Indar seems content to continue to deal in innuendo and allusion. It is an unpleasant way to behave, and Mike is quite right to call him on it. I think Indar (and Huw) would do well to withdraw their besmirchments. While I quite agree with what Mike has written, there is one point that is overlooked, namely that Mizuno sensei and WSKO have settled this once and for all, with a legally binding contract. There is absolutely no question of any of the types of criminality that has been suggested, and Mizuno sensei would be fully entitled to seek legal remedy for any untrue and defamatory statements. I wonder why people think that there are no consequences to attempting to destroy someone's reputation.
I have also seen the documents. My overwhelming reaction was "so what?". All they showed was that travel expenses had been claimed, and paid. As Mike mentioned, Richard Jarman and Chris Lloyd both saw them at a meeting in Kensington. Richard, who doesn't want to join e-budo, said I can quote this:
"At one meeting attended by Arai and Aosaka Senseis I asked to see evidence of their claims regarding Mizuno Sensei. After some discussion, Chris Lloyd and myself as BSKF President were shown a number of photo copies purporting to be falsified tickets. I was not convinced that what I was being shown amounted to falsified claims, it is my recollection that Chris Lloyd was of a similar opinion. I asked Arai Sensei if he was prepared to see the BSKF break apart over this matter, he replied through the interpreter "right is right". The BSKF did not decide to leave WSKO.
We could not stand still and see our national organisation interfered with and emasculated by the so called Supreme Leader of the World Happiness Movement."
That said, the approach that some people in the BSKF took of trying to work out if what WSKO had alluded to was true, was entirely the wrong approach, and it was very damaging for British Shorinji kempo. The job of working out if someone is guilty of a crime is best left to a court, and again I agree with Mike. You make accusations through the proper channels, or not at all. The BSKF needed to work out if it was proper for WSKO to tell us who we could and couldn't allow to train with us, whether we might be in breach of employment law, who we may or may not talk to and whether we wanted to become salesmen in a franchise. In the end a strong majority of both branches and kenshi decided that we did not want this.
It is clear to me that Mizuno sensei had refused to take orders that he believed were against the interests of some BSKF members (such as who they may or may not work for), and that this whole affair and the trumped-up claims were in retaliation for that. Everyone else is entitled to make up their own minds. WSKO's actions since speak for themselves. They have pursued us through years of civil litigation, which was not only pointless, but malicious. When people like Indar make the claim that we should live and let live, I'll take that seriously if you petition WSKO to leave us alone to do what we're doing.
David Dunn
Cambridge Dojo
BSKF