on the level of two people forever damaged by the war....
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I thought for sure that he was. I guess I was confused by that passage on page 240:
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In due course, Iwatake was posted to an infantry unit, where for fifteen days he received basic infantry training. The main aim seemed to be to master the technique of throwing themselves, holding bombs, in front of enemy tank units in the event of an enemy invasion of Japan proper. Dozens of times a day, they practiced charging dummy tanks made of wood, flinging beneath them bomb-shaped pieces of timber attached to ropes, then throwing themselves flat as rapidly as possible. He discovered later, after he had been posted to the training center, that it was planned to post the “punitive draft” unit to the coastal defense forces, where each would be considered to have done his duty if he disposed of one enemy tank at the cost of his own life.
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Iwatake, of course, was the one who had been so seriously burned by the bomb and made that "miraculous" recovery. I knew I remembered something in the book about someone throwing dummy grenades under vehicles.