his first aerial victory—a
Russian-built Polikarpov
I-15 biplane—until Octo-
ber 5, 1938, although it
was executed so clumsily
that he was nearly killed
himself. This resulted in
an abject scolding from
his commanding offi-
cer—and he pledged to
do better next time. “My
humiliation at my own
absurd actions choked
me and I burst into tears,”
he recalled. “I cried with
shame.” Sakai finally vin-
dicated himself on Octo-
ber 3, 1939, by single-
handedly pursuing a
group of Chinese-manned
Tupelov SB-3 bombers
that had raided his field.
He doggedly pursued
them for 150 miles, finally
shooting down one. For this tenacious display
he was roundly applauded and returned home
a national hero.
In the months prior to the outbreak of the
Pacific War, Sakai transferred to the Tainan
Kokutai on Taiwan and transitioned to the
modern Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter, then
among the world’s finest. Sakai accompanied
the massive raid upon Clark Field in the
Philippines on December 8, 1941, destroying
two Boeing B-17 bombers on the ground. Soon
after, he claimed a Curtiss P-40 Warhawkin
the air—the first American aircraft shot down
in this campaign. Two days later, on December
10, Sakai scored perhaps his most notable kill
when he destroyed a B-17 over Luzon piloted
by Capt. Colin P. Kelly, America’s first war
hero. The Tainan Kokutai subsequently trans-
ferred to the East Indies, and Sakai distin-
guished himself in combat against a variety of
American P-40s, British Hawker Hurricanes,
and Brewster Buffalos. By April 1942, the
group had arrived on the island of Rabaul,
north of New Guinea, where it flew constantly
against U.S. forces sta-
tioned at Port Moresby. In
the course of daily activi-
ties, Sakai, now acknowl-
edged as one of Japan’s
best fighter pilots, trained
several promising subor-
dinates such as Hiro-
yoshi Nishizawa. As-
sisted by another talented
flier, Toshio Ota, the three
men gained such renown
in combat that they be-
came popularly known as
the “Cleanup Trio.” To
break up the monotony of
daily combat, Nishizawa
once proposed raiding
Port Moresby—and then
flying precision acrobatic
loops overhead to taunt
the enemy. This was then
done with great joviality,
until an American plane
buzzed the Japanese field the following day
and dropped a note. It thanked theZeropilots
for such creative flying—and dared them to
try again. An enraged Lt. Junichi Sasai, the
unit commander, summoned all three pilots
into his office to “discuss” the finer points of
combat etiquette!
The tempo of fighting increased on August
7, 1942, when Sakai escorted a long-range
bomber raid against Guadalcanal, 500 miles
distant. Here, for the first time, Zeros of the
Tainan Kokutai were pitted against U.S. Navy
Grumman F4F Wildcats. Sakai found the
tubby little opponents difficult to shoot down
but still managed to claim one. As he was
climbing back to altitude, a Douglas SBD
Dauntlessdive-bomber suddenly attacked his
plane, sending several bullets through the
canopy. The startled, angry Sakai then
promptly dove after his assailant, shooting
him down as well. In the heat of combat he
next perceived what he thought was another
group of F4Fs in the distance. Diving upon his
quarry from behind, Sakai was stunned to dis-SAKAI, SABURO
Saburo Sakai
Author’s Collection