HISTORY OF AMERICAN MARTIAL ARTS

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For all the University Game competition, financial help was received from the USJF. Without this national governing body, U.S. judo would have had a far greater struggle; and certainly, without its financial aid, competitors would never have been able to compete internationally. (YOSH UCHIDA)

The organized judo program in the U.S. Armed Forces began in the Air Force in 1950 when Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, the commander-in-chief of the Strategic Air Command, USAF, directed the setting up of a model physical conditioning unit at Offutt AFB, Neb. In 1951 similar conditioning units were set up at other SAC bases. Gen. LeMay appointed Emilio ("Mel") Bruno, a former National AAU Wrestling Champion and Th-degree in judo, to direct the program. At this time, civilian judo instructors staffed six SAC bases; the rest had physical conditioning units, but no judo instructors. In direct charge of the judo and conditioning program for SAC was Gen. Thomas Power, later honorary chairman of the National AAU Judo Committee.

Because of an obvious deficiency of instructors, Power sent two classes of airmen (24 men) to the Kodokan Institute in Tokyo in 1952 for several weeks training. This was the first such training for any Armed Forces group.

Air Force judo received added impetus in 1953 when ten experts from Japan, six in judo, three in karate, and one in aikido, gave demonstrations at over 70 U.S. Air Force Bases over a three-month period. The purpose of this tour was to train judo instructors and combat crews and to give exhibitions on and off base. Many civilian judo clubs had their first visit from high-ranking judo teachers as a result of this tour. One of the highlights of the tour was a demonstration at the White House on July 22. The year 1953 was also marked by the first National AAU Judo tournament held at San Jose State College. A SAC team participated in these first Nationals.

In 1954, the first SAC Judo Tournament was held at Offutt AFB the Grand Champion was Airman Morris Curtis. Also in 1954, 26 SAC Air Police went to the Kodokan to study judo fourteen weeks. The curriculum consisted of police tactics, aikido, karate and, of course, judo. Two SAC judoists advanced to the last few rounds in the 1954 AAU National Championships at Kezar Stadium, San Francisco. The 12-man SAC team won 29 rounds and lost 19 but was unable to place a man. Staff Sgt. Ed Maley, SAC, a member of the 1955 SAC Judo Team, placed in the 1955 AAU National championships-third in the 150-lb division. The Air Research and Development Command, USAD (ARDC), also entered a team in 1955, after only a year of competition, and A/1 C Vern Raab won an unofficial fourth place in the heavyweight division.

The year 1954 also brought a 10-man AAU-Air Force team visit to six Japanese cities to compete in 16 contests. Five members of the team were Air Force, and the most successful member of the team was to be heard from many times in the future. This man, Staff Sgt. George Harris, won all of his 16 contests.

Seventy men from SAC and ARDC journeyed to the Kodokan in 1955 for instruction. Under the guidance of Gen. Power, who had taken over as ARDC Commander, the SAC-ARDC Judo Association was formed and received recognition from the Kodokan in 1956. Emilio Bruno was elected president, and the association was permitted to grant judo rank. This was the first and only Armed Forces judo association to be so recognized by the Kodokan. SAC and ARDC sent 280 Air Policemen for four-week classes at the Kodokan during 1956.

Again in 1956, the Air Force placed one man in the national AAU Judo Tournament at Seattle. Returning from his successful Japanese tour, George Harris, then a 2nd dan, placed third in the heavyweight division.

In 1957, after only five years in judo, Staff Sgt. George Harris won the Grand Championship in the National AAU Judo Championships in Hawaii. Harris was first in the heavyweight division; sweeping the division with him were A/1 C Lenwood Williams in second place and A/2C Ed Mede, third. The Air Force also took the National 5-Man Team Championship for the first time.

Winners of the SAC and ARDC tournaments represented the Air Force in the AAU tournaments on April 13 and 14 in Chicago. Twelve Air Force judoists participated, with George Harris successfully defending his Grand Championship, and the Air Force team captured the National 5-Man Team Championship for the second year in a row. Due to the great power of southern California in the lower weight divisions, the Air Force was unable to win the overall team championship.

The SAC Judo Team, consisting of L. Williams, E. Mede, G. Harris, J. Reid, R. Moxley, and M. O'Connor (trainer) was designated as the U.S. Pan-American Judo Team in 1958. Team members won first and fourth in the 3rd dan category (Harris and Williams), third in the 2nd dan (Reid), and second in the 1st dan (Mede). In the fall of 1958, George Harris and Ed Mede represented the U.S. in the 2nd World Tournament, held in Tokyo. Harris's three wins before losing to Sone, a Japanese 5th degree, placed him in a tie for fifth place along with the four other defeated quarter finalists. As a result of this fine record, George Harris was promoted to 4th degree in judo, the first Armed Forces man to be so honored. (LT AGULLA GIBBS DEBRELL)

The Governance of U.S. Judo The development of a national governing body for U.S. judo started in 1952, through the efforts of Dr. Henry A. Stone, Maj. Draeger, and others. At that time there was no national authority to give guidance to local judo communities and insure the logical and orderly development of judo as a sport. The Amateur Judo Association was a first attempt at establishing a national governing structure. Dr. Stone served as the first president. Authority to grant the most coveted Kodokan judo rank was assumed by the national organization. High ranking individuals were no longer permitted to grant promotions independently. The growth of local judo organizations was encouraged, promotion privileges were granted to yudanshakais,
and a national communications avenue was opened.

Until the early 1960s, judo in the U.S. had grown in a haphazard, somewhat informal fashion. Most leaders tended to be purists, preferring the security and recognition offered by their local influence. Judo was structured strictly on rank, and those without the proper credentials were considered outsiders. It was judo rank, that coveted mantle of recognition, which for so many years retarded the formation of a strong, responsive national organization. As judo spread across the nation, false claims to rank and promotions were commonplace, and the existing organization was powerless to take action. Those leaders who had feared a national organization and popularization of judo in time became the strongest voices for change.

The national organization was renamed the Judo Black Belt Federation. President Yosh Uchida (1960-61) delegated the task of laying the groundwork for reorganization to Donald Pohl, a relatively unknown 1st dan from Detroit. Pohl, the executive secretary of the Detroit Judo Club (then the nation's largest non-profit club), had effected a pilot program for a national rank system.

During the brief tenure of President Renyo Uyeno (before his untimely death at the age of 39 on June 1,1963), the Judo Black Belt Federation launched a national rank registration procedure, which was coupled with a detailed rank identification system. This was the basis for future financial stability of the organization. The Judo Black Belt Federation also adopted a comprehensive constitution and by-laws, established a national communications system and published the Judo Bulletin.

Although the early leaders of the Judo Black Belt Federation (then known as the Amateur Judo Association), had actively sought out the Amateur Athletic Union and had been granted the right to represent U.S. judo on the international level, little attention or significance was attached to this accommodation until early in the 1960s when amateurism and sanctions began to become important. As the Judo Black Belt Federation expanded (18 yudanshakais in 1963) and tournaments were more widely attended, the importance and presence of the AAU began to be noticed. The Judo Black Belt Federation and the Amateur Athletic Union succeeded in maintaining an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual assistance during the remainder of the decade.

In 1963 the Judo Black Belt Federation joined the Amateur Athletic Union in producing the first of what were to be five joint handbooks (two published by Phil Porter and three by Don Pohl). Sales of the books, mostly through the Federation, exceeded 100,000 copies. All proceeds were given to the Amateur Athletic Union Judo Committee to help finance its operation. When proceeds from the sale of hand books failed to provide the necessary funding for the expanding program, the Judo Black Belt Federation authorized grants in excess of $75,000 to the Amateur Athletic Union to help finance international competition and related programs

In 1964 and 1966, Hiro Fujimoto of Detroit was elected president of the Federation and Dr. Eichi Kolwai of Philadelphia, vice-president. Dr. Koiwai assumed the presidency at the 1968 election, holding office for several terms. During the uncertain years of the 1960s the Federation changed its name to the U.S. Judo Federation, published a book of procedures, rewrote the judo contest rules, adopted a comprehensive promotion procedure, drafted a new referees' certification procedure, and expanded to 25 yudanshakais.

Judo soon grew to the third largest sport in the array of Amateur Athletic Union activities. What were first considered minor contentions between the Union and the Federation soon grew to open disagreement over philosophy, priorities, and control. Amateurism became a bone of contention. considered by many a stumbling block in the way of development. Amateur Athletic Union advocates, on the other hand, questioned the unchallenged control of rank exercised by the U.S. Judo Federation.

In 1969 the differences and positions that had been fought out at the meetings finally culminated in one of the yudanshakais (the Armed Forces Judo Association) withdrawing from the U.S. Judo Federation to start a rival national organization. The Armed Forces Judo Association adopted a name similar to that of the parent organization, the U.S. Judo Association. The association closely aligned itself with the philosophy and position of the Amateur Athletic Union. (DENNIS HELM)

KARATE Kung-fu arrived in the U.S. with the first Chinese immigrants in the mid-19th century, but the growth of karate is largely owed to contact between American servicemen and Japanese experts during the post-World War II occupation of Japan and Okinawa.

Kung-fu: the Forerunner of Karate Kung-fu was a part of the Chinese lifestyle in the labo camps and mining towns that grew up following the gold rush of 1848. With the importation of large numbers of Chinese laborers to work on the Central Pacific Railroad, beginning in 1863, the swelling Chinese communities isolated themselves within their own, transplanted culture.

Conflicts over control of gambling, prostitution, and the like, arose; rival secret societies fought each other in the notorious "Tong Wars," which lasted until the 1930s. The troops in these internecine wars were "hatchetmen," so-called because they used meat cleavers and hatchets as weapons. They were skilled also in kung-fu, in the art of "pin-blowing," and in hurling lethal, razor-edged coins. Hatchetmen in the U.S. handed down, from one generation to the next, the secret and sinister practice of kung-fu, the forbearer of modern karate.

Until roughly two decades after World War II, kung-fu was not available to non-Chinese on the U.S. mainland. The early Japanese and Okinawan communities in the U.S. were isolated, introverted, and intensely secretive about their ethnic arts and crafts. Judo was the only exception: Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo, encouraged its spread. According to martial arts scholar Donn F. Draeger, Kano asked that " judo training be undertaken not only in the dojo but also outside it, and so make of its physical aspects the focus of human endeavor for the progress and development of man." The other martial arts had no such original intention.

The first club to practice kung-fu in organized classes with instructors from Chinese provinces was a branch of the Chinese Physical Culture Association, founded in Honolulu in 1922. This association promoted physical culture among the Islands' Chinese communities, but kung-fu remained unavailable to non-orientals until 1957, when Tlnn Chan Lee, at'ai-chi-ch'uan specialist, became the first Chinese sifu to open his teaching to the general public.

In 1964 the closely-guarded doors of kung-fu finally opened in the U.S. mainland. Ark Y.Wong of Los Angeles, born in China, broke the traditional kung-fu "color line" by accepting students of all races at Wah Que Studio in Los Angeles's old Chinatown Also in 1964 the movie idol Bruce Lee and his one-time partner, James Yimm Lee, began accepting non-Orientals at Lee's kwoon in Oakland, Calif. In fact, the notorious John Keehan, a.k.a. "Count Dante," claimed to have trained there as early as 1962.

Teachers like New York's Alan Lee, Ark Y. Wong, and T.Y. Wong popularized Shaolin. Choy-Li-Fut and t'ai-chi-ch'uan quickly became public and, soon after, the various branches of northern and southern Shaolin kung-fu.

In northern California, sifus Kwong and Brendan Lai helped establish the praying mantis system. Y.C. Wong promoted the hung gar and tiger crane systems; Kuo-Lien-Ying promoted t'ai-chi; George Long, the white crane; and Lau Bun and the Luk Mo Studio, the Choy-Li-Fut. Noted scholar Wen-Shan Huang, with his protege Marshall Ho, started the National T'ai-Chi-Ch'uan Association in the early 1960s, opening up instruction in this "soft style" of kung-fu to Caucasians.

Throughout the U.S. kung-fu spread, especially during the Bruce Lee era, when so-called Eastern Westerns dominated American and international movie screens. Even so, the majority of kung-fu styles and teachers still remain hidden.

Many of the first karate students were street fighters. Few of these rough types possessed, however, the discipline necessary to remain with the art and learn it thoroughly. The small number who did found their original attitudes startlingly transformed.

Today, karate classes are predominantly composed of business persons, professionals, skilled workers, and students-a cross section of American society.

Karate Comes to Hawaii In Hawaii, a great cultural crossroads, karate secured a foothold long before its emergence on the mainland. Although practiced within the Okinawan community, no wider audience had seen karate in Hawaii until 1927, when Kentsu Yabu, a famous Okinawan master, introduced Shuri-te in a public demonstration at the Nuuana YMCA in Honolulu.

A few "naichi" Japanese (i.e., Japanese from one of the four main islands of Hawaii) who observed the YMCA demonstration adjudged karate a strong fighting art, possibly even stronger than their judo. Interest in karate by non-Okinawans flourished thereafter. Yabu's open teachings also brought together interested groups of Okinawans for practice and recreation, something the rivalries of llaha, Shuri, and Tomari had prevented on Okinawa.

In 1932 Choki Motobu, a legendary, eccentric Okinawan karate fighter, was denied entry to Hawaii when a group of Okinawan promoters living in Hawaii tried to import him for a public match against well-known Island fighters. In 1933 Zuiho Mutsu and Kamesuke Higaonna were allowed into Hawaii with the understanding that they would teach and lecture but not compete in the boxing ring. Both refused to engage in public matches and prepared to depart immediately. Thomas Miyashiro, who had studied with Yabu in 1927, convinced other karate enthusiasts to approach the pair collectively and urge that they remain in Hawaii to teach their art. They agreed and, after great initial success at the Asahi Photo Studio, the site of their original school, the two  karate masters chose a new facility for their classes, the Izumo Taishi Shinto Mission.

The club formed from these classes, the Hawaii Karate Seinin Kai (Hawaii Young People's Karate Club), subsequently staged a public karate demonstration at the Honolulu Civic Auditorium. A number of Caucasian spectators in attendance, mostly members of the First Methodist Church, became interested in learning karate. Through their efforts, the first known Caucasian group in the Western world to study openly and to sponsor karate activities was formed in 1933 Shortly thereafter, both Mutsu and Higaonna departed for Japan, where they had been teaching previously.

In May 1934 Chinei Kinjo, editor of the Okinawan newspaper Yoen Fiho Sha, invited grandmaster Cholun Miyagi, the founder of goju-ryu karate, to Hawaii. Miyagi lectured and taught to popularize Okinawan goju-ryu karate-do, staying almost a year and returning to Okinawa in Feb. 1935.

The spread of kempo to the Islands is largely owed to Dr. James Mitose, a Japanese-American born in Hawaii in 1916. At age five he was sent to Kyushu, Japan, for schooling in his ancestral art of self-defense, called "kosho-ryu kempo," said to be based directly on Shaolin kung-fu. Mitose returned to Hawaii in 1936. In 1942 he organized the Official Self-Defense Club at the Beretania Mission in Honolulu. This club continued under his personal leadership until 1953, when it was assigned to Thomas Young, one of his chief students. Only five of his students-Young, William K.S. Chow, Paul Yamaguchi, Arthur Keawe, and Edward Lowe-attained the rank of black belt. But the kempo arts flourished in Hawaii and later on the west coast of the mainland, where three of Mitose's protégés formed clubs of their own. In 1953, before going to the mainland, Mitose wrote What is Self-Defense, reprinted by his students in 1980.

Of Mitose's students, perhaps Chow played the most significant role in the evolution of the American martial arts. Although he had learned kosho-ryu kempo under Mitose, Chow was the first to teach what he called kenpo (first law) karate. From 1949 Chow trained a great number of students to the rank of blackbelt, including Adriano Emperado, Ralph Castro, Bobby Lowe, John Leone, and Paul Pung. By far the most famous of Chow's students is Ed Parker, a leading pioneer in the American karate movement.

Adriano "Sonny" Emperado was a co-founder in 1947 of the kajukenbo system, formed by five experts: Walter Choo (karate), Joseph Holke (judo), Frank Ordonez (jujutsu), Emperado (kenpo), and Clarence Chang (Chinese boxing). The name is an acronym derived from the five disciplines of its founders: ka from karate, ju from judo and jujutsu, ken from kenpo, and bo from Chinese boxing. Today, this style is one of the most prominent in Hawaii. In 1950 Emperado founded Hawaii's first and largest chain of karate schools, the Kajukenbo Self-Defense Institute, Inc., in which he still holds the office of vice-president. Probably Emperado's most famous student is Al Dacascos, founder of the won hop kuen do system.

In 1954 Japan's colorful Mas Oyama visited Hawaii for a month to assist Bobby Lowe, a Chinese -American, in setting up the first overseas branch of Oyama's kyokushinkai style.

Karate Emerges on the Mainland The first karate school on the U.S. mainland was established by a former sailor, Robert Trias, who began teaching karate in Phoenix in 1946. In 1942, while stationed in the Pacific, Trias trained with Tong Gee Hsing, a teacher of heing-I and Shuritode ryu, and a nephew, according to Trias, of Okinawa's Choki Motobu. The word "karate" was not then in universal use; Shuritode ryu was a style of Okinawan shorei-ryu karate.

Upon his discharge in 1946, Trias returned to the U.S. and established his private, 14-foot-square dojo. He charged a low annual fee for instruction in judo or karate for two to three hours daily, seven days a week. Until the late 1970s, when John Corcoran investigated the subject, little acknowledgment was given Trias as the actual founder of karate in America. Later, in 1948, Trias formed the United States Karate Association (USKA), the first karate organization on the mainland.

From Mar. to Nov. 1952, Mas Oyama of Japan toured 32 states by invitation of the U.S. Professional Wrestling Association-officials had heard of his exploits in Japan. While in the country he began his famous challenge matches with professional wrestlers and boxers, all of whom he is said to have defeated. Oyama's exhibition bouts and demonstrations, including the breaking of boards, bricks, and stones, received great public attention, including articles in the New York Times, which covered his bout with a pro boxer at Madison Square Garden.

In 1951 Emilio Bruno, judo teacher, pioneer, and administrator, had been named supervisor of judo and combative measures for the Strategic Air Command (SAC). Bruno formulated a new approach to military combat training, integrating parts of aikido, judo, and karate into a systematic unarmed combat technique. To implement his idea, he suggested a pilot program to Gen Curtis LeMay, then commander of the U.S. Air Force and one of Bruno's judo students. The program had a significant effect on the subsequent propagation of karate in the U.S.With Gen. LeMay's endorsement and SAC's sponsorship, Bruno initiated eight-week training programs for Air Force instructors at the Kodokan, judo's mecca, in Japan. Kodokan officials contacted the Japan Karate Association (JKA) to manage the karate instruction, and that organization selected Hidetaka Nishlyama as one of the coaches. Financially backed and supported by SAC, Bruno invited ten martial arts instructors of judo and karate to participate in a now famous four-month 1953 tour of every SAC base in the U.S. and Cuba. The touring group included seven judoka and three karate dignitaries: Nishiyama, Toshio Kamata, and the late
Isao Obata, a JKA co-founder and senior disciple of Gichin Funakoshi.

The 1953 SAC tour was responsible for opening up communication between Japan and the U.S.,accounting for the migration of dozens of Japanese karate instructors to America. It also influenced other U.S. military branches and departments to adopt similar martial arts programs.

In 1954 the JKA established its first, small headquarters in Tokyo, and, with the establishment of a central dojo, Nishiyama was elected chief of the JKA instruction department. He conceived a plan to train large numbers of karate instructors and send them across the world to establish karate. His plan, once put into operation, accounted for the migration, beginning in 1955, of many instructors who pioneered Shotokan karate wherever they settled.Nishiyama himself assumed responsibility for furthering karate in the U.S.

In 1954 Ed Parker, black belt kenpo student of William Chow, began teaching a karate course at Brigham Young University. Hawaiian-born Parker, who had arrived on the mainland in 1951, limited instruction to Americans attending the university His evening classes enrolled as many as 72 students: city police, state highway patrolmen, fish and game wardens, and sheriffs' deputies. With some of his students, Parker formed an exhibition team, and through various chambers of commerce, he and his group performed in several Utah cities.

William Dometrich, who began his karate training in Japan in 1951, returned in Dec. 1954, settling in Kentucky. A student of Dr. Tsuyoshi Chitose, the founder of Chito-ryu karate, Dometrich was the first to teach this system in America. He formed the U.S. Chito-Kai in 1967.

Denver's Frank Goody, Jr., who had as early as 1924 started judo lessons with his father, is the first instructor to have taught karate in the Rocky Mountain region. Jack Farr, in compiling the history of martial arts in Colorado, reported that between 1945 and 1951, Goody promoted yawara tournaments within his judo school in Denver. While Goody's background is the subject of much confusion, his contribution to karate's growth is not. In
1957, he opened a karate school in Boulder, Colo., and is credited with teaching nearly all the other karate pioneers in the Colorado area.

Dewey Deavers, a jujutsu and karate instructor who reportedly traveled in China and Japan in the 1920s, surfaced around 1954 in Pittsburgh. By then he had already trained two students to the rank of black belt: Warren Siciliano and Larry Williams. Williams in that year introduced karate to a promising student, Glenn Premru, who in the late 1960s and early 1970s, became a noted performer and national kata champion.

Another pioneer was Atlee Chittim of Texas. After studying tae kwon do in Korea, Chittim returned as a brown belt in 1955 and taught his art at San Antonio College. (Interestingly, the name "tae kwon do" had only been created in April of that year.) As far as can be determined, Chittim was the first to teach any form of karate in the southwestern U.S. outside of Arizona. And he sponsored the entry of Jhoon Rhee to America from Korea in 1956. Rhee, a tae kwon do black belt, came to the U.S. to study engineering at San Marco's Texas State College and began to teach his art on campus, opening a commercial club in 1958. Rhee, known as the "Father of American Tae Kwon Do," went on to become one of the most important leaders in American karate.

In 1955 Tsutomu Ohshima, a graduate of Waseda University in Japan, organized a small karate class at the Konko Shinto Church in Los Angeles. A disciple of Gichin Funakoshi's Shotokan style, Ohshima was the first instructor in the U.S. to teach a typically Japanese karate system, and was the first resident karate teacher on the West Coast. In 1956 he opened the first public dojo in Los Angeles. He also founded the Shotokan Karate of America.

The First Karate Tournament Robert Trias in 1955 conducted the first known karate tournament in America, the 1st Arizona Karate Championships. Held at the Butler Boys Club in Phoenix, participants were chiefly members of the Arizona Highway Patrol, Trias' own students.

Karate Comes to Hollywood By 1956 Ed Parker had moved to California where his growing student list began to include such Hollywood names as Darren McGavin, author Joe Hyams, television executive Tom Tannenbaum, producer Blake Edwards, and the late film stars Nick Adams, Frank Lovejoy, and Audie Murphy. Both Hyams and Tannenbaum later achieved black belts under different instructors. Each made substantial contributions to karate, Tannenbaum in television and Hyams in print Through Parker's influence, Blake Edwards directed his writers to add karate scenes to the screenplays for such 1960s hits as A Shot in the Dark and The Pink Panther. In those days, filmmakers were intrigued primarily by the more spectacular aspects of the martial arts, such as board and brick breaking.

Eventually Parker taught many more celebrities, including Elvis Presley, and appeared in motion pictures and television shows. It is difficult to determine whether Bruce Tegner or Parker was the first karate expert to work in films. It is a matter of record, however, that Tegner attracted attention to the martial arts early by setting up fight scenes for the 1950s TV series "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," and "The Detectives," starring Robert Taylor. He also wrote a large number of books which had a great influence on the number of Americans that got involved in karate. As early as 1956 Stirling Silliphant had begun writing martial arts into many of his films requiring combat action. He first did this in Five Against the House in which Brian Keith portrayed a Korean
war veteran and karate expert. Later he wrote martial arts roles in TV series like "Naked City" and "Route 66." Silliphant later became largely instrumental in the rise of Bruce Lee, with whom he studied for 3 years.

Karate Pioneers In the years 1956 through 1960 the core of an American establishment came into being. A nucleus of first-rate instructors-immigrants from the Far East and returning U.S.servicemen-opened the first schools in assorted styles, in their respective regions. In 1957 Don Nagle returned from Okinawa, where he studied isshin-ryu under Tatsuo Shimabuku. He opened a dojo in Jacksonville and trained such well-known black belts as Ed McGrath, Harold Long, Gary Alexander, Ron Duncan, Donald Bohan, James Chapman, Lou Lizzotte, Ralph Chirico, and Joe Bucholtz. Nagle became one of the instructors chiefly responsible for the profileration of karate throughout the Eastern Seaboard.

Louis Kowlowski, an early USKA member, opened the first karate school in the midwest in 1957, in St. Louis, Mo. He was also one of the first to introduce Okinawan shorin-ryu (Matsubayashi) into the U.S.

In 1957 Cecil Patterson, a wado-ryu black belt, opened a private club in Sevierville, Tenn. And in 1962 he opened his first commercial school in Nashville, which, by the mid-1970s, expanded to as many as 17 dojo across Tennessee. Patterson also began the Eastern U.S. Wado-Kai Federation.

Okinawa kempo master Zempo (atsu) Shimabuku founded the first known karate dojo in Philadelphia in 1957.

In 1958, Roger Warren, who studied in the Orient, started leaching karate in Chicago and Peoria. Charles Gruzanski (d.1973) also opened a martial arts school in Chicago in the same year. Gruzanski, who spent many years in Japan, was a black belt in a number of different arts and was one of the few Caucasian experts in masakiryu-manriki-gusari, a viscous chain and sickle weapon.

In the mid-1950s Ed Kaloudis traveled to Japan to improve his judo knowledge. While there he studied koei-kan karate from Eizo Onishl. In 1958 Kaloudis moved to New York where he began to teach at NYU and also to members of the New York City Police Department. He later moved to New Jersey and opened up schools in Clifton and Caldwell. Today he oversees a large number of affiliated schools.

Robert Fusaro, who trained under Nishiyama in Japan, was the first man to teach karate in Minnesota. He began teaching his shotokan style in 1958 in Minneapolis and founded the Midwest Karate Association. Today he runs a number of schools in Minnesota.

In 1958 George Mattson was discharged from the U.S. Army. He returned home to Boston where he became the first Uechi-ryu instructor in America, as well as the first karate pioneer in the New England region. Mattson became a leader of karate on the Eastern Seaboard sponsoring the first karate tournament in New England in 1961. Mattson also wrote one of the first books on karate, The Way of Karate, published in 1963.

In 1958 in Portland, Oreg., Moon Yo Woo began teaching kong su an obscure Korean style of karate.

In 1958-59 Harry Smith, a student of Don Nagle, opened the first-known karate school in western Pennsylvania. He trained several students including Joe Penneywell, Harry Ackland and James Morabeto.

Around this time Walter Mazak and Joe Hedderman opened a dojo in Pittsburgh, Hedderman was a student of Chito-stylist William Dometrich.

In 1959 Philip Koeppel was discharged from the Navy. He had studied karate in Japan with Richard Kim and Kajukenbo with Adriano Emperado in Hawaii. In 1960 he joined the USKA and studied under Robert Trias. In 1963 he promoted the 1st World Karate Championships in Chicago and has since built a strong chain of karate studios throughout the midwest.

In 1959 Natamoro Naikima opened a school in Philadelphia teaching shorin-ryu.

Peter Urban, one of the founders of karate on the East Coast, opened his first goju-ryu karate school in Union City, New Jersey, in Sept.1959. Urban had studied in Japan with Richard Kim and later became a top student of Gogen "The Cat" Yamaguchi.

In 1960, Urban moved to New York City and taught karate at the Judo Twins (Bernie and Bob Lepkofker) and later established his own dojo, the famous "Chinatown Dojo." He also broke away from the goju-kai organization and formed his own, which he called USA Goju. Urban probably trained more top black belts than anyone on the East Coast; among them were: Chuck Merriman, Al Gotay, William Louie, Frank Ruiz, John Kubl, Lou Angel, Thomas Boddie, Joe Lopez, Joe Hess, Bill Liquori, Aaron Banks, Ron Van Clief, Susan Murdock, Owen Watson, and Rick Pascetta.

Ralph Lindquist, an isshin-ryu stylist, opened a school in 1960 in New Cumberland, Pa.

In Michigan, AI Horton began teaching hisuechi-ryu in Kalamazoo in 1960. Other early pioneers included J. Kim in Lansing; Ernest Lieb in Muskegon; David Praim in Mt. Clemens (1962), who taught fighters Everett Eddy and Johnny Lee; and Paul and Larry Malo from Detroit who taught Shito-ryu and operated a number of multimillion-dollar karate centers.

As the decade closed, karate was gaining appeal. While no single member of the 1950-60 group of pioneers appears to have been greatly successful, the fact that so many individuals were operating schools, whose enrollments were increasing steadily, proved this new form ofself-defense was attractive to the general public. ln this decade the foundation was laid for the circulation of styles, instructors, and masters that would in the 1960s see the art of karate surpass judo in numbers of active practitioners.

The early 1960s also marked the beginning of an extensive immigration of Korean tae kwon do instructors. After Jhoon Rhee, who introduced tee kwon do in the U.S. in 1956, the first wave included: S. Henry Cho, Richard Chun, and Duk Sung Son in New York; D.S. Kim in Georgia; J.Kim and Sang Kyu Shim in Michigan; Mahn Suh Park in Pennsylvania; Haeng Ung Lee in Omaha; Ki Whang Kim in Maryland; and Jack Hwang in Oklahoma. In all, it is estimated that more than 25 masters during the early and mid-1960s settled in the U.S.

The Vietnam War gave this native Korean art visibility.Pictures of Korean instructors training American GI's in hand-to-hand combat appeared in Time and Newsweek.

While these legitimate instructors were encouraged to emigrate to the U.S., the teaching credential itself was to create an intense controversy in American karate. As more and more Korean tae kwon do instructors and masters arrived in the U.S., it was clearly unlikely that all of them could have taught American military personnel. Yet this claim, coupled with insupportable claims to unreasonably advanced degrees of black belt rank-usually no less
than 7th dan-first caused suspicion, then rebellion by American karatemen. More often than not a third claim, that of being an "All Korean Champion," was another of the tee kwon do credentials. It is improbable that there were more than a few dozen All Korean Champions, since tae kwon do embraced no organized competitions until the 1960s-when more than 800 master instructors were teaching tae kwon do in the U.S. The degree and intensity of
business competition was undoubtedly the motive for these exorbitant claims. At any rate, potential martial arts students now had a choice of where and with whom to study. By the early 1970s more than 1,200 tae kwon do instructors were reportedly teaching in the U.S.

Such phenomenal growth placed increasing demands on the tae kwon do community as a whole, and the need for a central organization quickly became apparent. In the U.S., as in Korea, the cause of organization was initially obstructed by affiliations of master instructors to parent schools and associations in Korea.

Meanwhile, within the Japanese karate community, Tsutomu Ohshima, who was still traveling, arranged in 1961 for Hidetaka Nishiyama to come to California to preside over his Los Angeles headquarters. Nishiyama arrived in July and within four months struck out on his own to form the All America Karate Federation (AAKF), a branch of the powerful Japan Karate Association (JKA). Today, the AAKF is one of the largest karate organizations in the U.S. This development spawned a bitter political rivalry between Ohshima and Nishiyama, which continues under the surface of the international amateur karate movement. Both pioneers, however, are consummate karate masters. Each is responsible for having firmly planted Shotokan karate in the U.S., and for having trained numerous disciples of high technical skill.

Richard Kim, sensei to such American karate pioneers as Peter Urban, Phil Koeppel, and Canada's Benny Allen, came to America from Japan in 1961 and began teaching at the Chinese YMCA in San Francisco, Calif. Later Kim became the foremost karate historian residing in the U.S.

Top JKA instructor Teruyuki Okazaki arrived in the U.S. in May 1961 and began teaching Shotokan karate in west Philadelphia. In Sept.1962 he formed the East Coast Karate Association, a branch of the AAKF. Today he oversees the 50,000-member International Shotokan Karate Federation.

Also in Philadelphia that year, Mahn Suh Park established his first tae kwon do dojang, which, like Okazaki's dojo, is still in operation today.

It was around 1961 that John Keehan, alias "Count Dante," began teaching karate in the midwest from his base dojo in Chicago, III. Keehan joined the USKA in 1961, at age 22, and was instrumental in helping Trias firmly entrench the USKA in the midwest, the association's strongest territory. He taught numerous students all the way to black belt, who opened their own schools and turned out respected students.

On the night of April 23, 1970, he took part in the infamous "dojo war" that ended in the brutal stabbing death of his friend and student, Jim Koncevic, at the Green Dragon's Black Cobra training hall in Chicago. The tragedy left a profound mark on Keehan until his death from bleeding ulcers in 1975.

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