In this semi-autobiography, Sakai gives a different picture than the common stereotype about the Japanese during WWII. His family was descended from a long line of samurai, but following the abolition of the caste system the Sakai family was forced to adopt farming as a source of income. In Japanese culture, that was risky business, since criticism of superiors is seldom condoned. Posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Kelly became one of Americas earliest WWII aviation heroes. At the time he told me he had seen a woman with a child. His father died when he was eleven leaving his His wife died after the war, leaving two stepchildren. Sakai sustained grievous injuries from the return fire; he was struck in the head by a 7.62mm (0.3in) bullet, blinding him in the right eye and paralyzing the left side of his body. Sakai admitted that he was a poor student and, lacking other options, enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in 1933. After the war, Sakai retired from the Navy. After which he was assigned to the battleship Haruna as petty He became a Buddhist acolyte and vowed never again to kill anything that lived, even a mosquito. Military, attempting to locate a Japanese fighter pilot that spared He spotted a blonde woman and a young child through the window, along with other passengers. I needed a ship." - the code of the Samurai), which meant serving the lords of Saga About the same time, Sakai married his cousin Hatsuyo, who asked him for a dagger so she could kill herself if he fell in battle. I was a young boy (probably around 10 or document.write("