Back in the nineties, when I wrote for and led a few computer gaming publications, I was offered the chance by Microsoft to meet none other than Saburo Sakai, the leading Japanese naval ace during World War II. In those days, Microsoft was heavily into flight simulations, so getting the opportunity to meet and possibly discuss the exploits of Sakai was a dream come true. A few years earlier, Microsoft was able to gather together several surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen – the famed all-black squadron that had served in the MTO and, through their own efforts, ably demonstrated to the world that they had the same abilities as white pilots in dealing with the cream of the German Luftwaffe.
By 2000, Sakai was already getting on in years, so I knew the trip for him from the Japanese home islands to the US Pacific Northwest was going to be arduous at best. Nonetheless, I boned up on his military career, and set about putting together a list of questions I would pose to him to better gauge his interest in flight simulations as well recount his wartime record in the South Pacific. A few days before I was scheduled to fly out to Seattle, however, Microsoft’s public relations point person called to indicate that Sakai had suffered a fatal heart attack while still in Japan, thus ending my chance to meet the man that had sent so many of my fellow countrymen down in flames fighting against the Japanese empire.
Yesterday, when I learned that Hobby Master planned on replicating his Zero, it gave me a moment’s pause as I reflected on the missed opportunity I was initially given and how a person of his standing could so easily get swept up over the course of time and the pages of history. So, from a personal standpoint, I just want to stress how important it is to remember the man as well as the machine we crave to collect in this wonderful hobby of ours.