Description
Saburo Sakai was the Imperial Japanese Navy’s fourth highest ranking Ace. When war began he flew against the US forces in the Philippines, bringing down a P-40 on his first day of combat, and shooting down the first B-17 to be lost in the Pacific theatre. After increasing his tally to a total of more than 60 planes shot down Sakai took a bullet to the head but still limped his damaged plane 1,000km home and reported to his superior before collapsing. Sakai recovered and returned to combat despite only having partial vision in one eye. Sakai survived the war — no small feat in the face of US air dominance in the later stages – and lived to the age of 84.
