Aces of the Rising Sun 1937-1945 (General Aviation) [Paperback]

Henry Sakaida (Author), Grant Race (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: General Aviation | Publication Date: August 19, 2002

Very little has been published in English on the air arms of the Japanese Army and Navy, and the pilots who flew for them. Yet between 1937 and 1945, 150 JAAF and 21 Imperial Japanese Navy pilots achieved 'ace' status in eight years of near-constant warfare. This book relates the experiences of both air forces, revealing how the JAAF aces achieved their scores flying over terrain ranging from the Mongolian plains to the jungles of New Guinea, and how the IJN pilots drew on their experience of fighting over Manchuria, China and Mongolia to take on Allied forces in the Pacific

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A third generation Japanese American (Sansei), Henry Sakaida has spent much of his life researching the shadowy history of the Japanese fighter pilot. His eye for detail, and exhaustive research, has led to his being given access to much archive material by former aces who have remained silent since the end of the war. Grant Race is a talented profile artist. He lives and works in Middlesex. Tom has illustrated a number of books in the Aircraft of the Aces and Combat Aircraft series, and was the first artist to produce material for Osprey Aviation electronically.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (August 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841766186
• ISBN-13: 978-1841766188
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,554,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reprint of prior books, November 21, 2002

By 

Po H. Chiu (Singapore,) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aces of the Rising Sun 1937-1945 (General Aviation) (Paperback)

This is a very good books which lists out all the aces in the Japanese army and navy, and it is organized based on the story of each individual pilot. It also has lots of photos to tie the faces to the stories.

There is one caution, however. This book is a reprint of Sakaida's two prior books on the Japanese Army Aces and Japanese Navy Aces book also published by Osprey, so there really no need to get it unless you don't have those books already.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent coverage of Japanese aces of World War II, February 4, 2007

By 

lordhoot "lordhoot" (Anchorage, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aces of the Rising Sun 1937-1945 (General Aviation) (Paperback)

Henry Sakaida have complied a very good coverage to Japanese flying aces during the Second World War. The contained mini-biographies of all the Japanese pilots who achieved the "ace" status as well as background material of Japanese air efforts during the war from 1937. There are exhausting amount of photographs of the pilots, their planes, medals and other supporting elements which make this book a very useful source of reference to anyone interested in the understanding the Pacific War. There are also series of colorful illustrations and nice Order of the Battle. Also of interest is the list of all the Japanese aces of the war since 1937.

As previous reviewer have noted, this book is a combination of two previous books already published by Osprey by the author so if you owned them already, this book shouldn't interest you. However, if you don't havem them, then this book should interest almost anyone who got a causal interesting in the Pacific War. Its well written, researched and give a very complete picture of the men who flew for the Rising Sun of Imperial Japan. My only real gripe is that it don't have any maps.

Book come highly recommended for anyone with interest in the Pacific War.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Terrific Package, December 4, 2010

By 

Theseus "theseus" (US of A) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aces of the Rising Sun 1937-1945 (General Aviation) (Paperback)

I'm delighted that Osprey chose to re-release Sakaida's two books into this one package. (While the Osprey titles are excellent, they do have a tendency to produce books with a rather small page counts and this 208 page book is welcome.)

Perhaps what is strongest here is that this book provides extensive coverage about the men and their experiences in battle AND about WWII fighting technology. Often military history books tend to focus on one area or the other.

The 26 color plates (mostly of aircraft but also of uniforms) are beautiful.

All in all, I found this to be an impressive piece of work.