Samurai!

Facinating reading for anyone interested in the air war campaign this book is a real eye opener to the japanese side of the conflict.

in inglese, come si capisce bene dal sottotitolo, di un classico sulla II Guerra Mondiale, tradotto in Italia da Longanesi negli anni '70 e ormai introvabile (l'originale Caccia Zero è del 1960, l'ultima ristampa del 2001) . Gli appassionati hanno l'occasione di (ri)leggerlo apprezzandone lo stile semplice e diretto con cui vengono raccontate le gesta del maggior asso dell'aviazione nipponica nella Seconda Guerra Mondiale.

１９７８発刊の英文ポケットブックですが、日本語”大空のサムライ”の英語翻訳本です。内容はゼロ戦の勇士坂井三郎氏の名著です。しかし未だ希少価値はありません。３４年前の古本とはいえ、表紙は汚れており、紙は茶色に変色した極めて粗悪品ですが、これが何と１７００円でした。おそらく古本屋に出向いて探せば、古本故２００円か３００円もしないでしょう。納期も２週間遅れました。内容にはい異存ありませんが、価格は極めて不満です。ここ日本ではこのような非良心的は商売は長つずきしませんよ。がっかりです。

First off, I was not expecting this chapter book to be the size of a LIFE magazine issue, but that’s not the reason this book is getting 4 stars (the good stuff first)! SAMURAI! talks about the life of Saburo Sakai and his experience as a Zero pilot during the war, and it’s quite a fascinating read, I could tell some parts of the story were over exaggerated but majority of the book is factual. If you would like to get a glimpse into a different perspective of the air battles in the pacific, definitely read this book! A lot of good stuff in there and there will be times where you will keep turning to the next page! Now the reason why this is not getting 5 stars is because of the amount of grammatical errors that was riddled in the copy I received, it was pretty noticeable but one can infer what it was supposed to mean, a little irritating but I got through it! Other than that...a very good book!

Saburo Sakai’s incredible story has been quoted and referenced in many Pacific war books. I was very glad to get a chance to read about his exploits in his own words.This account was originally published in 1957 and was written a short time before that. The memories from the war and context of the stories were obviously still fresh in Sakai’s mind.I recommend this book to anyone with aviation or military history interests. It allows for a clear look at the war from the side of the Japanese.