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Sakai Saburo (1916-2000) was a
Japanese
fighter ace during the
World War Two
Saburo Sakai was born in August 25 1916
Saga, Japan, into a family with
samurai ancestry but making a living as farmers. His studies did not
prosper.
In May 31 1933, at the age of 16, Sakai enlisted in the Japanese navy.
First he served an a turret
gunner until in 1936 he applied and was accepted into a pilot training
school, from which he graduated in 1937 as a carrier pilot. He first took
part of the real aerial combat in the beginning of
Chino-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 US 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
Junishi Sasai in
New Guinea.
In August 8 1942 he was seriously wounded in combat over
Guadalcanal and lost his right eye. He managed to take his plane back
and endured a long surgery without
anesthesia. He was invalided back to Japan for five months and 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 shot down 64
Allied - mostly US - planes. He was one of the three from his original
unit that survived the war.
After the war, Sakai retired from the army with the rank of a
lieutenant. He became a
Buddhist acolyte and ran a print shop. Later he also visited USA and
met many of his former adversaries.
Saburo Sakai died of a heart attack he suffered in September 22 2000
during a meeting in
Atsugi Naval Air Station.
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