SABURO SAKAI, il mio eroe preferito (^_^)

Saburo Sakai, was Japan's greatest living WWII ace. He's credited with 64 kills of U.S. and Allied planes during the war, the highest score of any Japanese pilot to survive it. U.S. loss records corroborate his claims. He knocked down at least one of every type of plane the U.S. flew, including being credited with the first downing of a U.S. bomber in WWII, a B-17E, three days after the war started. He narrowly missed shooting down a B-26 that was carrying the future president, Lyndon Johnson. Sakai also claims to have shot down the last allied aircraft before WWII ended.



Born in Saga, Japan in 1916, Saburo Sakai came from a family descended from Samurai, Japan's ancient warrior class. He was taught to live by the code of Bushido, which he defined in his book, "Samurai!" published in 1957 by E. P. Dutton, as living so as to always be prepared to die. He enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1933, at the age of sixteen. Basic training was brutally harsh with constant corporal punishment being administered. In spite of minimal education and little aptitude for formal study, he managed to finish at the top of his enlisted pilot training class in 1937.
During World War II Sakai flew the legendary Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter aircraft, which for the first years of the war was considered the best fighter anywhere in terms of maneuverability and range. He soon became a living legend in World War II Japan. Japanese pilots invariably spoke in awe of his incredible exploits in the air. In 1943, Sakai was seriously wounded while attacking a formation of Dauntlesses, taking a .50 cal. round to the head. The bullet split the upper frame of the right eye of his flight goggles -- he still has those goggles -- and bounced off his skull, crushing the bone underneath. Covered with blood, blind in one eye and barely conscious, he somehow managed to fly his now canopy-less Zero 4-1/2 hours back to base and land, to then endure surgery without anesthesia. He never regained the vision of his right eye, but was back in the cockpit a year later, and shot down four more planes before the war ended.



Among fighter pilots, he stood out, being the only Japanese ace never to lose a wingman, overshoot a landing--no matter how shot up his aircraft--or crash-land. By 1945, Sakai had logged some 3,700 flight hours, 1,700 of those in the Zero. Indeed, there are few aviators of the Pacific War who can claim such vast combat experience. Of the 150 pilots who began in his unit, only 3 survived the war. Of the five leading Japanese aces during the war--all of whom were friends--only Sakai remained at war's end, all the rest were dead.
After retiring with the rank of lieutenant, Mr. Sakai became a lay Buddhist acolyte as an act of atonement. He had not killed any creature, "not even a mosquito," since last stepping from the cockpit of his Zero on a hot August day in 1945.
Saburo Sakai suffered a heart attack at Atsugi naval base in September 2000, while reaching across the table to shake hands with an American navy officer. He died at the hospital a few hours later, he was 84.

Per altre foto su SABURO SAKAI cliccate qui ^^



Edited by yurippe_watanabe - 13/2/2007, 17:12

OFFICIAL SAKAI FAMILY WEBSITE

Saburo Sakai suffered a heart attack at Atsugi Naval Air Station on Thursday, September 21, 2002, while reaching across the table to shake hands with an American navy officer. He died at the hospital a few hours later. He was 84. Atsugi of course was a major training and operational base for the Japanese navy air force during WWII, and afterward an American base. That's his ceremonial shrine at his memorial service, kindness of Andrew Wilson in Tokyo. The interview below was posted on rec.aviation.military several years ago by Scott T. Hards, who works in Japan and speaks the language.

Also available: a review of Samurai by Saburo Sakai, Fred Saito and Martin Caidin
the story of Sakai scarf

An afternoon with Saburo Sakai
By Scott Hards
On Sunday, August 11th [1998], I had the unique pleasure of being invited to the Tokyo home of Mr. Saburo Sakai, the great Japanese WWII Zero ace. Over the course of three hours, he and I discussed a number of topics, almost all related to his exploits in the war, but to some broader issues as well. What follows are some of the more interesting things he had to say....
Sakai-san turns 80 this month, but is in excellent health, physically and mentally. He speaks very energetically, gesturing broadly all the time. He's the type of senior citizen that everybody hopes they can one day be.
I will point out that I did not take notes nor use a tape recorder during our conversation, and these "quotes" are paraphrased by myself to the best of my memory. Please do not repeat them or attribute them to Sakai-san in any published forum. The conversation was entirely in Japanese, and in my translations, I've attempted to choose language that best represents the atmosphere of how Sakai-san himself was saying it. The order is roughly the order that we discussed these topics in.....
On the Zero
During the war, I was convinced the Zero Model 21 was the best fighter plane anywhere. It was always number one with me. Then a few years ago, at Champlin, I had the chance to fly in a Mustang and take the controls for a while. What an incredible plane! It could do anything the Zero could, and many things the Zero can't, like a high-speed, spiraling dive. In the Zero, the stick would be too heavy to control the plane at those speeds. The Mustang's number one with me now, and I'm afraid the Zero's number two!


the photo shows Sakai as a sergeant-pilot in China and is reproduced on a telephone card given out as a favor at his memorial service

On the Type 96 Carrier Fighter "Claude"
That was the most incredible fighter of its day, by far. When the Zero was rolled out, we put two equal pilots in a Type 96 and a Zero and had them dogfight. The Type 96 won quite quickly. Then we had them switch planes. The Type 96 won again. Everybody thought the Zero was a failure at that point. But they liked the Zero's range. If the Type 96 had had the range of the Zero, we might have kept using that even up to Pearl Harbor and beyond.
On the key to a good fighter plane
By far the most important thing for a good fighter plane is its range. I can't tell you how much that affects you when you're in the cockpit. When you know you've got plenty of gas, it really lets you relax. Those poor Germans in their Me109s! They could barely get to altitude and fight for a couple of minutes before they had to start worrying about their fuel supply. When you are worried about your gas, it really affects what you do with your plane, even how you fight. Think of how many German fighters ended up at the bottom of the English Channel because they didn't have the gas to get home. A plane that doesn't have the gas to fly is just junk. If the Germans had had 1000 Zeros in 1940, I don't think England would still exist today. Think about it: With Zeros, they could have operated from airfields near Paris and still hit any target anywhere in the British Isles, or escorted bombers, and still have plenty of gas to get home. I once flew a Zero for 12 hours continuous once in an experiment to see just how far it could go. That plane's range was incredible. That's part of what made the Mustang great, too.
On the Zero's maneuverability
Oh yes, the Zero was incredibly maneuverable, but not over about 250 mph. Above that speed, the stick just gets too heavy because the plane's control surfaces are so huge. You've seen those films of kamikaze plunging straight down into the water far from any U.S. ships, right? The kids in those planes probably put their planes into a dive way too early, and before they realized their mistake, they had too much speed built up to pull out of their dive. They probably died pulling desperately on the stick with all their strength. When I coached those kids [kamikaze pilots], I'd tell them, "If you've gotta die, you at least want to hit your target, right? If so, then go in low, skimming the water. Don't dive on your target. You lose control in a dive. You risk getting picked off by a fighter, but you've got better chance of hitting your target."
On Kamikaze tactics and pilots
A lot of Westerners looked at the kamikaze strategy with complete shock, the idea of putting a kid in a plane and telling him to kill himself by crashing into the enemy. But even if you don't tell him to crash into something, putting a kid with only about 20 hours flight time into a plane and telling him to take on U.S. pilots in Hellcats and Corsairs is just as much a suicidal tactic as being a kamikaze. We figured that if they're going to die anyway, the kamikaze attack will probably cause more damage to the enemy for the same price in lives.
But let me tell you, all that stuff you read about "dying for the emperor...Banzai!" that's all crap. There wasn't one kamikaze pilot or soldier out there who was thinking anything about the emperor when they were facing death. They were thinking about their mother and their family, just like anybody else. The reason those final letters home that they wrote are so filled with emperor glorification stuff is because they knew the censors would read them, and because they simply wanted to try to make their parents proud.
On seeing the enemy
Great vision is absolutely essential for a fighter pilot. Finding your enemy even a half-second sooner than he finds you gives you a great advantage. I'd teach my pilots not to tighten their lap belts too tight, because it prevents you from swiveling your hips so that you can quickly look directly behind yourself. The field of view in the Zero was great. I don't know why those Grumman planes had those high backs that prevented pilots from seeing behind them. Didn't losing the vision in one eye really hurt you in this respect? Not really. By that time, I had learned to know where the enemy was going to appear from, based on conditions. I never had to sweep the sky, 360 degrees or anything to find them. You just gain a sense of where they're going to come from, and search that area most intensely. An instinct I guess. And you don't really need depth perception, because you can gauge distance by the apparent size of the enemy plane

Edited by offalcon - 14/7/2004, 14:45

On just missing Lyndon Johnson
One day I jumped two B-26s and shot one down. I got a few shots off at the other before I lost it in a cloud bank. After the war, I learned from U.S. records of the incident that the plane that got away had been carrying Lyndon Johnson! Can you imagine how I might have changed history if I'd hit the other plane first instead? A lot of Americans who know that story have come up to me and said "Saburo, why didn't you shoot the other plane down first? Then we could have stayed out of the Vietnam War!"
On the IJN leadership
Promotions in the Navy were based on what school you graduated from and who you knew, it had nothing to do with merit. Some guy could smash up 20 planes trying to learn how to fly, and then not shoot down a damn thing and he'd be promoted faster than me or any other successful pilot simply because he came from the right school. Those were the kinds of idiots we had leading us. How were we supposed to win the war with leadership like that? Take that idiot [Minoru] Genda. He could barely fly, but he jumped up and down about the Shiden-kai ["George"], so everybody else pretended to like it, too. That plane was a piece of crap, put together by a third-rate firm [Kawanishi].
On the atomic bomb
Once, I was on a discussion panel with [Enola Gay pilot] Col. Paul Tibbets in the U.S. and somebody asked me what I thought about the A-bomb. I said "If Japan had had the bomb, and they told me to fly the plane that carried it and bomb San Francisco or something, I would have done it gladly. That's a soldier's job. To follow orders and fight for his country." I think Tibbets was a great hero for the U.S. To fly out there with just two B-29s and no fighter escort, that takes a lot of guts. At the time, nobody knew about the A-bomb; there was no international treaty against its use, like there was for chemical weapons. The U.S. even dropped leaflets warning people in Hiroshima that a new weapon was going to be used. That's just war.
On the Rape of Nanjing
There's no question that Japanese soldiers probably killed a few thousand people there, but stories of 100,000 to 300,000 dead are complete fiction, made up by the Chinese for propaganda purposes. And most of the "civilians" that got killed were probably Chinese soldiers masquerading as non-combatants by not wearing their uniforms. That IS against international law. Why don't I think the stories are true? First of all, there weren't even 300,000 people in Nanjing at the time. Most of the city's population had fled when they heard the Japanese were coming. Secondly, there were over 200 foreign journalists in the area, and you can't find any mention of an atrocity like that in the papers of the day. There's no way you could hide something that big, but the stories about it didn't emerge until AFTER the war. And the only photos from the supposed event that ever get published are taken from a documentary about it and are fakes, staged for the film.
On "comfort women's" demands for compensation
Demanding compensation from a foreign government 50 years after something happened? Come on. The statute of limitations for murder is only 15 years. After the war, the Japanese government signed agreements with Korea and other nations settling war liability claims. These are binding, international agreements made by the legal governments of their nations. If certain victim's groups have a claim, they have to address it to their own government, not to some foreign government. You don't see A-bomb victims groups going to Washington demanding that the U.S. government pay for their suffering, do you? No, instead, the Japanese government pays them an allowance. If the comfort women have a claim, it should be with their own Korean or Philippine government. They're just looking for cash now that Japan is a rich nation.
On protests of U.S. bases in Japan
Those people are so stupid. Do they think that soldiers actually want to start a war or something, even though they would be the first ones killed? Do they think that if we get rid of armies, that we can rid the world of war? Do they also think that if we banish doctors, that we can rid the world of disease? Why don't they understand that armed forces are like an insurance policy for use in case of emergency. Who do they think is going to protect them if someone were to actually invade Japan? Article 9 of the Constitution [the part of the Japanese Constitution that renounces war as a sovereign right]? Do they think that if they staple copies of Article 9 onto boards and post them all around Japan's shores that a foreign invader is going to turn around and go home if they read it?

And another memory of Sakai-san
The Sakai post, plus the news of his death, brought back some memories of my discussions with him in Tokyo circa 1985. At that time I had commissioned noted aviation artist Segio Koike to paint a very specific air combat scene for a limited edition print. I had done some preliminary research on the piece, which was inspired by a particular event described in Martin Caidin's "Ragged, Rugged Warriors"--a B-26 mission against the Japanese airdrome at Lae, and had located the gentleman who was at the controls of the B-26 that day. After developing a reasonably accurate account of what happen on that day and with this mission from the U.S. side (to include a very detailed account of the non-combat mission of old LBJ) we sat down with Sakai and the artist to discuss the painting. Sakai was most generous with his time and his account very closely paralleled that provided from the left seat of the B-26 ("Kansas Komet") - so the painting was completed. I wrote the narrative which accompanied the print (a limited edition that was signed by Sakai and the artist) and was very pleased with the outcome, to include the incredible detail achieved by the artist. Some months later I received a phone call from the tail gunner - retired and disabled in Florida- who noted that he had collected a copy of the print at his unit's reunion the past month in Vegas, plus was able to discussed that action with the pilot. He noted that the painting was "absolutely how it was that day, right down to the angle of approach by Sakai and the cloud formations over the target"- to include the fear that he experienced in the tail of the aircraft as the (a) Zero bore in on him. I explained that Sakai appeared to have a great memory and was not above correcting the Caidin account, in either book, when it got a bit out of hand.
Although we went on, in the context of this personal mission-historical project, to do three additional paintings with Koike (the Yamamoto shoot down, the Wake Island defense and U-2 mission over Lop Nor) none of these involved the quality of detail and the combination of personalities recreated in "Zero Scramble Over Lae".

SAKAI LIFE

Born on August 26, 1916 at Saga Prefecture of Kyushu, Japan. His career as a fighter pilot began in 1938 at the Chinese front. He flew type 96 fighter, later Zero fighter plane. His first apearance on the pacific front was on first day. One of 45 zero fighter planes from Tainan Squadron, which attacked the Clark airfield of the Philippines on December 8, 2000. This was few hours after the Pearl Harbor attack. Most of the allied air force in south east asia were devastated by Tainan Squadron in just few months. The allied force, including General MacArthur has fled to Australia.

Sakai's next battlefield was at Rabaul (part of Papua New Guinea), and this was the stage for aces Saburo Sakai, Junichi Sasai, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, Toshio Ohta, who are up to this day, legends of aviation.

As Tainan Squadron based at Rabaul and Lae, they repeatedly attacked the allied base Port Moresby, and almost devastated their air power. They became known for shooting down and destroying the most allied planes in history of Japanese military aviation.On August 7, 1942, 18 of the Tainan Squadron received order to attack Guadal Canal island for the first time. The range from Rabaul was 600 miles, barely into range of Zero fighters.

Sakai shot down 2 F4F's in this battle at Guadal Canal, and then found 8 enemy planes in far distance, which he presumed to be F4F Wildcat fighter planes. He intended to sneak from rear and shoot down all.

As he approaches, he was wrong. They were SBD Dauntless dive bombers, which carried rear machine gun. All of the sudden, Sakai's Zero was targeted by 16 guns (2 guns in each rear). Sakai had no way of eluding this, shot down 2 SBDs but a bullet struck his head. This bullet hit his goggle but was enough to get him close to blind eye sight, and left half of his body paralyzed. This may have killed him, but survived through 4 hours of flight, with 600 miles distant. He had no eye sight but was able to land his plane back into Rabaul base. By the time he landed, not a single drop of fuel were left in the aircraft.

He was to sent back to Japan, had to be separated with lieutenant Junichi Sasai. Sasai was shot down on the day of Sakai's birthday, August 26. In Sakai's books, are lots of descriptions about Sasai, and fellow wingman, Toshiaki Honda.

Tainan Air Squadron returned home to reorganize its air power. Sakai was eager to participate but his right eye was close to blind. Instead he received order to teach flying skills at Ohmura air base. In 1944, Sakai proceeded to Iwojima as member of Yokosuka Air Squadron. His bad eye sight caught him into trouble on June 24, when he approached 15 planes who supposely thought to be Zeros. Instead were Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters. Sakai somehow eluded every single attack from 15 Hellcats, and survived through.

On July 4, 9 Zero's and 8 Tenzan torpedoe planes including Sakai were ordered to smash into American fleets. This is known to be an unofficial Kamikaze attack (which the first official one occurred on October 25, 1944). But before discovering the enemy fleet, most of the planes were shot down by Grumman F6Fs who have intercepted this attack by Radar. Sakai, again with 2 of his wingmen directed back to Iwojima, without any lead of proper navigation. It was nearly sunset, darkness made their flight difficult, but the miracle happened. They landed safe to Iwojima base.

"You give me ten thousand opportunities to fly this route with this situation, I cannot do it again".

After going back home, he worked for 343 Air Squadron (Shidenkai, George fighter planes) but never on the air due to his bad eye sight. He then transfered to Yokosuka Air Squadron and saw the end of war on August 15, 1945. His last combat was 2 days after the war, when he and the colleagues flew up again to chase B32 Dominator bomber, who was on reconnaissance mission.

He was known as an ace for shooting down 64 enemy aircrafts, and most of all, never lost a single wingman in his 200 missions. He experienced injuries but never destroyed or wasted a single aircraft. That means for every take off to the air, he always landed his plane to the ground.

In his writings describe the cruel reality of war and combat, but yet include some episodes that are laughable.

After the war, he worked for Nittsu (convoy company), then to the black market. Later on succeeded to operate a printing company. Starting from his book "Samurai", he kept writing and lecturing leadership based on his experience.

On September 2000, He attended a party at US. military base at Atsugi. He had no problem with his appetite, ate up his steak and desserts. As he left the place, he began to feel sick, soon carried to local hospital. He received various examinations and when it came to the brain exam, he said "May I sleep now?", his doctor responded "Yes, you could sleep while we proceed the examination". He closed his eyes but never opened. At 23 o'clock of that night, he died. Age 84.

Ecco qui riportato l'elenco dei piloti giapponesi con il numero di aerei abbattuti durante la seconda guerra mondiale.

Hiroyoshi Nishizawa ........... 87 (GRANDE AMICO DI SAKAI)
Tetsuzo Iwamoto .............. 80
Shoychi Sugita .................. 70
Saburo Sakai .................. 64
Hiromishi Shinohara .......... 58
Takeo Okumura ................ 54
Satoshi Anabuki ................. 51
Isamu Sasaki ..................... 38
Micuyoshi Tarui ................. 38
Toshiyo Ota ...................... 34 (GRANDE AMICO E GREGARIO DI SAKAI)

per vedere anche i piloti di altre nazioni

Edited by offalcon - 14/7/2004, 14:54

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