Like 100 metre freestyle gold medal winner Yasuji Miyazaki Tatsugo Kawaishi was also a law student at Keio University. From 1933-35 he was a swimming instructor with the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy. Kawaishi subsequently worked for a large energy supplier living in Minoh near Osaka. He fought in the Second Sino-Japanese War for the Imperial Army and, after working for his former company for a brief time, was reactivated in 1944 during World War II. He was killed in the battle for Iwo Jima on March 1945 and was posthumously promoted to the rank of Captain.