"Zero" by Masatke Okumiya and Jiro Horikoshie. WWII in the Pacific from the Japanese side. Published by Bantam 1957, republished 1991. A very unusual and illuminating take on a story we generally only hear from the US viewpoint.
Incredible stories of endurance - 9 hour missions including extensive combat by Zeros were normal.
It includes the unbelievable odyssey of Saburo Sakai who managed 11 hours in the air, attacking the US forces invading Guadalcanal. He was shot up by the rear gunners of a formation of Avengers , and flew 5 hours back to Rabaul blind in one eye, partially sighted in the other, blood gushing from numerous wounds, and his left arm completely immobilised. Had to take his right hand off the control column to try to staunch the wounds, damage to the a/c always rolled it inverted. Lost his maps because the windscreen had been destroyed, this also removed 5 our of his 6 bandages before he got the last one in place whilst his uncontrolled a/c was rolling around it's damaged wing in cloud. Landed at Rabaul,spent two years in hospital and survived the war.
The book is also fascinating because it describes how totally unprepared the Japanese military was for the scale of war they had embarked upon, and how unwilling most of them were to participate in it (but no punches are pulled and there are no excuses- the authors are frank about how exciting the series of early victories were, a tone of penitence and self criticism characterises the whole book and the short sightedness of Japanese High Command is laid bare).
I found it second hand in a market in London - ISBN is 0-553-28872-5. Essential read for anybody seriously interested in this bit of history.