WW2 Japanese Naval Aviator and Ace. He was the oldest of seven children and grew up in Tango-cho, north of Kyoto. He volunteered for fighter pilot school in 1941 at the incredible age of 16. He became a Zero pilot and ace who was credited with 19 kills and suffered 17 wounds as a Japanese Naval aviator in WW2. Kawato was a petty officer 3rd class, the equivalent of a corporal or buck sergeant in U.S. Army service. He was a member of Air Group 253. He recounted in his autobiography how he was the pilot that shot down Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington. While originally believed to be an accurate claim, many historians feel he was in error after verifying coordinates and data from flight logs and other records. Kawato himself was shot down five times. His fifth and final time near was New Britain Island. Having successfully delivered a model 21 bomb mid-stern to an Australian destroyer, he returned to drop a second from his specially modified two-passenger Zero. On his third pass, his plane received crippling anti-aircraft fire that seriously damaged its structural integrity and killed his communications operator. Undeterred, he chose to fly his Zero into the side of the destroyer, Kamikaze style. With just 150 feet to his target, the intense gunfire from the destroyer tore the wing off and sent him full-throttle into the sea. Left for dead, he spent three days floating in the open ocean before finally washing up on the south side of New Britain Island. For two months, he subsisted on not much more than snails and small lizards (that had been sun-dried), coconuts, and sweet potatoes taken from the fields of native farmers. Once captured, he was treated by doctors and then delivered to a P.O.W. camp in Australia. In the meantime, he had been declared dead by the Japanese military, and a funeral was held. Three and a half years after he left for war, he returned home and visited the very altar where his own funeral services had been held. Kawato was just 20 years old. It took years to re-establish his condition in the legal record to that of a living person. After the war, Kawato went on to be a pilot for Japan Airlines. In 1976, after years of planning and at considerable personal expense, he set out to set the single-engine non-stop trans-Pacific flying record. Flying solo in a single-engine Piper Comanche, Kawato flew nonstop from Japan to Crescent City, California, a trip in excess of 5000 miles and 35 hours of flying time. On arriving, he was presented with numerous awards, including a Resolution of Honor from the California State Assembly. In 1978, two years after moving to California, he published his own account of his wartime experiences, which he titled, "Bye Bye Black Sheep", which he often personally autographed at public appearances. He later moved to the Seattle area. He lived a quiet life in a little cottage tucked away in a quaint Federal Way neighborhood and passed away at the age of 76 of intestinal cancer.