[1] Sawada was the third son of a farmer in what is now the Kamobe neighborhood of the city of Kochi, Kōchi Prefecture.

After attending military preparatory schools in Kōchi and Hiroshima, he graduated from the 18th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1905, serving as a junior officer in an artillery regiment.

He returned to teach at the Staff College from March 1933, and was then assigned as chief-of-staff of the Guards Artillery Division.

After the surrender of Japan, Sawada was arrested by the American occupation authorities and charged with command responsibility for war crimes in conjunction with the execution of surviving airmen of the Doolittle raid who had been captured in China.

He was found guilty by the US Military Commission in Shanghai and was sentenced to five years in prison with hard labor.