Quote:
Tim Fong wrote:
Prof. Goldsbury,
Thanks for an excellent article.
As to teaching Aikido to foreigners. A friend of mine has seen a picture of his grandfather in a hakama from before WWII. His grandfather was a Taiwanese national who worked for a Japanese company. I believe my friend has mentioned, that his grandfather practiced aikido.
If you are interested, I will follow up on this more.
Best,
Tim
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Hello Tim,
Yes. As Gernot stated, I think we are all interested. As I stated in the column, Kisshomaru Ueshiba talked of a Korean training in Daito-ryu, but never of nationals of countries invaded or annexed by Japan (Taiwan, Korea, China/Manchuria) training in the Hombu. I know of one or two Koreans who train here in Hiroshima, but they are naturalized Japanese, with Japanese names. This is still a hugely sensitive issue here, for in Japan (& certainly in Hiroshima) there are foreigners and foreigners. So I wonder how sensitive it was in Japan after the Treaty of Shimonoseki (which ended the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95).
I am reading an interesting book by Max Hastings, entitled
Retribution: the Battle for Japan 1944-45. He covers these years in detail, but there is also much discussion of the earlier years of the war, from 1931 onwards. Considering what Japanese soldiers did in China, Korea and Taiwan, I find it hard to imagine a national from these countries even thinking about a Japanese martial art, let alone actually training in a dojo.
Best wishes,