Fighter pilot of the Imperial Japanese Navy Shoichi Sugita (1924 – April 15, 1945) in the Pacific theater of operations during World War II.
Shoichi Sugita is one of the highest scoring Japanese pilots in World War II.
He fought the first air battle on December 01, 1943. He was one of the pilots escorting Admiral Yamamoto when his plane was shot down by American fighters.
On April 15, 1945, this Japanese pilot was attacked and shot down by an American F6F Hellcat fighter while taking off from the Kanoya airfield.
According to official data, he had 70 downed enemy aircraft personally and 40 in the group.
The photo source: commons.wikimedia.org.
Location: Japan
Photo time: 1945