"My Father and I and Saburo Sakai"

JDK · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2011 7:01 am

A fascinating story, which may be old news to some but of interest to others.

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airc ... evens.html

In short (but worth reading in full) it's the story of a man's quest to find out how his father was killed in W.W.II and meeting the Japanese airman responsible for his death; no other than famous ace Sakai. If it were fiction (and in this case Martin Caidin seems to have mostly stuck to fact) you'd not believe it.

IJFIWLFSE*

Regards,

*I just found it while looking for something else...

planenutti · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2011 3:53 pm

Wow, simply wow

soko121 · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:37 pm

what he said....WOW!
truly an amazing story, "Fate is the Hunter"

Simon

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2011 11:00 pm

We were up there for that show.
Probably the only part of the book The Mission that was true and not
embellished stories and holes in the story plugged full of nonsense.
LBJ pinned his Silver Star on a GI during a vist to VN. Very honorable thing
to do since the award was very undeserved.

Richard W. · **Posted:** Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:49 am

Great story. Thank you for posting the link.

I'm curious about the series of photos that are mentioned that show the downing of "Wabash Cannonball."

I can't find anything about these in my reference books. Were the photos taken by someone in another B-26 on the raid? Can anyone point me at a book or website that has the photos?

Thank you.

TAdan · **Posted:** Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:53 am

Fascinating read, thanks for sharing that one JDK.

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:40 am

The only place I've seen them published is in The Mission.
I'm sure it was a strike camera and not a handheld.

Django · **Posted:** Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:18 am

That was very moving.

Richard W. · **Posted:** Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:26 am

Jack Cook wrote:

The only place I've seen them published is in The Mission.
I'm sure it was a strike camera and not a handheld.

Thanks Jack.

Jollygreenslugg · **Posted:** Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:57 pm

G'day James,

Very interesting indeed. Thank you.

JDK wrote:

IJFIWLFSE...I just found it while looking for something else...

That's how some of my better finds come about!

Cheers,
Matt

Chappie · **Joined:** Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:40 am **Posts:** 987

Wow, what a story. Really gets you in the old ticker doesn't it?

Chappie

Ian Quinn · **Posted:** Wed Sep 14, 2011 8:18 am

Caidin's book has been called to question over the years [he was a sci-fi writer among other things]

A prominent historian has this to say about the book...last paragraph is relevant.

http://www.warbirdforum.com/wingsams.htm

Chappie · **Joined:** Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:40 am **Posts:** 987

Ian Quinn wrote:

Caidin's book has been called to question over the years [he was a sci-fi writer among other things]

A prominent historian has this to say about the book...last paragraph is relevant.

http://www.warbirdforum.com/wingsams.htm

That is not the first time I've heard that about LBJ. How different this country would have been without him in the White House.

Chappie

Richard W. · **Posted:** Wed Sep 14, 2011 12:23 pm

Daniel Ford is a notorious iconoclast and an excellent historian.

Ian Quinn · **Posted:** Wed Sep 14, 2011 6:40 pm

Quote:

Daniel Ford is a notorious iconoclast and an excellent historian

That he is but this isn't his book - it's written by Henry Sakaida and just on Ford's website.
Sakaida has done much research on Saburo Sakai, including a book in the mid '80s
It seems that Sakai was not above bending the truth a little...hopefully in "My Father and I and Saburo Sakai" he was involved.

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