Saburo Sakai

[knusel]

Marvellous ! Thanks for posting.
Are the decimals of the 1943/44 shared kills known ?

Michael

[Luftwaffle8]

Originally Posted by Russ Fahey

Now a more mundane question: Is a copy of Sakai's logbook in existence, and has anyone in the Western world seen or obtained it? That would be significant!

Russ

Long after Saburo Sakai passed away, and also his widow, I made inquiries with the a relative...he doesn't know where his logbook is. In the 1970s, I knew a gentleman who knew Sakai well, an American, and he told me that he saw Sakai's logbook. It did exist. No, the whereabouts is unknown. I visited Sakai twice at his home and he never offered to show me.

Sakai is attributed with 64 victories, but this was a marketing gimmick tied to the advertisements for his book in Japan. In his ads, it stated that he was the "Miyamoto Musashi of Aerial Combat, with 64 kills." In Japanese folklore, Miyamoto Musashi was a Medieval Samurai who slew 64 opponents with his sword. Now do you get the idea?

Sakai probably amassed around 10 victories total, a tremendous figure for any Zero pilot. Those ten would have made him a super ace!

[knusel]

You think 10 is tremendous ?
Is that the total that's verified by Allied losses ?

Michael

[PMoz99]

OR .....

you could say he had 64 victories and therefore the association with Miyamoto Musashi.

Baseless assumptions, wild guesses ........

Cheers

[Orwell1984]

Regarding the issue of the logbook, on page 141 of Henry Sakaida's Winged Samurai a picture is included that is captioned as follows:

This is Sakai's navigation tool bag which he carried on his near-fatal mission to Guadalcanal. Also shown is his flight logbook. Most Japanese pilots burned their logbooks at the end of the war in the mistaken belief that the U.S. Occupation Forces would execute them. They destroyed anything which would incriminate them.

[knusel]

Have you already heard that a new OSPREY volume about the Zero aces will be published next year.
I anticipate it'll include statements about the scores of Sakai, Nishizawa & Co.

Michael

[PMoz99]

Where did you get that info from Michael? I keep an eye on Osprey 's pre-order list which goes 3 months in advance, and it doesn't show up there.
Cheers
Peter

[Frank Olynyk]

It is on the Osprey "Big Reveal" blog page for the "Aircraft of the Aces" series. https://ospreypublishing.com/blog/Big_Reveal_2017_ACE/

Two volumes, the first at least to appear in 2018, but no month announced. To cover the period of China through the Solomons, for the A6M-2 and the Rufe float fighter.

Enjoy!

Frank.

[Orwell1984]

Originally Posted by Frank Olynyk

It is on the Osprey "Big Reveal" blog page for the "Aircraft of the Aces" series. https://ospreypublishing.com/blog/Big_Reveal_2017_ACE/

Two volumes, the first at least to appear in 2018, but no month announced. To cover the period of China through the Solomons, for the A6M-2 and the Rufe float fighter.

Enjoy!

Frank.

According to Amazon, August 2018 is the release date. (subject to change of course)
https://www.amazon.ca/Zero-sen-Aces-...s=zero+millman

[Luftwaffle8]

Originally Posted by knusel

You think 10 is tremendous ?
Is that the total that's verified by Allied losses ?

Michael

The last word on TAINAN KU pilots comes from the masterpiece EAGLES OF THE SOUTHERN SKY by Lucas Ruffato and Michael Claringbould.
According to their research and methodology, they give Sakai credit for 4.3 victories. This doesn't include his two victories over Tulagi (SBD and a F4F which are verified through US Navy records). Don't ask me to explain how they arrived at the score, just get the book if you really want to know. I support their work.

SAMURAI! by Martin Caidin, Fred Saito, and Saburo Sakai is horrible and I consider it almost fiction. WINGED SAMURAI by Henry Sakaida is much better, but EAGLES OF THE SOUTHERN SKY is the best! The authors compared Allied and Japanese losses, and that's how they arrived at the scores.

4.3 + 2 = 6.3 victories with the Tainan KU. Sakai's China War claims of 2 are unverified. Neither are his claims prior to Tainan KU. And neither are his claims at Iwo Jima.

A Japanese researcher told me that Sakai had around 10 victories and I believe him. I asked Sakai if he had 64 victories and he said he didn't remember how many he shot down...he made claims only but could not confirm them because there was no confirmation process like the Americans had.

Whether 6.3 or 10, such a score would be incredible for a Japanese pilot. We are too used to seeing the scores of Luftwaffe aces with their scores of 100, 200, 301, and 352 victories.

Treat Japanese aerial victory scores as a CLAIM, and not CONFIRMED. Sakai admitted that he survived because he was wounded and sent back to Japan. The truly great pilots flew from 1937 until the end of the war.

When I met the Zero pilots, they would never mention scores, but would tell me that so and so was a great pilot, "he survived Rabaul" or "he fought at Guadalcanal" or "he flew against B-29s..."