“Had I been ordered to bomb Seattle or Los Angeles in order to end the war, I wouldn’t have hesitated. So, I perfectly understand why the Americans bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima.”
Sakai Saburo – Japanese Fighter Pilot!
The name – ‘Sakai Saburo’ (1916-2000) – is written in ‘old’ Chinese ideograms preserved with the Japanese writing-system.
The meaning of his name is as follows:
Hillside with a Well = Sa Kai
坂井 = Chinese: Ban Jing (Surname)
Three Acts of Service 1) Filial Son 2) Faithful Husband 3) Gentleman Warrior = Sabu – Ro
三郎 = Chinese: San Lang (Forename)
Western sources invariably reverse his name (i.e., ‘Saburo Sakai’) to fit-in with the European convention of placing the given name in-front of the surname. Within cultures such as China, Japan and Kores, for example, this undermines the Confucian respect that is granted to a family’s surname (which is usually thousands of years old and full of ancestors performing all kinds of remarkable deeds)! A generational first-name, by way of comparison, although meaningful within its own context, nevertheless, simply does not ‘carry’ the same historical ‘weight’. By placing the personal name ‘first’ (as is the Western habit), it seems to the average Japanese person that the Europeans are favouring their first-names over their family names! Within the family lineage this is considered both abhorrent and profoundly disrespectful. Interestingly, ‘inverting’ reality is exactly what the American government did from around 1950 onwards, with regards to the reconstruction of a devastated and utterly destroyed Japan following the defeat of Japanese fascism at the end of WWII.
The Americans pursued the War in the Pacific with a racist disregard for life that equalled that of the fascistic Imperial Japanese! Merely listening to the Veterans speak of their experience fighting the Japanese reveals the unquestioned racist narrative through which they operated. If there are any doubts left after this experience, then reading John Dower’s 1987 book entitled ‘War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War’ and Brian Victoria’s equally disturbing 1997 book ‘Zen at War’ which describes how Japanese Zen Buddhism integrated with the ‘fascism’ of the Japanese State and brain-washed young Japanese men and women to murder all non-Japanese ‘without a thought’ – and consider the mindless murder to be nothing less than a ‘spiritual act’! Indeed, so confident were the Americans in their racism that they had the ‘shooting’ of unarmed and wounded Japanese soldiers lying scattered all over a sandy-beach requesting ‘water’ and ‘medical’ aid – of course, they received neither. Instead, a military cameraman followed a marine armed with a pistol as he casually walked amongst the bodies nonchalantly choosing which Japanese soldier would be next to receive a bullet in the head! I believe some of this footage might well be in colour. This macabre incident can be added to the film footage of US Marines herding hundreds of unarmed Okinawan woman and children to a cliff-edge knowing that they would jump in an attempt to defend their children and prevent rape. As they ‘jumped’ the US Marines took great pleasure in ‘Shooting’ the women and children on the way down! This footage is often treated with an air of ‘festivities’ by the Veterans who participated in these atrocities. As these US soldiers were not held to account for their crimes, this narrative of just ‘having fun’ and letting-off steam’ when murdering innocents was never judiciously challenged and would re-emerge with similar US atrocities being committed in both Korea and Vietnam and beyond!
Sakai Saburo first joined the Japanese Imperial Navy in 1933 when he was 16-years-old – after graduating second in his school class. However, as he was from a poor background, he was only allowed to serve as an ordinary sailor. The brutality of the Japanese fascistic system demanded that new recruits be severely beaten nearly every day. This was viewed as ‘purifying’ the karma of the new recruit (a false reading of Buddhism) whilst their mind and body was being ‘prepared’ for unquestioning service to the emperor! This ruthless treatment in-turn generated a sense of brutal discipline in the new recruit – who would be encouraged take-out his frustration upon anyone deemed ‘the enemy’. The Japanese Imperial government taught the idea of Japanese racial and spiritual superiority in the classroom. This suggested to the pupil that a world of continuous psychological and psychological brutality could only be avoided if they developed an equally ruthless interior so that their mind was ready to initiate violent behaviour in a moment in the environment! As school-teachers gave way to drill sergeants, the new recruit with develop a tough exterior and a calm mind whilst be ready to unleash violence should the emperor (or his representatives) demanded it! This was the fascistic would that Sakai Saburo inhabited. He was brain-washed to believe that defeat or failure was a disgrace that required ‘suicide’, and that any enemy that did not accept and implement such a regimen were obviously racially and spiritually inferior – and nothing less than ‘life unworthy of life’
The US military suffered numerous defeats and set-backs whilst carrying-out aggressive actions in North Korea. This brought the Americans into direct conflict with the Socialist North Korean and Red Chinese troops. These seasoned Western troops, many of whom had seen action during WWII, found themselves struggling against the combined might of the working-class and peasantry united in a common cause. The US even resorted to using chemical and biological weapons in an attempt to destroy the North Korean and Red Chinese fighting spirit – simply because they could not conceive any other way ahead. This experience led to the Americans thoroughly reconsidering the status and developmental direction of a recovering Japan which the US still militarily occupied and politically controlled. Interestingly, Soviet Red Army troops were occupying the island North of Japan (won at the end of WWII with the Soviet liberation of China) and could easily be mobilised to invade the Japanese Mainland if such an attack became necessary due to US aggression in the region. Following all these considerations, it was decided that the US would reconstruct Japan along the lines of the American system of predatory capitalism and liberal democracy. Billions of US dollars were suddenly pumped into the Japanese economy which stimulated growth and assisted the material and economic recovery of Japan. This was falsely presented to the world as an ‘economic’ miracle produced entirely by a Japanese nation that in many ways = it was suggested – reflected the American character!
The Americans enforced liberal democracy and predatory capitalism upon the Japanese nation – but operating strictly within a revitalised (racist) Japanese nationalism that still believed in the superiority of the Japanese ‘race’ and the Japanese ‘spirit’! Part of this fascist attitude was a hatred of China and Korea as both countries had been militarily subjugated both prior to and during WWII! The Americans used this Japanese nationalism as a means to prevent the ordinary Japanese people developing a liking for ‘Socialism’ and ‘Internationalism’! In other words, the race-hate that Sakai Saburo was brought-up with – and which led to the Japanese attack upon the US – was now back in the service of the same Americans who had dropped two atomic bombs on an already defeated Japan following the orders from a supposedly ‘Christian’ President Truman. This about face included an intense propaganda war initiated by the US government against its own people! After years of the US government depicting the Japanese as being short-sighted, deformed and little more than ‘monkeys’ mimicking human behaviour, the ordinary Americans were now being told that the ‘average’ Japanese man and woman (as they were no longer ‘monkeys’), but rather human-beings very similar to the average American! Furthermore, the ‘new’ Japanese military – although controlled by the Americans – was now said to be premised upon the Japanese Forces extant during the 1930s and 1940s! These Japanese Forces were no longer viewed as committing ‘atrocities’ both experience by two before and during WWII – and the Japanese government no longer required to acknowledge or make amends for the War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity (that killed upwards of 60 million across Asia)!
The American ‘psychic’ Martin Caidin (and Japanese-American Fred Saito) were tasked by the US government to rehabilitate a Japanese military figure active both before and during WWII – so that his bearing and behaviour would ‘impress’ the average American and generate the distorted view that WWII did not happen, and if it did it was just a silly misunderstanding experienced by two very similar (but far apart) countries united by their hatred for a) ‘Communism’ and b) everything ‘Chinese’! This collaboration culminated in the publication of the 1957 English-language book entitled ‘Samurai’ attributed to one ‘Saburo Sakai’. The perverseness of this situation can be ascertained by the fact that many Japanese ‘War Criminals’ had been tried, found ‘Guilty’ and executed by ‘hanging’ or ‘firing-squad’ for their crimes, whilst others had received long prison sentences. In the mid-1950s a similar situation existed, with death sentences still being applied and carried-out against Nazi German war criminals with many more suffering long prison sentences. These Allied ‘policies’ of out and out punishment ran parallel (and contrary) to the clandestine policy employed by the United States which saw Japanese medical staff who had worked for the notorious ‘Unit 721’ being welcomed to the US as ‘Citizens – as the Americans wanted the data extracted from all the illegal medical experiments carried-out upon POWs and unarmed civilians (mostly captured Soviet soldiers and Chinese freedom fighters).
Sakai Saburo had been very active both before and during WWII – but the American authors had to be very careful what they presented in the West. Caidin and Sato had taken on the immense task of quite literally turning the war activities of a man brought-up within the Japanese fascist system one hundred and eighty degrees so that his war antics would somehow ‘appeal’ to the average White American! In other words, this is like selling the idea to Americans that ‘killing Americans’ is a war activity worthy of respecting the perpetuator, and that although Americans were ‘dying’ – this was something to be admired as a defeated Japan was using exactly this same racist attitude to now demonise all Chinese people! And these are just the ‘broad’ issues at stake, as Sakai Saburo was (and remained after WWII) an avid believer in the notion of Japanese racial (and spiritual) superiority, and that Japan possessed a divine mission to dominate the world! Prior to WWII, Sakai Saburo participated in the criminal blanket-bombing of Hangzhou in 1937 – and other airborne activities that prepared the war for the ‘Nanjing Massacre’ which saw the Japanese Imperial Army murder at least 300,000 (and more) unarmed Chinese men, women and children! Sakai Saburo was a typical example of the Japanese people brought-up in the 1930s and 1940s with many hating American for her White racism and strong military! What Caidin and Sato did was to sell a lie to the Western world and make a minor celebrity out of a Japanese War Veteran who probably should have been arrested and tried for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity!
The thoroughness of this deception is impressive. Sakai Saburo’s genuine Japanese language biography in Japan was not allowed to be published (in translation) in the West – just as the distorted biography of ‘Saburo Sakai’ produced in the West is still forbidden from being (translated) and published into Japan because its lies are obvious to any Japanese person, and because Sakai’s supposed ‘pro-Western’ and ‘pro-American’ war effort against Imperial Japan is immensely insulting to Japanese people even today! As a committed fascist, Sakai Saburo through supporting his county’s attack upon America, China and Asia! As he believed that only the strongest race should survive a war – he even stated that he fully supported the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan! The Western authors had to navigate their way through a mine-field of information – turning a genuine ‘fact’ about Sakai in Japan to the exact opposite in the West! This task was difficult in that just previously, ‘Japanese bravery’ was depicted within Western literature as being the product of maniacal aggression generated through an insane Japanese obsession with a collectivised knee-jerk reaction to the barest of external stimuli! As a result, the ‘unknowable’ (to the average Western mind) War Criminal Sakai Saburo was to be transformed into the ‘Western-friendly’ Saburo Sakai whose reconstituted character appeared able and willing to sit in an American Dinner after a hard day’s work at the local factory or on the nearby farm! This fabricated Saburo Sakai seemed a virtual ‘American’ who would be inspired to attend a Christian Church every Sunday!
None of this was true, but Sakai Saburo did possess the required anti-China attitudes required by the Americans to brain-wash the West into recalibrating its attitudes toward a fascist Japanese nation that had behaved appalling across Asia ever since the early 1930s! With the numerous US War Crimes Trials – and executions of all those Japanese politicians and military men who had combined to murder millions as an ally of Nazi Germany – the ‘new’ required party-line was that the Japanese people are just like the American people and everything that had gone before was nothing but a misunderstanding. Predatory capitalism and anti-Chinese racism were now to be the binding ideologies that still ‘join’ the US and Japan together today! Although Sakai’s pro-fascist Japanese attitudes never wavered during his life-time, he did to a certain extent, ‘play along’ when he started receiving the substantial royalties from the fabricated version of his biography published in the West on his behalf. He even allowed his daughter to travel to the US for educational purposes – and to eventually grant his permission for her to ‘marry’ a White American soldier she had met whilst studying. What was important was that in the world prior to the internet (and instantaneous ‘fact-checking’), Sakai Saburo should stay firmly within Japan and never agree to any type of ‘interview’ with a Western journalist, on the grounds that as he did not know the exact contrived narratives and fabricated facts that defined his ‘life’ in that version of his biography! By the time the internet was developing in the late 1990s – Sakai Saburo had already become an anachronism, and for most people (East and West) a complete irrelevance by the time of his death in the year 2000.
Whilst fighting and killing the Americans and the Chinese (as well as the Soviets), Caidin and Saito fabricated such incidents as Sakai flying next to an enemy transport aeroplane (somewhere over ‘Java’) which he supposedly decided not to attack as a female passenger he could see through a window a) looked scared, and b) apparently reminded him of a White American woman (a ‘Mrs. Martens’) who briefly taught him English whilst at middle school in Japan. As Sakai was now having trouble keeping-up with the money-making lies coming from the West – and aligning these lies as best he could with the real-life experiences, noticeable contradictions started to occur – albeit limited by a lack of any in-depth ‘general’ communication between East and West. The first line of defence designed to divert criticism, as contrived by Caidin and Saito, was that of the ‘language barrier’ which was to blame for any apparent misunderstandings about Sakai’s military career. For instance, whilst Sakai states that he ‘shot’ at ‘any’ transport aeroplane as part of his patriotic war effort against the US and their allies – in his Western biography the ludicrous story emerged that he had seen a beautiful Western woman who waved at him through the window of a transport aeroplane as Sakai flew past (as can be seen from the above, the lies all started to develop lives of their own and permeated outwards in an out of control manner, generating ever-greater and outrageous nonsense! Later, after reading ‘Samurai’ in the West, this Dutch nurse made contact with Sakai (?) and after comparing dates and times (?) – both agreed that they had met each other in the sky! Of course, upon closer inspection, no such ‘nurse’ exists and this Western story in Saburo Sakai’s ‘Western’ biography is contradicted by the stories he relates in his Japanese-language biographies, (yes, there are more than one)! Furthermore, according to the official Japanese military sources, between the dates of February 18th to February 25th, 1941, in the skies over the Dutch East Indies – not one Japanese Imperial Airforce sortie reported the encountering of an enemy ‘transport’ aeroplane anywhere in the region.
On May 17th, 1942, according to the Caidin and Saito double-act, Saburo Sakai participated in the Moresby attack carried-out by eighteen Zero Fighters under the Command of Major Tadashi Nakajim. After launching from Lae at 06:20hrs (and having a short air battle), Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and Toshio Ota (of the same company), had a secret mission to complete and left the company – whereas, Saburo Sakai, not to be out-done, flew over the Seven Mile Airfield in Port Moresby without permission – and performed three consecutive formation somersaults (acting just like an impetuous American teenager)! Sakai said that the enemy did not counter-attacked – as if enjoying the day, and watching the bright sky (notice how Caidin and Saitto build the drama) – but later – a letter of praise arrived from enemy-base congratulating Saburo Sakai for his flying skills! Caidin and Satto ‘imagine’ this letter as reading (as no such document is mention or extant within Sakai Saburo’s authorised Japanese biography):
‘To the Lae Commander: We were much impressed with the three pilots who visited us today, and we all liked the loops they flew over the field. It was quite an exhibition. We would appreciate if these same pilots returned here once again, each wearing a green muffler around his neck. We’re sorry we couldn’t give them better attention on their last trip, but we will see to it that the next time they will receive an all-out welcome from us.’
Samurai! – By Saburo Saki with Martin Caidin and Fred Satto, Ballentine, (1967), Page 111
Of course, Saburo Sakai – like the ‘frat-boy’ he is being portrayed as being – was scolded by his superiors! Caidin and Satto, in their mostly concocted ‘Samurai!’ falsely stated that the mission in question happened on the May 17th, 1942, when in fact the mission (which was real minus the aerobatics and sarcastic messages) actually occurred on May 27th, 1942! When disgruntled Western Veterans of these campaigns approached Caidin and Satto for clarification, wanting to know where such outrageous, stupid and insulting claims had originated? In response Martin Caidin claimed to have heard it from a Veteran of WWII – a US soldier stationed in Port Moresby at the time of the alleged incident. When pressed further, Martin Caidin was unable to provide any other ‘proof’. When he was asked about this incident after the war – Sakai Saburo stated that he had no knowledge of these events! According to the official Japanese language Combat Action Report, 13 aircraft returned to Lae at 11:45 hrs on May 17th, two returned to Salamaua, whilst the attack on May 27th was carried out by 27 Zero Fighters under the command of Masao Yamashita. After starting from Lae at 08:50 hrs and engaging in a fierce battle with US Fighter-Pilots over Moresby, all aircraft returned safely to Lae at 11:30 hrs. Sakai Saburo was a platoon leader on that day, but together with his colleagues, was too busy ‘fighting’ for his life against intense US military action! Indeed, Japanese records make no mention of most of the outlandish claims originating from Caidin and Saito!
From 1957 – 1967, Saburo Sakai’s biography in the West was reprinted once every year! With each new edition, more and more fabricated stories where concocted and inserted into the book! Following the murder of JFK in late 1967, Lyndon B. Johnson had taken over the Presidency of the US! About this time, Caidin and Saito got to hear of a reconnaissance flight that Lyndon B. Johnson participated in as a Reservist in the US Navy on June 9th, 1942 – whilst holding office as a member of the House of Representatives. His job was to ‘observe’ this US B-26 Marauder bombing mission on Japanese targets in New Guinea – later claiming his aeroplane had come under attack by Japanese aerial forces after dropping its bombs – and had to return to base. Caidin and Saito ‘invented’ the idea that it was the one and only Saburo Sakai who’s Japanese Zero aeroplane had supposedly attacked the B-26 Marauder Johnson was flying in – causing substantial damage! This was concocted to boost sales and further indoctrinate the US youth and the hippie movement into supporting a fascist former Japanese fighter-pilot who had apparently had a go at ‘killing’ Johnson when he was not that popular as President (with many believing that he was behind JFK’s murder)! The official military records, however, state that the crew of the B-26 Marauder Johnson was flying in were told not to take any risks with his life – and they turned back without engaging the enemy, dropping bombs or suffering any damaged! Indeed, this B-26 Marauder was completely unharmed because it was never attacked by any Japanese Zeros! Regardless of these facts, however, Saburo Sakai is still accredited with exercising this ‘good judgement’ of attacking Johnson’s aeroplane, despite none of it being true in any way!
The extraordinary part of Sakai Subaro’s life in the Japanese military is undisputed East or West! Following a mission against US Forces over Guadalcanal (on August 7th, 1942), his aeroplane was hit by a devastating barrage of machine gun fire that rendered him terribly wounded. Sakai suffered broken across his right frontal region, left hip was broken which paralyzed his left leg, and his right eye was severely injured – whilst eyesight of his left eye also deteriorated significantly. Despite losing a lot of blood and periodically passing-out at the controls (waking to find himself flying upside down in a straight-line about a foot off of the surface of the sea)! Incredibly, Sakai Saburo managed to manoeuvre his battered body and dilapidated flying-machine back to base. Sakai states in his Japanese language biographies that his will to survive stemmed from the fact that he believed himself to be a ‘Samurai’ steeped in the ancient history of Japan’s ‘superior’ racial and spiritual stock – and that he must ‘survive’ to continue the fight against the ‘hated’ Americans and their ‘White’ arrogance! Obviously, no amount of carefully contrived footwork from Caidin or Satto could package this fascistic Japanese outburst as being in anyway favourable to good relations with the US – and so Sakai’s right-wing opinion (like so many others) were omitted ‘out’ of the Western version of his biography! Although he underwent surgery at Yokosuka Naval Hospital, he almost lost his eyesight in his right eye and the sight in his left-eye dropped to 0.7 – whilst the left side of his body was numb.
Due to the loss of sight in his right eye, he was advised to quit the military. He was recommended to train as a shiatsu teacher as a means of livelihood – but he was transferred to another hospital before any of these changes could happen. As matters transpired, Sakai Saburo asked to be placed in the front-line so that he could die with honour against the animalistic Americans who were killing thousands of Japanese people on a daily basis! Again, Caidin and Satto could not present this fascistic statement as being in anyway ‘pro-American’ – and so it was ‘omitted’. Sakai Saburo was admired by his sheer will-power to survive his injuries and continue to fight (and die) for the emperor! For this he was promoted to the rank of Chief Master Sargeant (during October, 1942), and permitted to train young recruits for front-line service. Part of this procedure involved the intense beating of recruits with a bat to ‘purge’ their minds and bodies of any inhibiting impurities (as required by the Japanese ’Shinto’ [神道 – ‘Shen Sao’] or ‘Spirit Way’). Sakai stated that such training prepared the recruits for the reality of war against the Americans.
As the war turned steadily against Japan, Sakai Saburo found himself transferred to front-line duty during July, 1944, against the US Navy and US Marines that were steadily advancing through the Pacific! Yet another element of disinformation created by the team-work of Caidin and Saito was the false idea the regardless of having deficient eyesight – Saburo Sakai was still without a doubt still one of the most effective fighter-aces the Japanese Imperial Navy could field, disabled or otherwise! According to this narrative, Saburo Sakai continued to devastate any US Forces who were unlucky enough to encounter him! Although it is true that Sakai Saburo possessed the unique psychological and physical dimensions of existence that made him a highly skilled and brave Japanese fighter-pilot (fascistic or otherwise) – and that he was still willing to ‘die for the emperor’ against the invading Americans – it is not true that he remained a fighter-ace AFTER his severe injuries and loss of eyesight. Of course, none of this conveyed in a fabricated book designed to give the false impression that contemporary Americans and their Japanese-counter-parts were merely long-distance reflections of one another! The sheer ignorance that underlies the mission of Caidin and Saito contains all the hallmarks of a typical CIA (Cold War) disinformation operation! In many ways it is similar to the CIA’s interference in the Tibetan region of China, and its support for the criminal Falun Gong Cult (among an endless list of US-inspired genocide, murders and regime changes). A recent academic report in the US states that since the end of WWII, the US Military has killed between 20-30 million people in pursuit of its support for predatory capitalism and its opposition to ‘Socialism’!
Caidin and Saito claim in ‘Samurai’! that Saburo Sakai took-part in the entire Battle of Iwo Jima (from June 24 – July 4) – but official Japanese records state that Sakai only participated in Day 1 of this brutal and costly campaign – as the Japanese Military Authorities were of the opinion that Sakai’s extraordinary skills should be used sparingly and in the right place for the maximum benefit of the emperor! At this time, Saburo Sakai, due to his lack of eyesight, flew his Zero into a formation of US F6F Hellcat Fighters – thinking they were friendly Japanese Zeroes! Caidin claims Saburo Sakai fought-off fifteen enemy aircraft before escaping to safety – whilst eye-witness reports state that he was surrounded by just ‘four’ enemy fighters. Evidence suggests that Caidin and Saito wanted to use the number ‘one hundred’ for the enemy fighters but thought better of it! On July 5th,1944, a ‘Special Attack’ Order was issued. Sakai Saburo was chosen to lead a ‘Kamikaze’ attack on US Forces invading Iwa Jima! Sakai was to lead three others in this mission – but Sakai could not find the US Fleet (his intended target) and after skirmishing – he decided to return to base. Japanese reports suggest that Sakai (and his men) were considered ‘dishonoured’ by returning alive! This reaction is entirely omitted from the Western version of his biography! This is because the average American is taught that staying alive is far preferable to wilfully dying! This part of the Japanese national character was highly demonised by the US government during WWII and went someway to influencing the decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japanese cities even though such attacks were not required. For ‘Samurai!’ to work, all the internal machinations of Japanese culture must be purged from the ‘new’ narrative so as to make it Westerner-friendly!
Caidin and Satto omit the fact that after his injuries and return to combat, many other serving Japanese fighter-pilots viewed him as a liability and were not interested in listening to him lecturing about his experiences of air combat. The prevailing view in Japan was that it was profoundly ‘wrong’ for Saburo Sakai to return unharmed from a ‘Kamikaze’ raid! This general lack of respect was partly fuelled by the continuous promotions Sakai Saburo was regularly receiving. During August, 1944 he was promoted to ‘Ensign’ (Ensign – Special Officer). Many thought that as he was from a humble family with no pedigree – he should not be receiving these honours! Indeed, many who served with him, or who knew him personally, often stated that he was not a very good fighter-pilot and that his record is fabricated (by stealing the ‘kills’ of those around him)! After the Surrender of Japan on August 15th, 1945, Sakai Saburo was promoted yet again to the rank of ‘Lieutenant’ on September 5th, 1945! This is the Western take on Saburo Sakai’s biography ends in the book entitled ‘Samurai’! After the war, Sakai Saburo ran a printing company by asking Yoshie Onishi – a relative of Junichi Sasai and the wife of Takijiro Onishi – was asked to be the President. In December 1945, Russell Blinds – the Director of the Tokyo bureau of AP Communications – asked the Ministry of Demobilisation it could be arranged for him to meet Japan’s ‘fighter-ace’. This is an odd development as Sakai Saburo was NOT considered ‘Japan’s leading Fighter-Ace’ by many Japanese people! Sakai Saburo made contact with US personnel in Tokyo through the auspices of Lieutenant Colonel Tadashi Nakajima, he was able to contact him while living in Tokyo. Also present was Masayuki Fukubayashi – and it was swiftly decided that Sakai’s book would be published in Japan – and then later in the West. Prior to this, Sakai Saburo was an obscure figure and the above sounds like a ‘special operation’ on behalf of US intelligence – probably the ‘Office of Strategic Services (OSS)’ – the forerunner to the CIA (founded in 1947).
Even so, it would take another twelve years to arrange for Caidin and Satto to lay-out their table and get to work translating and ‘altering’ the original manuscript written by Saburo Sakai. A saying developed which described the US racist attitude at work here, namely that ‘Inside every Asian is an American trying to get out’! Interestingly, although the US-controlled (Japanese-language) Wikipedia page for Sakai Saburo exercises a certain ‘objective’ criticism of the manner in which his story was distorted into fantasy as a means to appeal to Western (racist) sentiment during the Cold War, the same cannot be said for the proven liar and Japanese fascist War Criminal – So Doshin (宗道臣 – Zong Dao Chen) – a Japanese Imperial soldier who marauder across China in the 1930s and 1940s committing atrocities against Chinese men, women and children! His self-proclaimed ‘spiritual’ name translates as ‘Lineage Way Transmitter’ or more literally ‘Lineage Way Cart’. As So Doshin was sent to China to ‘destroy’ Chinese culture, he is ignorant of its true meaning and genuine usage. This is why this name represents an ‘incorrect’ usage of (traditional) Chinese ideograms – which are placed in the wrong order (and context) – so as to express the non-Chinese fascistic (Japanese) ideals of ‘dominance’ and ‘dictatorship’. So Doshin – real name ‘Nakano Michiomi’ (中野道臣 – Zhong Ye Dao Chen [1911–1980]). In his mania to become the leader of a martial arts ‘Cult’ he simply added the ideogram ‘宗’ (Zong) to his first-name! He was the founder of the Japanese martial arts style entitled firstly as ‘Shorinji Kemp’ (少林寺拳法 – Shao Lin Si Quan Fa). His story was that after murdering Japanese men, women and children during the day – he would relax in the evening by ‘studying’ Shaolin martial arts under the guidance of ordained Shaolin Masters! When he was captured by the Soviet Red Army in 1945 (whilst the Russians and Mongolians were ‘liberating’ Manchuria from Imperial Japanese rule) – and was declared ‘mentally ill’ and in need of therapeutic care! On his return to Japan – he established a neo-fascist martial arts school that eulogised Japanese nationalism and anti-China and anti-Western sentiment whilst openly opposing Socialism! In 1980, Shorinji Kempo was uncritically featured on the BBC’s series entitled ‘Way of the Warrior’ – despite those interviewed expressing pro-fascist opinions and refusing to apologise for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity that ‘So Doshon’ was committing whilst Sakai Saburo flew across the skies of Manchuria! At least Sakai Saburo maintained a modicum of dignity by recognising his own corruption and liability for his actions before and during WWII!
English Language Reference:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/99333.Martin_Caidin
Japanese Language Sources:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/宗道臣
https://shuchi.php.co.jp/rekishikaido/detail/4356
https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/search/search/ゼロ戦%20坂井三郎/0/
https://bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/product?item=0000175884
https://note.com/cashflow101/n/nd52a1bf6aa2f
Chinese Language Sources:
https://www.sohu.com/a/394096340_120530806
https://www.163.com/dy/article/CO15PHC70515CLKO.html
THE SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 