A native of Yamagata prefecture in northern Japan, Sakaibara was a graduate of the 46th class of the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy in 1918, placing 36th in a class of 124. He served his midshipman tour on the cruiserTokiwa, and after his commission as an ensign, was assigned to Hirado. He later served on the destroyerKaba and battleshipMutsu. As a sub-lieutenant, he served on the Iwate and after his promotion to lieutenant on December 1, 1924, he was assigned to the Hiei, Yura, and Sendai. He was chief gunnery officer on the Tatsuta. Promoted to lieutenant commander in 1930, he served as chief gunnery officer on Takao in 1934, followed by Mutsu in 1935. He was executive officer on Chikuma in 1939. After his promotion to captain in 1940, he served in a number of staff positions. After the Battle of Wake Island on December 23, 1941, Sakaibara was appointed the garrison commander of the Japanese occupation force. Fearing an imminent attempt by American forces to retake the island, Sakaibara put the captured American prisoners of war to work building a series of bunkers and fortifications in preparation for a suspected amphibious invasion. On October 5, 1943, aircraft from USS Yorktown bombed Wake Island. Two days later, fearing an imminent invasion, Sakaibara ordered the execution of the 98 civilian prisoners remaining on Wake Island. They were taken to the northern end of the island, blindfolded and machine-gunned. One prisoner escaped, carved a message into a rock about the incident but was then recaptured and personally beheaded by Sakaibara. However, despite the massive assembly, the attack never came. Instead the United States Navy established a submarine blockade, causing the Japanese garrison to starve. United States forces bombed the island periodically from 1942 until Japan's surrender in 1945. Sakaibara was promoted to rear admiral a year later, on October 15, 1944. The Japanese garrison on Wake Island formally surrendered to the United States on September 4, 1945. After the war, Sakaibara was taken into custody by the American occupation authorities, extradited to Guam, and sentenced to death by a military tribunal for war crimes in connection with his actions on Wake Island. He was hanged on June 18, 1947. Until the end, he maintained, "I think my trial was entirely unfair and the proceeding unfair, and the sentence too harsh, but I obey with pleasure."
