Title: Winged Samurai:
Saburo Sakai and the Zero Fighter Pilots
Author: Henry Sakaida
Publisher: Champlin Fighter Museum Press
Pages: 159
ISBN: 0-912173-05-X
Price: unknown
Winged Samurai is one of my favorite books in my small
but growing library of all things JNAF. The book is
an oversized paperback, roughly 11' X 8", and has a
wonderful painting on the cover of Sakai and his Zero
rocketing upwards after he was horribly wounded attacking
a Dauntless formation over Tulagi in August of 1942. We
all know the oft told story.
The
introduction from famed US Navy Hellcat Ace David
McCambell calls Sakai a "top notch" technician
and Fighter leader, and acknowledges that he is "plainly
glad he did not have to meet him in combat to prove his
abilities...".
The table of contents are as follows:
1) Saburo Sakai - His Early Years
2) Basic Training Days
3) The China War
4) Phillipines - December 8, 1941
5) Dutch East Indies Campaign
6) Rabaul and Lae 1942
7) The Opposition
8) Saburo Sakai over Guadalcanal
9) Pilots of the Tainan Kokutai
10) Sakai in Japan, 1942 - 1944
11) Combat over Iwo Jima - June 24, 1944
12) Home Defense, July 1944 - August 1945
13) The Last Mission
14) The Postwar Years
15) Former Antagonists Reunited
As
one might expect from such chapters, there is much
discussion in detail of Sakai's exploits. Of particular
interest to those who enjoyed "Samurai!" is
that Henry Sakaida has, by NAME, identified many of the
Allied Pilots who opposed Sakai and his comrades, and for
those who were still alive at the time of his writing (1985)
you can read in their own words the Allied view of
combating the Zeros flown by the Aces of the JNAF.
And
there is a very intriguing accounting of pilots and who
shot down who, by painstaking research on the part of the
author of Japanese and Allied victory/loss records. For
example, the two P-39 Pilots who caught Sakai's beloved
wingman, Toshiaki Honda, in a cross fire and shot him
down near Moresby while Honda reluctantly flew wing for
JNAF Ace Watari Handa are identified, as well as the
Hellcat Pilot who shot down the Bomber carrying JNAF Ace
(Ace of Aces?) Hiroyoshi Nishizawa as a passenger is
identified.Want to read an eyewitness account of Ace
Kinsuke Muto's last combat in which he lost his life
while flying a "George"? One of the Hellcat
pilots who was there and witnessed this great aces demise
discribes it for you. Speaking of Muto shooting down one
of the US pilots there, he says: "....they
just bracketed us and made a beautiful run. I saw
Speckmann going down in a ball of fire. That guy took him
out on the first run."
Intriguing
all, but what I found most interesting is the Biography's
of other lesser known Tainan Wing Aces such as Ichirobei
Yamazaki and Motosuna Yoshida. In this book too, we learn
that one of Sakai's Wingman in his famous but short
assignment to the Iwo Jima Wing, Masami Shiga, an Ace in
his own right, lived through the War to serve with the
Japanese Self Defense Force before retiring.
Another
point of interest is Sakai's debunking certain myths that
have cropped up since the end of the War, such as his
famed "last combat". In "Samurai!" it
is written that Sakai and a certain "Jiro Kawachi"
took off in their Zeros and at night, attacked and
brought down a B-29. Not so, says Sakai. "There
was no Jiro Kowachi". He says he and several
others took off in the daytime and attacked and exchanged
fire with a B-32 Dominator "Hobo Queen" but
failed to shoot it down. This and several other
inaccuracies are corrected.
The
final chapters document Sakai's meeting with several US
pilots he once opposed in the air over the South Pacific,
and the friendship they found and the mutual respect that
insued, including a reunion of sorts with the tail gunner
of the Dauntless that likely inflicted the near fatal
wound to Sakai over Tulagi in 1942. A new friendship was
established.
Overall,
I'd say the book is a Must Read for all interested in
Sakai and the JNAF of World War ll, and if you can find a
copy, it is worth saving your pesos for.
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