Samurai!

By Saburo Sakai

The personal story of professional Japanese warrior Saburo Sakai describes his many missions and daredevil exploits in aerial combat during World War II, offering suspenseful accounts of his most courageous flights. He fought American fighter pilots in WWII and survived as Japan's greatest living ace.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reading Essentials
• Release date: May 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781773239705

Reviews for Samurai!

[jamespurcell · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good thoughts at the time of the first reading. To be read again inlight of later books from the Japanese side.

[drmaf-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've seen so little about the war from the Japanese viewpoint that this book is invaluable to me. It really sheets home how much the Japanese military culture differed from that in the west. Sakai comes across as a quite likeable guy he has many of the same hopes and fears as his equivalents on the Allied side, but his unthinking adherence to the Japanese military code, his absolute willingness to die for his Emperor and his indifference to the suffering his country has wrought on the world with its aggressive militarism is chillingly apparent. I understand the Japanese military mentality much more after reading this book, but I am no closer to understanding how apparently ordinary men could carry out the atrocities which the Japanese inflicted during WWII. That aside its a great read for war buffs and aviation junkies.

[schmerguls · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was first published in 1957 and this edition was publlshed in 1991 by the Naval Institute Press, Annapolis. It is an often gripping account telling of the Japanese author joining the Navy, and becoming a pilot. He flesw in China and after Pearl Harbor he was transferred to the south Pacific. He claims to have downed 64 enemy aricraft and he tell of many of the air battles, which unless one is a fighter pilot is not too interesting. But his account of a flight when he was inured and almost blind, traveling 560 miles back to Rabaul, New Guinea, is exciting and attention-holding. Even though he lost the sight of one eye he did flying thereafter. The final months of the war were sad for him but of course I delighted that he was no longer out-dueling American planes. Whether the account if over-hyped I do not know, but the book is exciting and easy to read and the finale is sad for the author--except he does get married--and joyful for one favoring the USA.

[chris_el-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book really was amazing. This is the only book I've read that when I finished the book the same day I bought it I went back to the beginning of the book and started over and read it again. This book follows the author from the time he was a boy to when he joined the military, (basic for them was far and away tougher than anything we have for our military!) to going on to become one of Japan's greatest fighter pilots. This story is truly legendary and deserves to be read and remembered.