Empire of the Sun

Empire of the Sun is a 1987 film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel by James Ballard. It tells the story of a young boy, Jamie Graham, who lives in Shanghai with his wealthy parents at the time of the Japanese invasion of 1941. Jamie is remanded to an internment camp near Soochow Creek outside of Shanghai, which lies near a Japanese air base. Jamie sees the planes taking off and landing, a fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

P-51 Mustang
Called the "Cadillac of the sky" by Jamie, a small squadron attacks and destroys the airbase near Jamie's prison camp near the end of the film. Overcome with joy, Jamie watches them from the top of a bombed out building and cheers them on when one of the pilots waves to him.

A6M Zero
The principle planes that operate at the nearby airbase. One morning Jamie witnesses a kamikaze ritual, right before the base is attacked by the squad of P-51s. When he arrives at the camp four years earlier, he is able to touch one of them and is nearly shot by Sergeant Nagata, who later becomes administrator of the camp. Nagata stops when three pilots approach; Jamie salutes them & they return the salute.