Enlisted pilots of the Tainan Kokutai pose at Lae in June 1942. Several of these aviators would be among the top Japanese aces, including Toshio Ōta (middle row, far left), Saburo Sakai (seated next to Ōta, second from the left) and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa (standing to the far left). These pilots fought against Allied fighter pilots during the Battle of Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands campaign.