Interview with A Japanese WWII Fighter Ace

[shankster..]

http://www.warbirdforum.com/sakai.htm

"For anyone who doesn't know who Saburo Sakai is, he's one of the few surviving Japanese ace that survived WW II with some 60-64 kills. He's also called "The one eyed ace" because during a battle over the skys of Guadalcanal, he made the mistake of thinking a group of SBD Dauntlesses (some say TBF Avengers) were F4F Wildcat fighters instead. A .30 cal bullet hit him in the head and blew out one of his eyes and nearly blinded him in the other. This interview, conducted in 1998, is extremely candid and casual, and shed light on alot of subjects and how a Japanese solider thought of the War, read the part on the A-Bomb, Rape of Nanking (prototypical Japanese thinking), the Kamakazi (Saburo had to train many of them) and especially his close brush with one LBJ, Lyndon B Johnson.

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!"

 

[Sumpter Steve]

Re: Interview with A Japanese WWII Fighter Ace

Great article Shank. Thanks.

 

[rrflyer]

Re: Interview with A Japanese WWII Fighter Ace

He had a book out in the early 80s I think that was really good. I remember reading it and watching black Sheep Squadron!

 

[Phil1]

Re: Interview with A Japanese WWII Fighter Ace

This is a really good book written by him (highly abridged version of Sakai's wartime service by author Martin Caiden). It talks a lot about his training. Good air combat stories.

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/reviews/samurai.html

64 air combat kills and never lost a wing-man!

 

[Nessal]

Re: Interview with A Japanese WWII Fighter Ace

I especially liked this quote.

"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."


This man sounds very reasonable from what I can tell in that article. I like his stance on the A-bomb as well. War is war. It's not suppose to be pretty.

 

[Maggot]

Re: Interview with A Japanese WWII Fighter Ace

Good read, Shank.

The one thing wrong with this is that LBJ ctually had very little to do with the war in Viet Nam. He was told by the same men who assinated Kennedy, Hoover of the FBI, and Mccone of the CIA, to keep his mouth shut and do as he was told or he would get the next bullet.

 

[168BTHPM]

Re: Interview with A Japanese WWII Fighter Ace

There was a huge difference in the mentality of the Japanese Army and Navy. He may have a different take on the Rape of Nanking than others because he was a pilot and not on the ground where the brutality happened. I agree with a lot of what he has to say on other topics though.

A couple of good books with first hand accounts of the war in the Pacific are "Fly Boys" and "Semper Fi Mac". Both books have detailed interviews with people that were there. "Fly Boys" goes into great detail of the events leading up to the battle for the Jima Islands including the Rape of Nanking and has account from people on both sides. I personally had to set the book down and walk away a couple of times, and I am not easily disturbed. "Semper Fi Mac" is a true heroic account of the Marines that fought in the Pacific, almost entirely verbatim interviews with the guys that were there, a great read that will make you laugh and cry.

 

[ArcticLight]

Re: Interview with A Japanese WWII Fighter Ace

I highly respect his model of thinking.

I have a ww2 Saki cup here, in the box still, as well as a 150 year old Shinto shrine bell (The small hanging kind). Katana's, wakizashi's, Shotokan Karate - I rather like how the Japanese do things, on a personal level that is.