Yanagiya was caught in the tail position by two F4Fs and received bursts of gunfire. The majority of his right hand had been shot off and lost with the top of the control stick with only his little finger remaining attached to his wrist. His right leg had been shot and was bleeding. He thereafter controlled the plane with his left hand and flew back to IJN Munda airstrip at New Georgia Island. During the return flight, with his right leather boot filling with blood from his leg wound and near fainting from the blood loss, he repeatedly shouted in a loud voice to keep himself awake in the cockpit. He was unable to operate levers on the starboard side of the cockpit to unload flaps or landing gears yet he managed to safely make a slide landing into the airstrip. Imperial Japanese Marine soldiers took him out of the cockpit and a doctor operated immediately, cutting the remainder of his right hand off at the wrist.