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Saburō Sakai

Samurai! Paperback – January 2, 2001

by Martin Caiden (Author)

882 ratings

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Editorial Reviews Product Description This text documents the chivalry and valour of the combat aviator, Saburo Sakai, who fought American fighter pilots and, with 64 kills, would survive World War II as Japan's greatest living ace. This book traces his experiences from fighter-pilot school to the early Japanese victories; from his 600 mile fight for life from Guadalcanal to his base in Rabaul, to the story of the now handicapped veteran's return to the air during the final months of World War II. This book has been written by Martin Caidin from Saburo Sakai's own memoirs and journalist Fred Saito's interviews with the fighter pilot. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Print length

384 pages
Language

English
Publisher

I Books
Publication date

January 2, 2001
Dimensions

5.32 x 0.98 x 8.24 inches
ISBN-10

0743412834
ISBN-13

978-0743412834
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ I Books (January 2, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0743412834
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0743412834
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.24 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.32 x 0.98 x 8.24 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,388,568 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,872 in Japanese History (Books)
- #5,856 in Naval Military History
- #23,439 in World War II History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
882 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		68%
4 star		24%
3 star		4%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Joseph A

Samurai of the Sky

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

I couldn't put this book down. What a revelation to read the Japanese side of the aerial war in the Pacific. The story is written in the first person by the Japanese Ace, Saburo Sakai. He relates in detail dog fights against American pilots. I read these 'at the edge of your seat' stories with mixed feelings as the Japanese Ace tells how he often out maneuvered my fellow country men and shot them down. He tells of the courage, daring and fearlessness the Americans showed even though they were out numbered and out flown. However, he relates sadly, by 1944, the war had gone full circle and it was the Japanese turn to be out numbered and out gunned. While his culture is different from our's, Saburo Sakai's feelings, goals, thoughts were the same as ours. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in aerial combat, WW2, human nature and the war as the Japanese experienced it.

34 people found this helpful

Helpful

Seth Neumann

Definitive account of WWII Air combat from the Japanese side

Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2019

Verified Purchase

Sakai is widely quoted in other histories of the pacific war. The book is well written and keeps you turning pages. Written in the 50s while memories were fresh and feelings still raw I think it was tuned for US the audience at the time. Nonetheless it is a very valuable peek into what it was like to fight on the Japanese side.

A little bit of a spoiler: Sakai was briefly stationed on Iwo Jima during the Marianas campaign in June and July of 1944 when American fast carriers repeatedly attacked Iwo to prevent its use a base for attacks on Adm Turner's invasion fleet. At this point Iwo had little defensive infrastructure and Sakai, along with a few other remnants of the Yokosuka Air Group were withdrawn to the home Islands after the Yokasuka group suffered the loss of all of its aircraft and 80% of its pilots. An invasion of Iwo at this point would have gone virtually unopposed as there were only a few hundred support troops left. Admiral Spruance had suggested invasions of the Bonins and Ryu Kyus at that point, rather than detouring through the Philippines, and had we followed his advice would have been spared significant casualties in both the Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns. In fact the Japanese started extending peace feelers when it was clear Okinawa would be lost, so it is possible this course would have shortened the war in the Pacific by as much as a year, even without the Atomic Bombings of the Japanese home land.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Random

Great book, but AVOID the Kindle edition.

Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2015

Verified Purchase

It's an interesting read that offers a different perspective on the war in the Pacific. Others have covered the actual content of the book very well, so all I can really add is a warning to skip the Kindle version of this book.

It's terrible - rife with formatting errors and typos. About 60% of the way through the book I gave up trying to ignore them and started submitting corrections - and I still managed over 35 submissions in what remained.

There are odd line breaks in the middle of a sentence, in places passages are repeated - up to nearly 2 pages of content at a time. Dates are mangled or nonsensical, numbers especially are prone to being rendered in error. Names occasionally change spelling within a paragraph, etc.

All in all it's obvious to create the Kindle edition a physical copy was simply ripped apart and scanned, subjected to OCR and then published with minimal, if any editorial review or correction. Which is a shame, because it provides a constant distraction from the story being told - much as if you were attempting to watch a movie while a fire alarm went off in the room for 1 second every few minutes.

In summary: It's a great book and well worth the purchase, just do yourself a favor and pick up a physical copy instead. I regret having spent my money on the Kindle version of this one, because I feel like I paid to do the the publisher's editing work for them.

38 people found this helpful

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JimPysht

Methinks this just doesn't Jive w/ other historical evidence available.

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2019

Verified Purchase

Reads like a novel more than an autobiography. Author appears to be honest in his self evaluations, but seems to progressively suffer from self delusions, and idolizing the few in their minute and superior clique. Most of their Glory Days (early in the war) kills were on our pieces-of-crap P-39's, P-40's, Buffaloes, and Wildcats. When the Hellcats entered the war, things turned around - fast. A few left-handed compliments were given to the American pilots, but mostly credited the Hellcat aircraft itself and by sheer superiority of numbers. One wonders if American pilots were really that mediocre to downright incompetent. Methinks this just doesn't Jive w/ other historical evidence available.

11 people found this helpful

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FROC 2531

Outstanding

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

An excellent account of air combat from the Japanese perspective, this book will satisfy those who crave the drama of dogfights as well as the technical types. Sakai paints a moving narrative, full of emotion and plenty of tense edge of your seat details as he fights his way through China and into the Pacific theaters. Both energizing and heart breaking, you will experience the turmoil and tragedy of the Japanese fighter pilot as their war becomes more and more unwinnable despite their seemingly endless victories over less experienced but aggressive and courageous American, British and Dutch foes. I have read this book three times now over about 25 years, and it remains among my favorite air combat texts.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Heather O'Loughlin Green

One of the finest, most exciting and deeply affecting WW2 memoirs I've ever read.

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2019

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Saburo Sakai was born into one of Japan's great Samurai warrior families and became one of his country 's greatest WW2 pilots and the only one to survive the war. This well-written, first person memoir covers Sakai's early life and entire war experience from his brutal pilot training in the 1930s to the attack on Pearl Harbor and firebombing of many of Japan's cities and the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. His story is incredible: harrowing, exciting, terrifying and deeply affecting given Sakai's growing hatred of war combined with his acute awareness of his duty and devotion to his family, fellow pilots and country along with the immense pressure on him to use his tremendous skills to kill enemy combatants he refuses to demonize and cannot hate. This is a great and deeply moving read and a must-have addition to any WW2 library. I'd give this a 10-star rating if I could.

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

RICK H

Into The Mind Of A Great Japanese Air Ace

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2015

Verified Purchase

I first read this great book many years ago in the 1970's. I'd read many German Aviator accounts of the Second World War, but this was the first Japanese account that i'd read and it gave a much better idea of just why the very professional Japanese Airforce ran rampant over Asian and Pacific skies in their Zeros for so long. His dogfighting descriptions are wonderful and cover some very important historical events. Many of his opponents were brave too even though they were fighting with inferior aeroplanes for long periods early on in the war. Eventually the loss of so many experienced pilots (especially at Midway) and the increasing skill and better aeroplanes of the Allies took it's toll on the Japanes Airforce and they were fighting a losing battle from late 1942 onwards. A wonderful book. Buy it.

One person found this helpful

hammerkop

The story of a Japanese Zero ace.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 30, 2015

Verified Purchase

I had this as a paperback years ago and it was great to be able to read it again on Kindle. The main author's credit for the book should be Saburo Sakai, though, not Martin Caiden and it needs a huge - and I do mean huge - number of scanning errors correcting in the text. The book also claims to be an illustrated edition but there appear to be no photographs or other illustrations present. I stand by the 5 stars rating for the story but the presentation is pretty poor and I'd give it 1 or 2 stars tops for that. If amazon would like it corrected I'd happily do it for a small fee!

Amazon have now updated this book and a new copy has been downloaded. This must surely be an improved copy but I can't comment on any changes made as that would require reading the book again and it is too soon to do that.

13/12/16. I've now read the updated version and there are still many errors (including the author's name on the cover) although it must surely be an improvement. I repeat my offer of correcting the errors for a small fee. Surely someone somewhere gets paid to check these things, probably for a reasonable salary and with little competence required.

2 people found this helpful

Mr Rob Knight

Gripping...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 19, 2016

Verified Purchase

I first read this about 40 years ago: my grandfather gave me his copy. It's still one of the best autobiographical acvounts of WW2 and remarkable for being by one of the few surviving Japanese Naval aviators from that period.
Curiously his survival mirrors almost every other notable survival story by a highly successful WW2 combatant: an injury sufficiently serious to remove him from combat for a period of time, then gradual return to the war via a posting to a training establishment as an instructor.
Sakai was an exceptional pilot by any standards and his flight in a heavily damaged aircraft while badly wounded is still hailed as one of history's notable aviation feats.

Massimo Bacilieri

Interesting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2013

Verified Purchase

A really interesting book that allows to feel the actual taste of what was a Samurai and a Zero fighter during the WWII. You can have a quick overview over the japanese pre-war imperial society too. And, reading between the lines, you can also understand the reason (at least one of the several ones) why the lose at Midway meant for Japan a defeat bigger than it actually appeared.
Just one complain: the printing quality is very bad, it looks like an old mimeograph, a sort of copy of a copy of a copy, not a modern and clean print. Quite annoying to read.

G. Ellis

A good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2016

Verified Purchase

An excellent book and certainly inspiring me to look for more by the lesser published IJAAF and IJN aces of world war 2. A few typos in the book but I wont hold that against it, I bought if for the content not an education in written English.

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