Sakai was one of the Imperial Japanese Navy's top aces, with over 60 confirmed kills in air to air combat. He also had a charmed life which somehow saw him through the war despite the tremendous losses the IJN took. This memoir focuses mostly on the dogfights, with just enough life on the ground to provide context.

Sakai was born in an impoverished family of samurai origin, and wound up in the IJN in the 30s. He was one of 75 enlisted men selected for flight training, and one of 25 in that class to actually graduate, making him a true elite in the air. Superior individual training and superior aircraft let Sakai rack up the scores in fighting over China, and then in five glorious months posted to Lae dueling P-39s and P-40s over New Guinea. But while this was still the period of Japan's easy victories, there were cracks. The B-17 was a true flying fortress, fast and difficult to shoot down. And no matter how many planes Sakai and his squadron shot down, the Americans and Australians were always back up in the air the next day, bombing Lae and opening new bases.

Sakai avoided an assignment to the doomed Midway fleet, and was transferred to Rabaul for the Battle of Guadalcanal. His first encounter with American Navy pilots in F4F Wildcats was of a different order, and Sakai's Zero was shot full of holes, and he was heavily wounded. Somehow, he nursed his crippled plane back to Rabaul, and was sent home to Japan for surgery. He lost sight in one eye, a major disadvantage for a fighter pilot, and as the war turned against the Japanese, he returned to combat. He was posted to Iwo Jima months before the invasion, where his squadron of 80 Zeroes was decimated by the superior F6F Hellcat. He was ordered on a kamikaze mission, but failed to find the American fleet. Somewhat shockingly, Iwo Jima was barely defended at this point. If the Americans had invaded in May 1944 instead of fulfilling McArthur's promise to return the Philippines, they could have taken the island with minimal resistance.

He and the remaining Japanese aces were withdrawn to form interception squadrons, piloting Raiden and Shinden fighters against B-29 raids. These last-generation planes were heavily armed bomber destroyers, but they were vulnerable to escorting P-51s. And ultimately, sheer numbers and a switch to night bombing rendered Sakai and his comrades impotent.

Samurai! puts a human voice to an enemy that was dehumanized during the war, and the doomed heroism of Japan's defenders at the end of the war.