He was blinded shortly after birth when a midwife put overly-strong drops in his eyes.
When he was a year old, his parents divorced and his Mexican-American father went back to the United States.
His mother, who was Okinawan, remarried when he was still a child, and Tsutomu was sent to live with his maternal grandmother.
The song, "Sugar Cane Field" , was top three in classical CD sales in Japan in 2002.
The Fuji TV movie Mada Minu Chichi e, Haha e [まだ見ぬ父へ母へ] (To the Father and Mother I Still Haven't Seen) is a dramatization of his life.