Fictional Biography
An Okinawan Japanese immigrant to the United States, Keisuke 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. There is no discrepancy between The Karate Kid and Karate Kid, Part II, in reference to Miyagi having a previous wife that dies in childbirth along with an unborn child, as he met his wife, with whom he was going to have a child, in Hawaii after he left Okinawa.
After leaving Los Angeles he attended the University of California Santa Barbara, was interned in the Manzanar Japanese internment camp in California during World War II. During this time, Miyagi joined the U.S. Army and received the Medal of Honor (he was a member of the real and much-storied 442nd Infantry Regiment, in fact the most highly decorated regiment in the history of the United States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of Honor recipients). He also taught his former Army commanding officer, Lt. Pierce. During his service, Mrs. Miyagi and their son died in the Manzanar camp due to complications during childbirth, a loss that has been haunting him for decades.
What Miyagi did in the interim between the war and the first movie is not revealed in much detail. At the start of the first movie, he works as a maintenance man in Daniel's apartment building.
In 1985, Miyagi learns 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.
Read more about this topic: Keisuke Miyagi
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