Saburo Sakai was one of the most skilled fighter pilots of World War II. In 1942, when at the controls of his Mitsubishi A6M Zero (known to the Americans as the Zeke), a highly maneuverable, fast and long-ranged fighter, he reputedly shot down up to sixty American aircraft in a little more than nine months. As a member the Japanese navy, he could also count on flying with some of the best-trained and most experienced pilots to be found anywhere in the world. Two of his closest friends were Toshia Oto and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, both among Japan's other legendary fighter aces. On August 8, 1942, however, Sakai's luck ran out. Flying out of the famous Japanese base in Rabaul, he was part of a mission sent to attack American forces which had just appeared off the island of Guadalcanal. As a round trip of 1,300 miles, this was an extremely long-range flight, even by the standards of the Zero. When Sakai reached Guadalcanal, he ended up attacking a large force of new American Avenger torpedo bombers. The tail gunner of one shattered Sakai's cockpit, causing an explosion of glass and metal which ripped into his face and body.

Remarkably, Sakai made it back to a Japanese airstrip, but was so severely wounded that he was sent home. He lost the sight in one of his eyes, so when he felt strong enough to resume duty, he was sent to train the ever-growing number of pilots that modern war demanded from Japan. By the summer of 1944, however, he felt he could no longer serve in a non-combat capacity. When it was clear that the United States was going to assault the Mariana Islands, which many Japanese realized was the linchpin of their home defense, Sakai, even with only one good eye, persuaded his superiors to allow him to return to action. Along with his good friend Nishizawa, he was charged with leading a force of thirty aircraft from the Japanese mainland to the island of Iwo Jima, from where they would be in range of Saipan and Tinian.