Charles2222
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Check this:Saburo Sakai Dead
Saburo Sakai, Ace of the Zero fighter died on Sept 26 at age 84 from a heart attack.
Sakai was the highest scoring Japanese Naval pilot to survive the war, with 64 confirmed kills. Sakai scored 60 of these victories during the "Runaway Victory" period of the war, and was then badly shot up during the first day's fighting over Guadalcanal. Largely blinded and mostly delilious from his wounds and loss of blood, Saburo Sakai managed to fly his A6M2/21 the 600 miles back to Rabaul, and safely land his mauled aircraft.
His fellow aces of the famed Tainan Ku were stunned by this feat of flying, having long since given him up for dead by the time he returned to base. After undergoing grueling and extremely painful eye surgery that he was required to remain concious for, Sakai was sent back to the Home Islands for recovery. He had permanently lost sight in one eye, and had only partial sight in the other.
Gaining his wings in the "China Incident" in 1940, he was among the first pilots to fly the Zero, gaining some small success after nearly being shot down in his very first engagement ! Such experience would prove invaluable to him and many other Japanese pilots when facing the mostly green Allied flyers in the early days of the war.
During the desperate times of late 1944, the great need for pilots resulted in Sakai again being assigned to a combat unit to help defend the island of Iwo Jima. During the pre-invasion raids while the Americans were building up their invasion force, Sakai fought in several battles leading mostly green pilots against the now veteran American Navy fliers and their F6F Hellcat fighters.
Even with his blindness and other physical restrictions that were the results of his earlier wounds, Sakai would shoot down four more enemy planes during this period while continuing to fly the now badly outmoded Zero fighter. In one of these engagements Sakai single handedly fought an entire squadron of Hellcats and tangled with them for an extended time until the pilots either ran low on fuel or were driven off by anti-aircraft fire from the island, which Sakai had at last managed to lure the Americans into range of. Again his compatriots were amazed by a feat of flying they had never even dreamed off. How many pilots could have survived combat against and entire enemy squadron of superior aircraft?
Withdrawn from the Island just a few days before the invasion, Sakai ended the war like many other Japanese pilots, preparing for a suicide attack against the Allied invasion armadas that were expected at any moment. After the war, Saburo Sakai would later write a best selling autobiography called "Samurai!".
In recent years Sakai was honored in the Netherlands and brought there for a specific incident in which he had spared a Dutch transport full of women and children. He had flown closely parralell to the DC-3, and seen a woman with a child on her lap looking out the window at him with her hands before her in prayer. Even his compatriots considered this a valiant act and the showing of true Samurai spirit by not attacking the defenseless. A Dutch television station managed to track down that woman and reunite them on air during his recent visit there.
His final statement on the Pacific War was released about 18 months ago in Japan, a new book that has to date been published only in Japan and Taiwan. He ruffled many feathers among the "old boys" of the Imperial Navy, accusing the officers of doing almost no flying and stating that the bulk of the risk, exposure and credit was due to the enlisted men and warrant officers who flew.
He further stated the officer corps was guilty of negligence because by not flying much in combat, the result was that they never fully understood the lackings of the Japanese aircraft as they became more and more outclassed, and the needs of the frontline pilots. These are stunning accusations from one so revered by the Japanese, and who's word is so respected, especially since he apparently backs the claims with much evidence.
Many pilots were incensed for instance, that there was not system of accelerated promotion or other reward for combat pilots who showed great ability and success. While the midget submarine crews who went into Pearl Harbor were given the national status of War Gods, those flyers who were shot down in the attack received no special recognition or credit.
That was from http://www.star-games.com/pages/news.html
They said he was the top scoring surviving navy pilot. I suppose the guy with the 87 wasn't Navy or didn't survive the war (or both).
[ July 13, 2001: Message edited by: Charles_22 ]
[ July 13, 2001: Message edited by: Charles_22 ]
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