Sakai states in his memoir "Samurai!" that, contrae to popular belief, that they did not attempt to machine-gun the survivors as they hung in their cutes. He says it was pure propaganda.. in which I believe Sakai in his statements. I just got past this part in his memoirs, in which im reading. I believe if they attempted to machine-gun them in their parachutes.. they would have succeded in killing them because of their superior training.
These are my beliefs but I could be wrong (when is a 17 year old ever right anyways?
).
Tony