Saburo Sakai

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Saburo Sakai (坂井三郎 Sakai Saburō, August 25, 1916—September 22, 2000) was a Japanese fighter ace during World War II.

Saburo Sakai was born on August 25, 1916, in Saga, Japan, into a family with samurai ancestry but making a living as farmers. He apparently didn't excel in his academic studies.

Thus, on May 31, 1933, at the age of 16, Sakai enlisted in the Japanese Navy. First he served as a turret gunner aboard the battleship Kirishima until in 1936, when he applied and was accepted into a pilot training school, from which he graduated in 1937 as a carrier pilot, although he was never actually assigned to aircraft carrier duty. He first took part in real aerial combat flying the Mitsubishi A5M in the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938-1939 and was wounded. Later he was selected to fly the Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter in combat over China.

After the war with the United States begun, he participated in the attack of the Philippines. Early in the 1942 he was transferred to Tarakan in Borneo and fought in Dutch East Indies. He reached 13 air victories before he got sick. When he had recovered three months later in April, he joined the squadron under lieutenant Junichi Sasai in Lae, New Guinea.

On August 8, 1942, he was seriously wounded in combat over Guadalcanal with Douglas Dauntless dive bombers. Although suffering from a serious head wound and blind in one eye, he managed to fly his seriously damaged Zero back to Rabaul, where he insisted on making his mission report to his superior officer before collapsing. He was invalided back to Japan where he endured a long surgery without anesthesia. The surgery repaired some of the damage to his head, but was unable to restore full vision to his right eye. After his recovery (five months), he then spent a year training new fighter pilots. In April 1944 he was transferred to Yokosuka Air Wing that was deployed to Iwo Jima. He flew only short sorties afterwards but shot down four Allied fighters before the end of the war.

During the war, Sakai destroyed or damaged 60+ Allied planes - mostly American. He was one of the three from his original unit that survived the war. Sakai never actually said how many he shot down. The number "64" was arrived at by Martin Caidin using his own methods.

After the war, Sakai retired from the Navy with the rank of a lieutenant. He became a Buddhist acolyte and ran a print shop. Later he also visited the U.S. and met many of his former adversaries. Saburo Sakai died of a heart attack he suffered on September 22, 2000, during a meeting in Atsugi Naval Air Station.

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