# Japanese Ace Info Needed...



## lesofprimus (Aug 9, 2004)

Im trying to get the right info on the Japanese Top Aces... Ive been researchin some to try and put together some reliable info on these guys... I have several lists, couple books adn some reliable web based info so far...

I need some info on the scores of the top aces, Army and Navy... 
I know that the lists are kinda guesstimates..

Ill post some stats as I get them sorted..


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## toffi (Aug 9, 2004)

Japanese Army Top Aces:

Satoshi Anabuki 39
Isamu Sasaki 38
Yasuhiko Kuroe 28 + 2 in Mongolia
Goichi Sumino 27 (died 06.06.44)
Moritsugu Kanai 19 + 7 in Mongolia
Nakakazu Ozaki 19 (died 27.12.43)
Shogo Takeuchi 19 (died 21.12.43)
Bunichi Yamaguchi 19
Yojiro Obusa 19
Yukiyoshi Wakamatsu 18 (died 18.12.44)
Kazuo Shimizu 18
Keiji Takamiya 17 (died 01.02.44)
Kiyoshi Namai 16
Yukio Shimokawa 16
Mitsuo Ogura 16
Tomesaku Igarashi 16 (died 17.06.44)

Info took from "Aces of the sky" by Przemyslaw Skulski


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## lesofprimus (Aug 10, 2004)

One person has replied to this thread?????

ONE????

Comeon......


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## toffi (Aug 10, 2004)

http://www.pilotenbunker.de/Jagdflieger/Jaaf/Anabuki_Satoshi/anabuki.htm

Some facts about Anabuki.


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## the lancaster kicks ass (Aug 10, 2004)

i know little about aces....................


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## lesofprimus (Aug 11, 2004)

A small quote from Saburo SAkai...

"The decision to adopt the 20mm cannon on the Zero is generally believed to be an epoch making advance in fighter design. However, having used the cannon in combat, I had always held this weapon in doubt, despite its great destructive power. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I regarded the cannons in disfavor. "

"70% of my kills in fighter vs fighter combat was made with 7.7mm machine guns"

Saburo Sakai disliked the 20mm wing cannons because of the small ammunition load and the low initial velocity.

from the book Zero-sen no Shinjitsu , by Saburo Sakai


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## lesofprimus (Aug 12, 2004)

There are basically 2 versions of the Top Japanese Aces.... Confirmed and Claimed....

Confirmed...

Hiroyoshi Nishizawa 87
Tetsuzo Iwamoto 80 
Shoychi Sugita 70 
Saburo Sakai 64
Hiromishi Shinohara 58
Satoshi Anabuki 51
Takeo Okumura 50
Isamu Sasaki 38
Micuyoshi Tarui 38 
Toshiyo Ota 34
Kazuo Sugino 32 
Yashiki Kuroe 30
Shizuko Ishi 29
Kaneyoshi Muto 28 
Chiyoshi Saito 28 
Kenji Shimada 28 
Sadaaki Akamatsu 27
Isamu Hosono 27 
Yunishi Sasai 27
Rikia Shibata 27
Goychi Sumino 27 
Moricugu Kanai 26
Hidenori Macunaga 26
Shogo Saito 26
Goro Furugori 25 

Claimed...

Tetsuzo Iwamoto 202 Mitsubishi Zero 
Hiroyoshi Nishizawa 174 Mitsubishi Zero (carrier) 
Shoichi Sugita 120 Mitsubishi Zero 
Takeo Okumura 98 Zero 
Satoshi Anabuki 96 Mitsubishi Zero (carrier) 
Mitsuyoshi Tarui 76 Mitsubishi Zero 
Isamu Sasaki 75 Mitsubishi A6M2 
Shigeo Fukumoto 72 Mitsubishi Zero 
Inyo Endo 69 Mitsubishi A6M2 
Toshio Ota 68 Mitsubishi Zero 
Saburo Sakai 64 Mitsubishi Zero 
Kazuo Sugino 64 Mitsubishi A6M2 
Yasuhiko Kuroe 60 Mitsubishi Zero 
Junichi Sasai 60 Mitsubishi A6M2 
Hiromishi Shinohara 58 Mitsubishi Zero (carrier) 
Sadaaki Akamatsu 54 Mitsubishi Zero (carrier) 
Goro Furugori 50 Mitsubishi A6M2 
Kenji Okabe 50 Mitsubishi Zero 
Naoshi Kanno 48 "Tony" 
Ryoji Ohara 48 Mitsubishi Zero 
Yoshihiko Nakada 45 Mitsubishi Zero 
Yohei (johei) Hinoki 45 Mitsubishi Zero (carrier) 
Iyozo Fujita 42 "Tony" 
Sumi Kamito 40 Mitsubishi Zero 
Sadamu Komachi 40 Mitsubishi Zero (carrier)

These numbers are all basically speculative, as no real records exist... The confirmed victories are also slightly speculative, but it gives a semi-historic accounting of the Japanese aces....


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## Gemhorse (Sep 7, 2004)

I'm looking into it....[you seem to have it covered though...]


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## the lancaster kicks ass (Sep 8, 2004)

i'm suprised so few were carrier based.....................


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## lesofprimus (Sep 8, 2004)

I would assume the life expectancy of a Japanese Carrier Pilot was extremely short..


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## the lancaster kicks ass (Sep 9, 2004)

well not during the early stages.............


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## evangilder (Sep 19, 2004)

I admire your mettle to try and track down this info. I know getting info about Japanese Aces is tough! I am curious what they classified as a "confirmed" kill. I know initially, our fighter pilots got a credit for a claim. That was later changed to confirmed being one other person saw the kill. Later still, they went to 2 witnesses required for a confirmed kill. I am curious what the Japanese criteria was for confirmed. 

Of course, the enemy aces of those days had way more kills due to the fact that our guys could go home at some point. If the battle had been over our skies, I am sure we would have had many more high scoring aces.


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## lesofprimus (Sep 19, 2004)

"Confirmed" is a very sketchy word in the Japanese way of things... Some kills were verified by wingmen, others by their logbooks and diaries...

Keeping score, in the second half or so of the war, was looked down upon and discouraged by the Japanese Higher Authorities... It was more about unit cohesiveness than individual accomplishments...


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## evangilder (Sep 19, 2004)

Interesting about the keeping score part. I would think that by having your easily viewable scorecard on the side of your aircraft, it could be a bit of psychological warfare. It could also make you a target if you are jumped by a whole swarm though. But I would think that if I were a green fighter pilot and I suddenly saw the kill markers in double or triple rows, it would be intimidating.


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## lesofprimus (Sep 19, 2004)

You are right on all accounts... And that did happen.... It is said that some Japanese Aces would land after a sortie, and tell the crew chief, in front of the new and green pilots, "Add 3 marks", as to instill confidence in them that the Americans were easy prey...

Erich Hartmann had the black tulip on the nose of his -109, and Russian pilots were warned not to get into combat with him, but to flee and fight another day....

Didnt make much of a difference....

Also, Lidiya Litvjaková, questionably the Highest scoring Female Soviet Ace, was subsequently fingered out and destroyed because of artwork... She is reported to have been fond of wildflowers and often carried them in the cockpit with her during missions... She is also said to have painted a White Lily, sometimes mistaken for a Rose, on each side of the cockpit of her Yak, and for this reason became known as the "White Rose of Stalingrad..." The white rose on the fuselage became famous among the Germans, who knew better than to try to dogfight the familiar YaK-1, and usually tried to make good their escape before Litvyak got too close...

The Germans were aware of this, and her, and the order was posted to destroy "The White Rose"...

On August 1, she wearily pulled herself into the cockpit for the fourth and final time of the day... She had already claimed two kills in previous flights. Somehow she became separated from her flight... During the ensuing melee, she encountered eight Bf109s and was shot down and killed... They say the white rose on her Yak had drawn her killers to her...

Because of her notoriety amongst the Germans, eight Messerschmitt Me-109's concentrated solely on Lilya's YaK-1, and it took all eight of them to finally shoot down the "White Rose of Stalingrad"...


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## evangilder (Sep 19, 2004)

Wow! What an amazing story. I had heard about female aces in the Soviet AF, but had not heard any stories about them. The sad thing is that she probably could have beat those 8 pilots if one on one. Could you imagine having to fly 4 combat missions in one day?!


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## lesofprimus (Sep 19, 2004)

On top of that, they usually rearmed and refueled their own aircraft, in -20 degree weather... Frostbite was common....


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## the lancaster kicks ass (Sep 19, 2004)

> Could you imagine having to fly 4 combat missions in one day?!



sometimes you had to fly 6 a day during the BoB..................


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## ARS_Nishizawa (Sep 19, 2004)

Hi, Im new to this forum, so please forgive if anything I offer is redundant.
I too am engaged in a neverending search for info/sites/pictures of Japanese aces.
Please take a minute and click on the "What is ARS" page of our site as it will explain a bit more why a patriot American would get so engrossed in this subject.
In case a link to the site doesnt accompany my post, I'll post it here as well.

http://www.geocities.com/ars_squadron/ARSHomepage.html

Feel free to contact me by clicking on Nishizawa at the bottom of the homepage.

Thanks for your time. Phil


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## Gemhorse (Sep 24, 2004)

I have had a look at what I've got, and I have Ryuji Nagatsuka's book, 'I was a Kamikaze'...[first published 1973 in G.B. by Abelard-Schuman Ltd.] My copy is a New English Library 1974 paperback., and it's a good read.

There is also an interesting article in 'Aeroplane' magazine, January 2004, about Sadamu Komachi. He was instrumental in forming the 'Zero-sen Tojoin Kai' [Zero Fighter Pilots' Association] in 1974 with other IJNAF veterans. This was disbanded in 2002, and in it's place they formed the 'Zero No Kai' [Zero Association] with a membership spanning all generations with an interest in the contribution to aviation made by the timeless Zero. 

I don't have anything further, but a search on the Net may assist to find them, perhaps a good source of information....


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## lesofprimus (Sep 24, 2004)

The kills I posted up above are generally considered correct... There are some slight differences, 1 or 2, but those are pretty accurate above....


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## Gemhorse (Sep 27, 2004)

I was simply offering another source to assist in your research, I wasn't disputing the 'scoreboard'...


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## lesofprimus (Sep 27, 2004)

OK, thanks...


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## 1539ram (Oct 3, 2004)

I just "discovered" Lidiya Litvjaková a few days ago and have been gathering information about her from various websites (information varies a bit from site to site). 
Flying as wingman (wingwoman?) for her squadron leader, she shot down two German aircraft (Ju-88 Me-109) on her first or second (probably 2nd) mission. She is also believed to be the first woman anywhere to shoot down an enemy aircraft. She is officially credited with 12 "kills" (possibly one of these was an observation balloon) + 3 shared - Ju88s, Me109s Fw190s) but may have shot down as many as 20 or 22 German aircraft total. One of her kills was purportedly a high-ranking German ace, but I have yet to discover who that was. Prior to being shot down the final time, she was wounded once (reportedly refusing to be examined by doctors resuming flying) and shot down twice behind German lines - walking to safety once and being picked up by another fighter pilot the other time. She flew a total of 168 missions. Reportedly, the Germans were scared of her and if the they sighted her would radio other pilots so that they could avoid her. She was finally shot down and killed in 1943 before her 22nd birthday. Her body was not found until 1979 under the wind of her Yak-1. In 1990 she was made "Hero of the Soviet Union" by Gorbachov (I think that is the highest decoration that could be awarded) and Boris Yeltsin declared her a "Hero of Russia". When she was shot down being chased by eight Me-109s she may have shot down two of them or it may have been the day before that she did so. 
One site states that she was Jewish which, combined with her great combat skills, apparently infuriated the Germans. Two sites say that her father was executed as an "enemy of the state" while she was young.
Female flying regiments in the Soviet Union at that time were headed by Maria Raskova. At one time, before the war, I think, a plane was icing up and losing altitude in a mountainous area. Everything expendable had been dumped to reduce weight, but it was not quite enough. Maria calculated that the plane could make it to its destination with one less crew member's weight. She gave appropriate coordinates to other pilots and bailed out in Siberia in the dark. She was recued by hunters. The plane made it to its destination.
I am going to try to attach another photo of Lidiya (also know as "Lilya" for the white lilies painted on the sides of her aircraft).
Ron


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## Crazy (Oct 3, 2004)

I read about her awhile back... quite an impressive story!


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## cheddar cheese (Oct 3, 2004)

Wow sure is


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## Gemhorse (Oct 3, 2004)

Yeah, there's a book about 'The Women Pilots of Russia' around that I've read as well.... there were very courageous....


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## lesofprimus (Oct 3, 2004)

Ive posted a bunch of info on her and woman pilots before.... Good stuff, truely heroic.....


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## plan_D (Oct 3, 2004)

Just as heroic as men. Nothing more special.


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