(Horst Faas / UPI 1967) 

Sawada, orphaned as a child, started his career by working in the camera shop of the military exchange at Misawa. His aspirations led him to Tokyo, where he got a job with UPI. In early 1965, he asked for, and was denied, a transfer to Vietnam. He used his next vacation to go to war. His photos from that trip convinced UPI to send him to Saigon. 

Within a year, his photo of a Vietnamese woman and her children fleeing across a river had won him a Pulitzer Prize. That was quickly followed by the Grand Prize of the World Press Photo contest, and the Overseas Press Club award. In 1966, he won the First and Second place awards in the World Press Photo contest, and a year later, won another Overseas Press Club Award. After his death in Cambodia, he received the Robert Capa Gold Medal of the Overseas Press Club.

Since his death, Sawada has become a legend in Japan.

(Requiem / Dirck Halstead)