The Falcon Fighters (1969)

In the days leading up to the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937, head flight instructor Kato Tateo of the Imperial Japanese Army-Air Corps trains new crop of volunteers from the Amry's Infantry to become Japan's next generation of fighter pilots. Flying early biplane's, Kato will train both friend and future foe alike. But as war in China breaks out, Kato (played by Makoto Sato) will take his untested men flying antiquated planes into aerial combat against the Chinese Air Force who is now headed by Lt. Cho (played by Jun Fujimaki) who Kato had both earlier befriended and personally trained. While Kato's squadron achieves air superiority over China, it comes at a high price in men to which each loss carries a heavy burden that he alone must bear. As the war progresses into the Second World War, Kato must now battle an ever advancing array of deadlier newer enemies flying ever more modern fighter planes. In a time when "To Serve was to Die," Kato will rise through the ranks and defy the military logic of the day of an indifferent Army military brass to push for the development and production of the Peregrine Falcon in an effort to arm Japan's pilots with modern fighter planes that would give his men a fighting chance of survival in the deadly aerial combat.