William S. Grass 2008-12-01

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Samurai! is the gripping war memoir of Japanese fighter ace Saburo Sakai, who has been credited with downing sixty-four Allied planes. His story is especially rare and valuable given the appalling rate of attrition of Japanese pilots during the war. In his own group of twenty-five pilots that graduated flight school together in 1937, he was the only one that remained alive at war's end.

Sakai is critical of Japan's pilot training because its standards were too high in the 1930s and produced only about a hundred pilots per year, not nearly enough to go to war with the United States. He points out that once the war started with the U.S., training standards were lowered, and many of the pilots who made it through during the war were far below the quality of most who washed out during his own training.

It is instructive to read Sakai's reaction when his group reaches Luzon for the initial attacks on the Philippines after Pearl Harbor and sees "some sixty enemy bombers and fighters neatly parked along the airfield runways." This negligence on the part of U.S. command in the Philippines has never been satisfactorily explained.

Another particular incident that made an impression on me was the "Danse Macabre" of Sakai and his comrades where they taunted Allies on the ground by performing loops above Port Moresby in May, 1942, much to the chagrin of Sakai's superiors. That sort of showboating runs contrary to the stereotype of WWII Japanese that I grew up with in the United States, exemplified by Bridge on the River Kwai and Tora! Tora! Tora!. Of course, once Allied pilots' skills, experience and quality of aircraft caught up with the Japanese, there was no longer any opportunity for that sort of showing off.

David Bonesteel 2008-07-27

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This is the autobiography of Japan's greatest ace pilot to survive WWII. Saburo Sakai became a hero in his homeland and his account of his place in the Pacific War is even-handed and illuminating. In the early days of the war, victory seems to come relatively easy to him and the other pilots in his fighter group due to their superior training and the excellence of the Mitsubishi Zero fighter. As the war wears on, however, and the United States becomes more fully engaged on its Western front, the tide turns and the situation becomes increasingly desperate for Sakai and his compatriots, until the inevitable crushing defeat. Sakai, along with his co-authors Martin Caidin and Fred Saito, presents exciting accounts of air battles and Saito's harrowing experience piloting his aircraft back to base after sustaining injuries that should have killed him. As good as this stuff is, I was glad that the home front wasn't neglected in his narrative. In addition to being a great air warrior, he also lived a wonderful love story with his future wife.

Marco Vienna 2007-03-08

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This is the auto biography of one of the greatest Japanese airplane aces, Saburo Sakai. The story is really well written, on the ground style, and especially gives you the perspective of the war seen from "the other side". We have been educated to read History from the winner perspective, and in this view all the Japanese are horrible monsters without any humanity... this beautiful book will change your mind and teach you that war is the most horrible things in this world, that human beings suffer and feel the same feelings, and that there are no "right" wars. Wars is ALWAYS bad...

Diane Diekman 2005-12-19

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

This book shows that combat warriors on both sides have the same thoughts and concerns. They worry about their families and complain about their leadership.

I bought the Classics of Naval Literature volume after reading a library copy. That's how much the book impressed me. The top-surviving Zero naval ace of WWII, Sakai had realistic and controversial opinions of Japan's role in the war. He did much to build postwar friendships with the United States, even at risk to his own life.

Little did I realize when I bought the book that I would someday meet him. I visited him in his Tokyo home and hosted his visit to Naval Air Facility Atsugi. My book is now autographed.

Declan Hayes 2005-10-01

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

Samurai! documents the wartime exploits of Saburo Sakai, the greatest Japanese fighter pilot to survive World War 11, in which he was credited with downing 64 enemy aircraft. Sakai, who died in September 2000 of a heart attack became a legend in his own lifetime. This book explains why.
Samurai! takes us from early victories over the Chinese airforce to the later dogfights with the Dutch, the Australians and, finally, the unstoppable Americans. Sakai, in describing his journey from a rookie pilot to the final surrender, also chronicles the rise and fall of the Japanese Imperial Naval Air Force as seen from one of the most spectacular cogs in its vast apparatus.
Saka, who was never decorated for his actions, was a truly amazing fighter who was held in adulation by his mechanics and wingmen. Indeed, of all Japan's aces, Saburo Sakai was the only one who never lost a wingman in combat. This is an astounding record for a man who engaged in over two hundred aerial melees. But then again, Saburo Sakai's story is an astounding one.
His retreat from Guadalcanal is evidence enough of that. Having suffered paralyzing wounds in his left leg and left arm and having being permanently blinded in his left eye and temporarily blinded in his right eye, with jagged pieces of metal in his back and chest and with the heavy fragments of two 5-caliber machinegun bullets imbedded in his skull, he managed to fly his crippled Zero all the way back to New Guinea. That is the stuff of Hollywood legends.
So too is his dogfight against 15 Hellcats over Iwo Jima. Although he only had sight in one eye, Sakai managed to out manouver the Hellcat fighters and land safely back on the besieged island. His escape from Iwo Jima is also the stuff of Hollywood legends.
Hollywood bases its stories on legendary warriors. And Sakai and his comrades quickly became legends as their honed skills and Mitsubishi Zeros allowed them to cut a swathe through their Chinese, Dutch and Australian enemies. Sakai's accounts of those earlier battles are like reading th accounts of Cochise, Crazy Horse or Geronimo. Sakai and the other Japanese warriors of the air went out and did what they felt they had to do. Their Zeros were as precious to them as the finest steeds were to the warriors of old. They were the cream of the crop.
Unfortunately for them, their numbers were whittled down as the war dragged on. Midway accounted for over 300 of Japan's best pilots.The Americans, meanwhile, came relentlessly at them with their Wildcat and Hellcat fighters, which were purposely designed to outpace the Zero. Time and again, Sakai stresses that it was only the Americans' lack of combat experience that saved him.
They didn't save the others. As the war dragged on, the standard of the average Japanese pilot plummeted.
This book is not a glorification If this book glorifies anything, it is the futility and blaspehemy of war. Sakai describes how business went on as usuall in China even in the middle of combat zones. He describes watching Australian pilots being eaten by sharks. His account of how his superior skills saved him at Iwo Jima reflect the skills he noted in the Dutch and Chinese pilots of the earlier chapters. The Japanese, who had been the confident hunters I nthe earlier chapters, were now the prey. Usually, they were sitting ducks, powerless to do anything but volunteer for a kamikaze mission or to train the young novices who made the bult of the kamikazes.
Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, another top air ace who was later shot out of the air in an unarmed transport plane, was one of these. Sakai describes him as bing "unpredictable in the air, a genius, a poet who seemed to make his fighter respond obediently to his gentle, sure touch at the controls." Sakai constantly uses similar imagery to decribe his love for the Zero. This book has been reissued on countless occasions. Read it and find out why.