Keisuke Miyagi

An Okinawan Japanese immigrant to the United States, Kesuke Miyagi learned karate originally from his father, who had been a fisherman.

Miyagi initially had a job working for the father of his best friend, Sato, who was also taught karate by Miyagi's father.

When Miyagi fell in love with a young woman named Yukie, who was arranged to marry Sato, Sato felt dishonored by this, and challenged Miyagi to a fight to the death.

To avoid the fight, Miyagi left Okinawa and emigrated to the United States.

After first arriving in Los Angeles, he attended the University of California Santa Barbara and was later interned in the Manzanar Japanese internment camp at the onset of World War II.

During this time, Miyagi joined the U.S. Army and received the Medal of Honor (he was a member of the 442nd Infantry Regiment, one of the most highly decorated regiment in the history of the United States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of Honor recipients).

While in the Army, he taught his Army commanding officer, Lt. Pierce, the art of karate.

During his service, Mrs. Miyagi and their son died in the Manzanar camp due to complications during childbirth, a loss that haunted him for decades.

What Miyagi did in the interim between the war and the first Karate Kid movie is not fully known.

At the start of the first movie, he works as a maintenance man in Daniel's apartment building.

In 1985, Miyagi learns that his father is dying, and returns to Okinawa, where he is reunited with Yukie. Sato relentlessly tries to goad Miyagi into a fight, but after Miyagi saves Sato from death during a typhoon, Sato renounces his hate and the two make peace.

In the third movie, he and Daniel begin a business of growing bonsai trees.

In the fourth movie, he mentors the recently orphaned granddaughter of his former commanding officer and teaches her to dispel her anger through the healing powers of the Martial Arts.

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