Saburo Sakai

From The Air Combat Wiki

Perhaps the most famous Japanese ace, Saburo Sakai flew for the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. He was the Imperial Navy's third-ranking ace although he has never actually said how many planes he shot down. The number 64 was arrived at by Martin Caidin, co-author of Sakai's autobiography, mostly American. Regardless of the number, Saburo earned the respect of friend and foe alike by his skill and bravery.

Saburo Sakai was born of samurai ancestry. His father died when he was eleven and at the age of sixteen, he enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Three years later, he was accepted for pilot training. He graduated first in his Naval Class at Tsuchiurain in 1937, earning a silver watch presented to him by Emperor Hirohito himself.

He first took part aerial combat flying the Mitsubishi A5M in the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938-1939 and was wounded. As a third-class petty officer, Sakai shot down a Russian built DB-3 bomber in October 1939. Later he was selected to fly the Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter in combat over China.

In his first action against American forces in the Philippines, he shot down a P-40. On his third day of fighting he shot down a B-17, the first B-17 shot down in the war. In early 1942 Sakai was stationed in Tarakan in Borneo. During the Borneo campaign, Sakai achieved 13 air victories before he was grounded by illness. It was here, over the next four months, that he scored the majority of his victories against American and Australian pilots based out of Port Moresby. Sakai never lost a wingman in combat, and also tried to pass on his hard-won expertise to more junior pilots. His squadron mates included fellow aces Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, Japan's number one ace with an estimated 87 kills and Toshio Ohta, an ace with over thirty kills.

Enlisted pilots of the Tainan Kokutai pose at Rabaul in 1942. Several of these aviators would be among the top Japanese aces, including Saburo Sakai (middle row, second from left), and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa (standing, first on left). These pilots fought with Allied fighter pilots during the Battle of Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands campaign.

On August 3, Sakai's air group was relocated from Lae to the airfield at Rabaul. Shortly afterwards, American forces landed on Guadalcanal and the air war around the island began to intensify. During the air group's first missions of the battle of Guadalcanal, Sakai was seriously wounded in combat with Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless dive bombers from USS Enterprise's Bombing Squadron Six (VB-6). Mistaking SBD Dauntless dive bombers, with their rear gunners, for American F4F fighters, Sakai attacked near Tulagi a SBD flown by Ensign Robert C. Shaw. Sakai fired 232 rounds at the SBD, but with its armor, self-sealing fuel tanks and twin machine guns in the rear cockpit, the dive bomber was proving a real adversary. A blast from the SBD rear gunner, Harold L. Jones, shattered and blew away the canopy of Sakai's Zero. Sakai was able to complete an hour and a half hour, 560 mile trip back to Rabaul using familiar landmarks. He was transfered back to Japan to recover from his wounds.

After his five-month recovery, Sakai spent a year training new fighter pilots and young Kamikaze pilots. When Japan began losing the air war, he prevailed successfully upon his superiors to let him fly again. In April 1944 he was transferred to Yokosuka Air Wing that was deployed to Iwo Jima.

On June 24, 1944, Sakai approached a formation of 15 aircraft that he thought were Japanese, but were actually U.S. Navy Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters. In a high-flying chase that has become legendary, Sakai proved his still apparent superior flying skill, despite the loss of one eye. Sakai eluded every attack from the 15 F6Fs for over 20 minutes, returning to his airfield untouched.

After the war, Sakai retired from the Navy as a lieutenant. He became a Buddhist acolyte and ran a print shop. Sakai expressed concern for Japan's collective inability to accept responsibility for starting the War. Only months before his death, Sakai told reporters that he still prayed for the souls of the Chinese, American, Australian and Dutch airmen he had killed.