Saburō Sakai
The attacking planes did not see this, and initially were credited only with a probable "kill", shared jointly by Toyoda, Yamagami, Kikuchi, Nozawa, and Izumi. Saburō Sakai, who has often been credited with destroying this aircraft, was indeed a flight () leader engaged in this fight with the bomber, but he and his two wingmen do not appear to have been given official credit for its dispatch.