History / Summary Sakai sent his daughter to college in the United States "to learn English and democracy. had spared their lives. He was engaged by Hellcat fighters near the task force's reported position, and all but one of the Nakajima B6N2 "Jill" torpedo bombers in his flight were shot down. The soldiers picked up the note and delivered to the squadron commander.
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Sakai was the Imperial Navy's fourth-ranking ace and Japan's second leading fighter pilot to survive the war, surpassed only by Tetsuz Iwamoto. Samurai of the Air originally appeared in the May 2018 issue of Aviation History. Saburo Sakai died of a heart attack in 2000, following a U.S. Navy formal dinner - where he had been an honored guest - at Atsugi Naval Air Station. Speaking through an interpreter, he sketched a flight deck with notations of 17 meters (about 56 feet) wide with six arresting wires. Southerland parachuted to safety. (see bottom of page). He made lieutenant (junior grade) a year later, just before the war ended. With limited resources, Sakai was adopted by his maternal uncle, who financed his education in a Tokyo high school. On the 7th, U.S. Marines landed at Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the southern Solomon Islands, and Rabaul launched an immediate counterattack. He initially misidentified the planes as a B-29 Superfortresses. A myth has been perpetuated over time but declared to be product of the imagination of Martin Caidin, the co-author of Sakai's book "Samurai." came down and got much closer. [8] According to Sabur Sakai this was his 60th victory. As the Japanese squadron approached Guadalcanal, a group of eight American Wildcats took off from the U.S.S. She was good to me. With limited resources, Sakai was adopted by his maternal uncle, who financed his education in a Tokyo high school. Our orders
Sabur Sakai describes his experiences as a naval recruit:[1]. He became a Buddhist acolyte and vowed never again to kill anything that lived, even a mosquito. However, the politically attuned General Douglas MacArthur awarded the congressman a Silver Star for coolness under fire and returning with valuable information. According to Pulitzer Prizewinning biographer Robert Caro, LBJ had the medal presented repeatedly on the campaign trail, regaling voters with eyewitness accounts of 14 Zeros shot down over Lae. again. ", "REL/08378 - Mitsubishi A6M2 Model 21 Zero Fighter Aircraft: Japanese Navy Air Force. He decided to ignore his orders and flew ahead of the pilot, signaling him to go ahead.
On the third day of the battle, he shot down a B-17 Flying Fortress flown by Captain Colin P. Kelly. Wanting to raise his status in life, Saburo studied
Sakai descended and approached the DC-3. The tail control surfaces are fabric covered. [18] In 2000, Sakai served briefly as a consultant for the popular computer game Combat Flight Simulator 2. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. While touring the U.S., Sakai was surprised to learn that his hosts believed he was credited with 64 victories. The treatment
The wingtips fold for stowage aboard an aircraft carrier. ", "A6M2b Zero Model 21 - Sabur Sakai, V-107, Tainan Kktai. Period". He passed the entrance exam for flight school on the third try. I thought this very odd - it had never happened before - and closed the distance between the two airplanes until I could almost reach out and touch the Grumman.
As I flew
In one of the best-documented dogfights of the Pacific War, he jumped into an uneven combat between his wingmen and an F4F-4 Wildcat. Open Button.
In any Hollywood war movie, the Japanese fighters appears as hysterical and . They were soon engaged in a skillfully-maneuvered dogfight. Unfortunately, his school was not as impressed
Top Marine Corps ace Joe Foss noted with pride that he became Sakais most valued American friend. Saburo was 11 when his father died, leaving Saburo's mother alone to raise seven children. closer I saw that it was full of passengers. shame to the family and his uncle was very disappointed. Because of the light weight of IJN aircraft, catapults were deemed unnecessary. On October 5, his flight was intercepted by Chinese-flown, Soviet-built Polikarpov I-16s near Hankow. [14] Sakai harbored no animosity toward those who had been "the enemy" during WW2, and urged others not to do so either. of the aircraft was courageous enough not to follow me so I
Sakai sent his daughter to college in the United States "to learn English and democracy." Sakai visited the US and met many of his former adversaries, including Lieutenant Commander Harold "Lew" Jones (1921-2009), the SBD Dauntless rear-seat gunner (piloted by Ensign Robert C. Shaw), who had wounded him.
He eventually started a successful printing shop, which he used to help his former comrades and their families with employment.
We stayed with our planes waiting, and
On 8 December 1941, Sakai flew one of 45 Zeros[8] from the Tainan Kktai (a Kktai was an Air Group) that attacked Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Kelly became one of Americas earliest WWII aviation heroes. The squadron commander was furious and reprimanded the three pilots for their stupidity, but the Tainan Kokutai's three leading aces felt Nishizawa's aerial choreography of the "Danse Macabre" had been worth it.
On board were 11 wounded soldiers
After his discharge from the hospital in January 1943, Sakai spent a year training new fighter pilots.
to even pump fuel into my aircraft at this time, if that shows you
", Sakai speaks of the flight school recruiting process: "there
He would not be shaken. //-->. As a militarist he was barred from government employment, and in any case his partial blindness would have prevented a return to military service. but far enough away for me.". This was my first combat against Americans,
forehead by a bullet which almost blinded his right eye and
Adams scored a near miss and sent a bullet through Sakai's canopy, but Sakai quickly gained the upper hand and succeeded in downing Adams. beats on him. Finally, the cold air blasting into the cockpit revived him enough to check his instruments, and he decided that by using a lean fuel mixture he might be able to make it back to the airfield at Rabaul. Sakai, who has often been credited with the victory, was a Shotai leader engaged in this fight with the bomber although he and his two wingmen do not appear to have been given official credit for it. [9], Early in 1942, Sakai was transferred to Tarakan Island in Borneo and fought in the Dutch East Indies. After a few moments of terror, the Zero pilot
On a patrol with his Zero over Java, just after shooting down an enemy aircraft, Sakai encountered a civilian Dutch Douglas DC-3 flying at low altitude over dense jungle. The Japanese Zero pilots flying out of Rabaul were initially confounded by the tactic. With his plane in such condition, no wonder the pilot was unable to continue fighting! With his plane in such condition, no wonder the pilot was unable to continue fighting! Then
Taught to live by the code of Bushido (Hagakure
visit me to find out if it was true. Get Direction.
he asked in an interview reported August 10, 2000, by The Associated Press. Several years ago, a former Dutch military nurse contacted the Japanese
[12] This is an example how even an experienced pilot during the heat of battle, may not identify correctly enemy airplanes or receive verified credit for airplanes not shot down. gunners. I saw a blonde woman, a mother with a child about three years
an enemy aircraft when I saw a big black aircraft coming towards
He had dinner, but felt sick and was taken to the Hospital.
He told me the story about the woman and the child he had seen several times, so that part of the story appears to be correct. When he recovered three months later in April, Petty Officer First Class Sakai joined a squadron (chutai) of the Tainan Kktai under Sub-Lieutenant Junichi Sasai at Lae, New Guinea. Well, anyway, I didn't
[3][unreliable source?]. In August 1944, he was promoted to ensigna record-breaking 11 years from enlistment to commissioning. ", "V-173, a Mitsubishi Zero A6M2, flown by Sakai during summer of 1942. passing out from the blows.
The fighters attacked the Consolidated B-32 Dominator, new to combat with the 386th Bomb Squadron, and inflicted damage. Sabur Sakai was born on August 25, 1916, in Saga, Japan, into a family of samurai ancestry whose ancestors had taken part in the Japanese invasions of Korea but who were forced to make a living as farmers following haihan-chiken in 1871. ), After the war, Sakai retired from the Navy. I saw that it was a civilian aircraft - a DC-4. Starting from
HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. Sakai came from a family descended from Samurai, Japan's ancient warrior class. he was wrong. Early in 1942, Sakai was transferred to Tarakan Island in Borneo and fought in the Dutch East Indies. This training lasted three months, although I never flew
As education was always taken very seriously in Japan, he quickly
Sakai graduated as a carrier pilot, although he was never actually assigned to aircraft carrier duty. He checked out in the IJNs ultimate fighter, the Kawanishi N1K2-J George, but saw very little additional combat. Yet Sakai did fly an additional mission that remains controversial even today. Saburo Sakai was born on August 25, 1916 the third-born of four sons and three sisters in Saga, Japan. var linktext = "contact";
In November 1943, Sakai was promoted to the rank of warrant officer (). Sakai also decried the kamikaze program as brutally wasteful of young lives. Setting up a 6 oclock low approach, thinking the airplanes were fighters, Sakai had just tripped his triggers when the sky exploded. I had just arrived with them from Sky Harbor Airport when warbird owner Bill Hane rolled out his P-51D, Ho Hun! A Zero which had taken that many bullets would have been a ball of fire by now. Consequently, Sakai confided late in life that he never received any U.S. royalties. Pilot selection was
Saburo soon