Title: Samurai!
Author: Saburo Sakai, Fred Saito,
Martin Caidin
Publisher: Time Life "Wings
of War" edition
Price: $5.50 used in pristine
condition
This is the "U.S." version of Sakai-san's
memoirs, that has some inaccuracies as admitted by Sakai
himself. Case in point: Some days after the
Surrender of Japan, Sakai and some of his fellow Pilots
took off and intercepted a U.S. Dominator. In the daytime.
They did not bring it down, but exchanged fire with it.
According to the book he took off with a fictional Pilot
"Jiro Kawachi" and shot down a B-29 at night!
The book is excellent reading however, and from what I
can gather is fairly accurate, even if sensationalized.
The story starts out with Sakai's childhood failure in
school and his mothers struggling to run the small family
farm with no Husband. Sakai's determination to go
to flight school after enlisting in the Navy is brought
out, as he failed several times the entrance exam.
Finally making it, his account of the rigors of flight
school is riveting. Sakai eventually graduates 1st in his
class earning a silver (or was it gold?) watch from the
Emperor. He is next posted in 1938 to China where he has
in his own words "less than an auspicious start"
into combat, making "every mistake in the book"
and eventually exhausted all his ammunition in bringing
down a Chinese Air Force I-16.
Severly reprimanded he goes on in another mission to
chase over a long distance a Chinese airforce bomber
flight, shooting down one and making it back to base.
He details his excitement of transferring from the Claude
to the more modern Zero and his subsequent assignment to
the Tainan Wing and the complete domination of the USAAF,
Austrailian, New Zealand and Dutch Airforces flying P-40's,
P-39's, F2A's and the like. Here in vivid detail is wild
melee's from 25,000 feet up to treetop level, and the
deadliest foe the Zero Pilots encounter in the first
seven months of World War ll was the B-17. There is
much combat footage here, with much detail. Sakai
comments quite a bit on the spirit and courage of the
Allied Pilots he and his comrades encounter. Here we are
also introduced to some of the Aces of the Tainan Wing,
which was the most succesful Wing in the entire Navy.
Aces such as Hiroyoshi Nishizawa (whom some say went on
to become Japan's Ace of Aces with a score from 85 - 108
being attributed to him), Toshio Ota, Takatsuka, Junichi
Sasai etc.
Sakai is shot up, but not down but is grievously wounded
in early August 1942 over Guadalcanal and makes it back
to base, a 500 mile trip with terrible head wounds and
delirium. His eye surgery without anesthetic, his
loss of more than half his sight and subsequent
assignment into instructor and test pilot roles are
interesting, as well as his return to combat in 1944 over
Iwo Jima against U.S. Hellcats is fascinating and
terrifying. His candor in admitting the utter defeat and
inferiority of the Japanese naval forces at this point in
time is very honest and merits credibililty to his
writing. He details the Kamikaze campaign and the
development of newer Fighters such as the Raiden and
Shiden, but admits they did nothing to get back air
superiority that belonged firmly to the U.S. forces.
Involved in Home Defense in the last months of the War,
defeat finally comes with the atomic bombings and Sakai
is drummed out of the Navy with no fanfare and no means
of support, losing his first Wife to "poverty and
sickness".
The book is a must read for anyone interested in
the JNAF.
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