Yes Phantom, there has been a series of books which mentioned Sakakida and the problem with the series was that they each and all relied upon earlier books as verification, when the earlier books were, in fact and truth, nothing other than another re-telling of the Legend told in an earlier work. All along the way, no one actually tested the legend. None of these authors actually ran down the truth, they just quoted earlier authors, and trusted that the official thesis was correct.
This does get to be a problem, then, when someone comes along unexpectedly, and is able to track down some of the WWII actors, and some of the facts. There's a few I can briefly illustrate.
Sakakida says he gave up his seat on the last plane out of Corregidor to Clarence Yamagata to get off Corregidor in April 1942. How selfless is that! But these days, one can get access to MacArthur's library and what do they find? MacArthur’s orders from Australia on who to remove from Corregidor clearly state to get Yamagata out; not Sakakida.
Sakakida says he got word of the "Take" Convoy to MacArthur by his guerrilla friends in May 1944. How heroic! Until someone comes along with knowledge of the sequence in which radios were delivered into the Philippines, and who says "Nobody had a radio on Luzon until June-July 1944 when Anderson and Lapham get theirs AFTER Smith sets up shop on Samar."
It's things like these that trip up those who come along and re-tell a complex story in more simple terms. If they are not going to do original research, or test the research, they are left with not much choice but to read the earlier books, paraphrase the "official thesis" and then move along, leaving a big bibliography.
Many of us who have read in the area will recall who Kim Philby was, and perhaps it is that Sakakida might have liked to see himself as a Philby operating deep in the heart of Japanese held Manila. The problem with this scenario, is that Sakakida was just a very talented liar (he's a spy, it his job) who used his wits to stay alive. Philby, Burgess, Maclean, Blunt had contrary political beliefs - Sakakida just had his skin to look after. While Japan was winning, he wore their uniform, and was a traitor. When they lost, he headed for the hills - literally. To tell too many details would have only tripped him up. So his entire output as a spy has never surfaced, for it wasn't there to surface. "Oh, I translated in such a way as to save people, then!"
Yes, the Kempaitai were such sticklers for fair trials and the Rule of Law, I'm sure. Pull the other one, Richard, it plays Jingle Bells.
"So Mr. Sakakida, you say that you were the mastermind of the Muntinglupa breakout of August 1944 and that you were actually physically present. We have in the next room someone who was involved that, and he says he was there in August and you weren't, and that the thing was spontaneous."
That's the sort of nightmare a spy must really dread, the chance of being tripped up in the details. Better wait until you are about to die of old age to tell the story. No one will be around to "be" in the next room.
Or so he thought.
I am a little sorry for authors who retell such stories in their books. They parrot the official thesis, assuming it to be correct, safe for them to use, for after all it is the official truth, right? In the end, it is sold as history but instead comes out reading like a dime action comic - or as you have said, "preposterous at best." Then some basterd like Jurika comes along, who is as comfortable in Tagalog as he is in English, and who is connected within the circles of the Filipino guerillas. "Who'd have thunk it?" as they say in the dime novels.
What they don't realize is that the contrary scenario would make, by far, a more interesting tale. Uncovering the official thesis is a true detective story. Imagine the intellectual and dramatic complexity of Sakakida as a
fictional hero! An opportunist, who realizes that he cannot survive each day except by deception. He thinks he's deceiving the Japanese, but actually he's deceived himself! He has become a traitor. with the US coming back, he realizes that he's going to have to continue in a life of deception, to rid himself of the taint of the Japanese uniform he's been wearing! How to get back from this precipice? And then what? To spend your life as an intelligence agent! To influence things, make sure that certain documents remain classified - or go missing. And then to think you have done it so well, to tell the cover story to an uncritical biographer! What a scenario! Enough for a fresh Flashman series!
I must apologise to you, Ghost Who Walks, for going off on these tangents of imagination.
I am sure the rest of Mr. M's book is perfectly fine. Pity that he found himself stuck with the role of apologist for the official thesis on Sakakida. Does he realize that, sticking to this, he may be distancing himself from the very people we all admire, the able and competent historians and veterans, both American and Filipino.
I really do want this to be my last word in the matter.