Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Saburo Sakai is Japan's greatest fighter pilot to survive World War II, and his powerful memoir has proven to be one of the most popular and enduring books ever written on the Pacific war. First published in English in 1957, it gave Americans new perspectives on the air war and on the Japanese pilots who, until then, had been perceived in the United States as mere caricatures. Today, the books remains a valuable eyewitness account of some of the most famous battles in history and a moving, personal story of a courageous naval aviator.
A living legend, Sakai engaged in more than two hundred dogfights, from the Philippines to Iwo Jima, and was the only Japanese ace never to lose a wingman in combat. By way's end he reportedly had shot down sixty-four Allied planes. Although this number cannot be confirmed, Sakai's exploits in the air were extraordinary by any standards. His most renowned accomplishment, an epic of aviation survival, occurred after action over Guadalcanal in August 1942. Partially paralyzed and nearly blind from multiple wounds, he managed to fly 560 miles to Rabaul and safely land his crippled Zero.
Here, Sakai offers a full account of his experiences, modestly recalling his rise from an impoverished childhood to feats of mythic proportions. And because he shares his innermost thoughts with his readers, the book not only provides rare insights into the Samurai character but also describes with complete honestly the human emotions common to warriors of all causes.
Barrett Tillman's introduction to this new Naval Institute Press Classics of Naval Literature edition put the memoir in historical context for today's readers.
Saburo Sakai was born into an impoverished Samurai family in 1916. Faced with the prospects of a desolate rural life, he enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy at sixteen. By 1937 he had graduated at the top of this his enlisted pilot-training class, and he quickly saw combat in China. By the end of World War II he had logged 3,700 flight hours, including some 1,500 hours in the Zero.
Synopsis
Written by Martin Caidin from Saburo Sakai's own memoirs and journalist Fred Saito's extensive interviews with the fighter pilot, Samauir! vividly documents the chivalry and valor of Saburo Sakai, the combat aviator who time after time fought American fighter pilots and, with 64 kills, would survive the war as Japan's greatest living ace.
Here are the harrowing experiences of one of Japan's greatest aces: from fighter pilot school—where the harsh training expelled over half of his class—to the thrilling early Japanese victories; from his incredible six hundred mile fight for life from Guadalcanal to his base in Rabaul, to the poignant story of the now-handicapped veteran's return to the air during the final desperate months of World War II.