Memories of War Bring Peace at Last : Temple City History Buff Tracks Identity of WWII Fighter Pilots

Even after 43 years, an American World War II fighter pilot kept wondering about the Japanese plane he shot down near Shanghai in 1945--the one that flipped on its nose but didn’t burn.

Now the former pilot from Pennsylvania thinks he knows, thanks to Henry Sakaida of Temple City.

Sakaida believes he has discovered the identity of the Japanese pilot. “The guy lived!” Sakaida exulted when he finally put a big missing piece into his unique kind of puzzle.

Sakaida, who makes a hobby of pairing former combatants in the aerial dogfights of World War II, is eagerly awaiting final confirmation that the two men did indeed try to kill each other on that fateful January day.

Sakaida said he was delighted to take on the seemingly impossible task of tracking down the enemy pilot that Edward Bollen of Sewickley, Pa., only vaguely remembers shooting. He did so just because Bollen, whom he has never met, was curious about his long-ago foe.

Sakaida believes the man is Eiji Mitsui of Urawa, Japan, a one-time flying ace who not only can’t remember the date he was shot down but who has also changed his surname.

Admitting to “a most unusual hobby,” Sakaida, a Rosemead nurseryman, has been able to identify dozens of World War II combat pilots who played deadly games in the skies over Asia and the Pacific.

In many cases, one of the opponents was killed in combat or has since died.

But several have survived and they now see themselves as comrades with common bonds. Like others Sakaida has linked, Bollen said he hopes he and Mitsui will someday meet and exchange friendly greetings.

This case was particularly knotty for Sakaida, since in his flight report on Jan. 14, 1945, Bollen misidentified the type of plane he downed at Hankow ) Airfield. Most Japanese military records were destroyed after the war, Sakaida said.

Both Pilots Recall Incident

But both former pilots recall exactly the same experience at about the same time, when the Japanese plane, after it was strafed by Bollen’s gunshot, flipped over into some grass in an attempt at an emergency landing.

Sakaida worked on this puzzle for a month, putting pieces together through World War II flight reports he got from government archives and through friends in Japan who share his interest in history and fighter pilots.

In many other cases, he said, his research and investigation continued for years before he was able to establish combatants’ identities.

“That Henry is something else!” Bollen said from his home in Pennsylvania. “I’m personally interested in people I’ve fought against, but I never realized I would have the opportunity Henry Sakaida has given me. When he located Mr. Mitsui, he was so excited he called me in the middle of the day, and again that evening. Henry seems like a real neat guy.”

Sakaida, 38, was born in California long after World War II ended and has no personal connection with that period, nor is he a flier. During the war, his father, John, was assigned to Manzanar, a relocation camp for Japanese-Americans.His mother, Tokie, grew up in Japan. The family owns the Sakaida Nursery in Rosemead.

World War II Memorabilia

A graduate of Rosemead High School and San Jose State, Sakaida lives in Temple City with his wife, Donna, and their two little boys. One room in their home is devoted to World War II memorabilia, including shelves of books that fellow history buffs have written and sent him. Sakaida, in turn, has sent them copies of his 1983 book, “Winged Samurai,” which tells the story of Saburo Sakai, a Japanese flying ace.

Sakaida said his interest in contacting enemy pilots began in 1975 on a vacation in Japan. A former fighter pilot asked Sakaida to help him identify the American who had shot him down over Guam in 1944.

“After checking around, I found it wouldn’t be that difficult,” Sakaida said. Although he was unable to determine who the American pilot was, he found himself hooked on a hobby that promised great personal satisfaction.

Several years ago he wrote a small newsletter about fighter pilots. Since then, most requests for information and research come to him by word of mouth, mostly from former pilots who keep in touch with each other.

“The reward is the smile on people’s faces, you know?” he said. “If I got money out of it, that would just kind of ruin it. It’s just fun seeing these people so happy, especially the ones that meet and shake hands.”

In 1983, Sakaida arranged a meeting at his parents’ home between Sakai and an American adversary, Harold Jones, who battled in 1942 in the skies above Guadalcanal.

Sakaida has discovered that the fighter pilots he has researched have distinct traits, among them a total lack of animosity for their opponents.

“They were technicians--super soldiers,” Sakaida said. “So much training went into being a pilot that was a common bond. They liked to fly, the thrill of combat, and now they like to relive the excitement.

“It was a life-and-death game, not like ground action. They were kind of above it all. I’ve never had any problem with hatred--no animosity on either side. They all say war was a tragedy, they just had to do their jobs. Nothing personal.”

Bollen said: “This was not like the infantry, where you’re surrounded by dead bodies. Of course, during the war you have a hate on for the enemy because they’re shooting your buddies. But they weren’t necessarily wanting to kill any more than we were. And after the war, you wonder what it was all about and wish you knew about the ones who were still living. So then you want to meet and shake hands.”

Sakaida’s explanation for the reason he spends so much time matching up enemies who don’t know each other--most of whom he has never met and never will--is: “It’s just fun. I like history and I like to solve mysteries. It’s fascinating trying to track these people down.”

Bored Staying Home

He said he doesn’t know of any other Americans who provide this kind of research as a hobby, although he has some counterparts in Japan. Bollen said he knows of no one else who does what Sakaida does.

Although he has devoted most of his research to locating fighter pilots, Sakaida has delved into other unsolved mysteries. He does it in his spare time, he said, especially when he gets sick and is bored with having to stay home.

Stacks of files in his home contain several dozen “cases” he continues to work on. He lists about 35 he has completed. They range from the case of a Japanese nurse whose pleadings spared the life of a captured American pilot whose identity she never knew to that of athe widow of a man whose signature was on a Japanese battle flag.

Sakaida once worked off and on for four years to identify a New Zealand flier who parachuted from his plane and was rescued by Sakaida’s friend and neighbor, Minoru Fujita of Rosemead, who commanded a Japanese navy gunboat in 1945.

Fujita had been haunted by the memory of the injured pilot, who had asked Fujita to pray with him. After saying the Lord’s Prayer together, the pilot was taken to a hospital. In 1987, with Sakaida’s help, Fujita learned that the New Zealander had died two weeks later.

Found a Pilot’s Grave

So important was this information to Fujita that he located the pilot’s grave in New Caledonia, where he prayed for him again. He also met the victim’s brother in New Zealand.

In 1979 Sakaida bought a World War II-era Japanese life jacket--standard equipment for fliers--and eight years later found the original owner. The Japanese pilot had made a crash-landing near Shanghai, discarded his possessions--including the jacket--and hid in the mountains for three days before being rescued. The life jacket was apparently picked up by a native and ended up in the United States, where Sakaida bought it from a collector for $250. In 1987, Sakaida delivered the jacket to the flier’s commanding officer, who was visiting in Los Angeles. The flier and jacket were subsequently reunited.

“He was so happy and overcome, he cried,” Sakaida said.

“I’m really nostalgic. I keep in contact with a lot of people--buddy-buddies, you might say.”

Once he found a 1923 yearbook from Polytechnic High School in Long Beach and identified the original owner, who he discovered had died in the 1950s. Then he picked out the prettiest girl in the graduating class and tracked her down. She is an 82-year-old who lives in Newport Beach, “and she was just flabbergasted when I called,” he said.

Now, Sakaida said, his favorite mystery is that of a Japanese combat pilot who came upon a lone, damaged American Hellcat over the Marshall Islands. The Japanese pilot, Isamu Miyazaki, said the American had “such a pitiful expression on his face, I didn’t have the heart to shoot him down,” according to Sakaida.

“So now Miyazaki wants to know if the American made it back safely, and if he lived,” Sakaida said. “This is a good one. I expect to find out.”