was an ace fighter pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. Participating in many of the Pacific War battles and campaigns as a member of several units, Komachi was officially credited with having destroyed 18 enemy aircraft. Early life Sadamu Komachi was born in 1920 in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. He was the third son of a part-farmer, part-merchant family. In 1938, he enlisted into the navy and was trained for six months at the Kure Kaiheidan. He was then briefly stationed on the battleship Fusō before he applied and was accepted for the enlisted pilot training program. In June 1940, he graduated from the 49th class and was selected for a fighter specialisation, which took place at Ōmura Air Group on Kyushu. He first flew A6M Zero fighter in the autumn of 1940. He was reassigned to the aircraft carrier Akagi in October 1940 for carrier-based fighter specialization. In May 1941 he was assigned to the fighter squadron of the newly built aircraft carrier Shōkaku and in the autumn of the same year took part in naval exercises around Kyushu in preparation for the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Pacific War During the Attack on Pearl Harbor he was assigned to cover the carrier fleet as part of the combat air patrol (CAP) and therefore did not see any combat. During the Indian Ocean Raid, he was again assigned to cover the carrier fleet. There he saw air combat for the first time and had a dogfight with a British Hurricane fighter. While he managed to hit the enemy fighter, which started to emit smoke, he could not confirm the crash and was therefore not officially credited with the kill. In May 1942, Petty Officer Third Class Komachi participated in Operation MO that resulted in Battle of Coral Sea. He was assigned to CAP that was protecting the IJN carrier fleet. He first defended the carriers against the strike force from Yorktown and half an hour later against the strike force from Lexington. He was credited with shooting down one SBD Dauntless dive bomber and one F4F Wildcat fighter, and additionally with four shared probables. Since the flight deck of his carrier Shōkaku was damaged in the battle, he was forced to land on Zuikaku instead. After the battle, Shōkaku was sent to be repaired and therefore IJN 5th Carrier Division did not participate in the subsequent