Robert Sand
Robert Sand is the novel's protagonist. He earns the nickname Black Samurai because he is the first Black person to be chosen by Master Konuma for samurai training. Sand's samurai journey begins while he is a US Army GI enjoying a leave in Tokyo and he intervenes when other GIs are harassing Konuma. Master Konuma repays Sand’s selflessness in trying to come to his aid by negotiating his release from service. For the next seven years, Sand trains diligently, learning the ways of the samurai as well as almost every conceivable means of defense against almost every conceivable means of attack. When Colonel Tolstoy raids the samurai houses, killing Konuma and every samurai except Sand, Sand sets out to avenge Konuma's death and rescue his granddaughter, Toki. Throughout the novel, Sand showcases his strength and cunning as he dispatches every enemy, each kill and incapacitation bringing him closer to his goal.
Colonel Leo Dimitri Tolstoy
Colonel Tolstoy is a white American former Army colonel responsible for the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam. After a reprimand from the Army, the blood-thirsty colonel compiles a team of international terrorists and plots a massacre of an entire American town to revenge himself on the United States. To fund his elaborate and expensive plan, Tolstoy sells heroin in bulk, transporting himself and his drugs with stolen US Army planes. Before he carries out his atrocity in Shown, New York, Tolstoy wants to kidnap several women to be killed during the massacre: Toki Jakata Bi, Mary Clarke, and the wife of a Chinese ambassador. On the night he kidnaps Toki, Tolstoy raids the samurai houses of Master Konuma, knowing Konuma and the Black Samurai will stop at nothing to get Toki back. As Tolstoy proceeds with his plan, Sand is never too far behind. The two finally meet at Tolstoy's hidden airfield in Canada, where Sand kills Tolstoy by throwing his samurai blade at Tolstoy's throat.
William Baron Clarke
William Baron Clarke is a former two-term US President who employs Sand to carry out targeted assassinations. Clarke is a towering Texan with an oversized personality to match, and he has a history of making as many enemies as friends. A rich businessman, Clarke uses his money and influence to maintain world order and punish people in power who he knows to be dangerous. With contacts around the globe, Clarke learns of the Black Samurai and enlists him. While Sand takes care of dangerous people using combat, Clarke provides the money, weapons, fake passports, and connections Sand needs to reach his targets.
Master Konuma
Master Konuma, also referred to in the book as Mr. Konuma and Sensei, is an elderly Japanese samurai and samurai teacher. In 1966, Sand sees American GIs harassing Konuma on the street and is shot while intervening; Konuma surprises Sand by using martial arts to disarm the GIs. He then arranges for Sand's discharge from the US Army so he can train Sand to be a samurai, believing Sand possesses a special courage. During Sand's training, Sensei observes from a distance and rarely speaks directly to Sand. However, he tells Sand that he reminds him of a legendary samurai, Sandayu. When Tolstoy's raiders murder Konuma, Sand resolves to avenge his master's death by using the skills and principles Konuma ingrained in him.
Toki Jakata Bi
Toki is the twenty-two-year-old granddaughter of Master Konuma and the wife of a high-profile Vietnamese politician. At the beginning of the novel, Tolstoy kidnaps Toki as revenge against the Vietnamese officials responsible for holding him accountable for the massacres he perpetrated. Sand endeavors to rescue Toki before Tolstoy's planned massacre of an American town, during which time she will also be killed. Midway through the novel, it is revealed that Sand is in love with Toki, who reciprocated his feelings and consummated their relationship. Although Sand succeeds in rescuing Toki from Tolstoy at the novel's climax, the book ends with Sand watching her return to her husband. Sand tells Clarke and Pines that he never told her he loved her when he should have, and now she is committed to an honorable man.
St. Paul Braeden
Braeden is Tolstoy's second-in-command. A tall and imposing Black American, Braeden was a GI who deserted the US Army to fight on the side of the Viet Cong for three years. Braeden is eager to massacre an American town, in part because of the money Tolstoy is offering him, and in part because he wants to "wast[e] some white asses." When Sand has Braeden in a choke hold, Braeden tries to ask for help on the grounds that they are both Black. Sand knows Braeden led the slaughter of his samurai brothers, and refuses. Braeden's last appearance in the book is when Sand hands him off to Pines and leaves in a helicopter.
Frank Pines
Pines is a Secret Service agent who works for Clarke and is described as a "polite Iowa farm boy." In New York, Pines assists Sand in sabotaging Braeden's attempted kidnapping of the Chinese ambassador's wife. Pines later arrives with Clarke at the Canadian airfield where Tolstoy and his men have been hiding. Once there, Pines and other Secret Service men help Sand kill Tolstoy and rescue Toki.
Mary Clarke
Mary is the college-age daughter of William Clarke. On vacation in Paris with two friends, Mary is kidnapped by James Winters at Tolstoy's command. While Winters hopes to kill Mary during the massacre of Shown, Sand rescues her soon after her kidnapping. Mary later kisses Sand on the lips in front of her father to thank him.
Coleman Near
Coleman Near is a black-market arms dealer who lives in Paris. Near sells weaponry and trucks to Tolstoy so he can carry out his massacre. Unbeknownst to Tolstoy, Near is working with Sand and Clarke. Near tries to keep his cool while negotiating with the terrorists, but Tolstoy eventually clues in that Near is double-crossing him. Near dies of grenade-inflicted wounds after a confrontation with Tolstoy and his men in the barn where he was storing his munitions.
James Devlin Winters
James Winters is an Irish Republican Army member in Tolstoy's employ. He is eager to get his revenge against the US by massacring a town because crooked American cops killed his wife in front of him during a gun-buying deal in New York. Described as small and thin, Winters uses the memory of his wife's murder to fuel his cruelty. Tolstoy tasks Winters with kidnapping Mary Clarke in Paris, but Sand thwarts his attempt. Winters dies when Sand kicks him into a plate-glass window.
