Sakai had 28 aerial victories, including shared ones, according to official Japanese records,[1][2] though he and his ghostwriter Martin Caidin claimed much higher numbers.

On 31 May 1933, at the age of 16, Sakai enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy as a Sailor Fourth Class (Seaman Recruit) (四等水兵) at the Sasebo Naval Base.

Sakai was promoted to Sailor Second Class (Able Seaman) (二等水兵) in 1936, and served on the battleship Haruna as a turret gunner.

[8] Promoted to Petty Officer Second Class (二等兵曹) in 1938, Sakai took part in aerial combat flying the Mitsubishi A5M at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938–1939 and was wounded in action.

On a patrol with his Zero over Java, just after he had shot down an enemy aircraft, Sakai encountered a civilian Dutch Douglas DC-3 flying at low altitude over dense jungle.

When he recovered three months later in April, Petty Officer First Class Sakai joined a squadron (chutai) of the Tainan Kōkūtai under Sub-Lieutenant Junichi Sasai at Lae, New Guinea.

A myth has been perpetuated over time but declared[citation needed] to be product of the imagination of Martin Caidin, the co-author of Sakai's book "Samurai."

At the end of an attack on Port Moresby, which had involved 18 Zeros, the trio performed three tight loops in close formation over the allied air base.

The following day, a lone Allied bomber flew over the Lae airfield and dropped a note attached to a long cloth ribbon.

The squadron commander was furious and reprimanded the three pilots for their stupidity, but the Tainan Kōkūtai's three leading aces felt that Nishizawa's aerial choreography of the Danse Macabre had been worth it.

The airfield soon became the focus of months of fighting during the Guadalcanal Campaign, as it enabled US airpower to hinder the Japanese in their attempts at resupplying their troops.

The Japanese made several attempts to retake Henderson Field that resulted in almost daily air battles for the Tainan Kōkūtai.

Nakajima was raging when he got back to Rabaul; he had been forced to dive and run for safety.On 7 August, Sakai and three pilots shot down an F4F Wildcat flown by Lieutenant James "Pug" Southerland of Fighting Squadron Five (VF-5), who by the end of the war became an ace with five victories.

After an extended battle in which both pilots gained and lost the upper hand, Sakai shot down Southerland's Wildcat and struck it below the left wing root with his 20 mm cannon.

[16] Sakai was amazed at the Wildcat's ruggedness:[17] I had full confidence in my ability to destroy the Grumman and decided to finish off the enemy fighter with only my 7.7 mm machine guns.

A Zero which had taken that many bullets would have been a ball of fire by now.Not long after he had downed Southerland, Sakai was attacked by a lone Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber flown by Lieutenant Dudley Adams of USS Wasp's Scouting Squadron 71 (VS-71).

[20] In Sakai's account of the battle, he identified the aircraft as Grumman TBF Avengers and stated that he could clearly see the enclosed top turret.

The SBD crews reported being attacked by two Zeros, one of which came in from directly astern and flew into the concentrated fire from their rear-mounted twin 7.62 mm (0.3 in) .30 AN/M2 guns.

Finally, the cold air blasting into the cockpit revived him enough to check his instruments, and he decided that by leaning the fuel mixture, he might be able to return to the airfield at Rabaul.

Although in agony from his injuries[23] Sakai managed to fly his damaged Zero in a 4 h 47 min flight over 560 nmi (1,040 km; 640 mi) back to his base on Rabaul by using familiar volcanic peaks as guides.

On 24 June 1944, Sakai approached a formation of 15 US Navy Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters, which he had mistakenly assumed to be friendly Japanese aircraft.

Despite facing superior enemy aircraft, Sakai demonstrated his skill and experience by eluding the attacks and returning to his airfield unscathed.

He was engaged by Hellcat fighters near the task force's reported position, and all but one of the Nakajima B6N2 "Jill" torpedo bombers in his flight were shot down.

Rather than follow meaningless orders in worsening weather and gathering darkness, Sakai led his small formation back to Iwo Jima.

[28] However, according to the aerial combat report, his mission was to escort bombers to and from their targets, and in the afternoon of 24 June, Sakai joined the attack on the US task force.

Saburō Sakai participated in the IJNAS's last wartime mission by attacking two reconnaissance Consolidated B-32 Dominators on 18 August, which were conducting photo-reconnaissance and testing Japanese compliance with the ceasefire.

"[31] Sakai visited the US and met many of his former adversaries, including Lieutenant Commander Harold "Lew" Jones (1921–2009), the SBD Dauntless rear-seat gunner (piloted by Ensign Robert C. Shaw), who had wounded him.

[32] After a US Navy formal dinner in 2000 at Atsugi Naval Air Station at which he had been an honored guest, Sakai died of a heart attack at the age of 84.

includes fictional stories, and that the number of kills specified in that work were increased to promote sales of the book by Martin Caidin.

[citation needed] In the year 2000, just before he died, Sakai (along with American Marine Corps fighter ace Joe Foss) served as a consultant for the development of Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2.