What an interesting thread!
I firmly believe I was a fighter pilot in WW2, flying in the ETO (as mentioned by usetawaz further up in this thread). I am English in this life, but feel I was American in that life, which was probably my most recent PL. I have always had a great fascination with British fighter aircraft of the period, particularly the Spitfire and Hurricane, but was once told I was shot down and killed while flying a USAAF P-51 Mustang on an escort mission somewhere over Germany. This is not as anomalous as it may sound to some, as quite a number of Americans relinquished their U.S. citizenship at the outbreak of war with Germany in 1939 to go fly with the RAF. They were formed into all American units within the RAF known as "Eagle Squadrons." Around seven of these pilots flew Spitfires and Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain, and many more as the war progressed. Later, when the U.S. officially entered the war, most of the pilots transferred to the U.S.A.A.F. and, of course, would've flown the current American fighters, principally the P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt - and P-51 Mustang.
My own conviction of having lived that PL stems from intuition, rather than anything particularly substantive. I can recall being in night clubs as a young man, looking down from the mezzanine at the dancing throngs below, feeling a sense of detachment as I listened to the music, a slightly haughty notion that I was their guardian, yet intermingled with apprehension for what the following day would bring. It was as though my soul was remembering evenings spent in smoky London dance halls on the eve of a bomber escort mission. Maybe it was the effect of alcohol, but it felt very real, and I just somehow felt American - seems strange to say it now. For some reason, when I was at school, I often used to tell people I was actually American, even though I knew full well, of course, I was not!
I learned to fly in this life, taking my first flying lesson at age 19. I'd spent the previous six years in the ATC (Air Training Corps), a sort of junior branch of the RAF,and had flown in a variety of aircraft, including a De Haviland Chipmunk trainer - designed in 1946, and essentially WW2 technology. I soloed a glider at 18. It was the driving force in my life; flying felt so familiar and natural. I didn't so much learn to fly, as re-learn. I felt I already knew how.
So, regarding your own experience: have you felt any desire to actually fly again in this life, as a pilot in a small 'plane rather than simply as a passenger in an airliner? As for the speed question, you could've simply been trying to out dive your opponent in an effort to shake him off your tail (the fact that you were over an island while doing so may simply have been incidental). Due to its light construction, the Zero (and most other Japanese fighters) had significant performance advantages over contemporary U.S. Navy fighters, which were much heavier. However, one area where the Zero could be outperformed was in the dive, where its light weight vis-a-vis the American fighters worked against it. Your dive could therefore have been a wise evasive move! Unlike the Japanese pilot, you wouldn't have been concerned with pulling the wings off your 'plane as the speed wound up, but if you were going past VNE (velocity never exceed) speed, then that might explain why the airspeed was assuming such significance to you. Even the robustly built American carrier fighters could sustain structural damage during recoveries from dives beyond that speed.
