Masatake Okumiya, who began his career as a staff officer under Admiral Yamamoto, and Jiro Horikoshi, a leading Japanese aircraft designer, paint a fascinating picture of the Japanese air force's performance in the Pacific during World War II. The narrative contains memories and numerous testimonies of famous eyewitnesses about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the memoirs of air ace Saburo Sakai, Vice Admiral Ugaki and the diaries of Jiro Horikoshi about the last days of the war.