I'm assuming you're referring to the 582nd Kokutai and since I can't resist the chance to try and dig up info I took a look. Unfortunately my initial efforts didn't net much information. I'm actually curious how much English language books have been written on the JAAF and JNAF. I did find a little blurb of info in one of Sakaida's books that he did for Osprey Publishing.
2nd - 582nd
Established 5/42 at Yokosuka Air Base, Japan. Active over eastern New Guinea and Guadalcanal. Reorganized as 582nd AG, it had claimed around 220 victories when the fighter unit was disbanded 7/43.
Sakaida also talkes about one pilot of note, Warrant Officer Kanichi Kashimura who gained some fame over China for returning from a mission missing half of the left wing of his Type 96 "Claude" fighter following a mid air collision with Curtiss Hawks. He would go on to score 8 victories before being sent to New Guinea and the 582nd in December 1942. He was lost in combat three months later on March 6th 1943, the conditions around it are somewhat murky.
His unit was escorting D3A dive bombers on a raid to the Russel Islands when they were attacked by P-39's from the 67th FS. The 67th did not claim and victories against the escorts having concentrated on the dive bombers, however two A6M's failed to return from the mission. There is one claim on this date from a Marine SBD gunner for VMSB-132 who claimed to have shot down a A6M 15 miles off the coast of the Russels, Kashimura may have been his victim, or it's possible he was one of many operational losses suffered by both sides in that theater.
Kashimura is generally recognized to have achieved 12 aerial victories.
