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CKohalyk
24th January 2001, 03:44
G'day,

I am interested in finding out if there are any resources out there (in Japanese or English) on the MA training of the Japanese soldier of World War II. Can anybody recommend anything?

Also, is there literature on the American occupation and the restrictions placed on the practicing of MA floating around?

Thanks in advance,

Chad Kohalyk

Joseph Svinth
24th January 2001, 12:27
The National Archives and Records Administration has mountains of stuff relating to SCAP's attitudes toward kendo and judo. However, to my knowledge, no one has spent the year or two at College Park, Maryland, reading the stuff.

I have published a little about boxing at the Toyama Military Academy during the 1920s at http://ejmas.com/jnc/jncart_svinth2_0100.htm . Both sumotori and boxers such as Piston Horiguchi continued giving demos until all sport was suspended in 1944. (Boxing was especially popular with Koreans, and there were boxing tournaments in Seoul and Tokyo in 1945.)

For cutlery, WWII, and SCAP, see Guy Power's articles at http://www.dragon-tsunami.org/Dtimes/Pages/articlea.htm and http://www.trifox.com/aux/kenshinkan .

There is some passing reference to martial art instruction (aikibudo and karate, actually) during WWII in Louis Allen, "The Nakano School," Japan Society Proceedings, 10, 1985, and Graham Noble's articles on Shotokan published in *Fighting Arts Illustrated*. Some of Graham's articles appear on the Dragon Times website, and probably the new book by Harry Cook also includes the stories.

Finally, for some descriptions of judo training at the Kodokan in the summer 1941 and at a Japanese high school during the 1942-1943 school year, see Jim Yoshida and Bill Hosokawa, *The Two Worlds of Jim Yoshida* (New York: William Morrow, 1972).