Re: Combat and war affecting the early training training of Aikido
Although it is dated now, this is/was an interesting thread. I would like to point out a couple things:
(1) As regards the original posting and the question of Ueshiba's war experience's influence on the development of aikido: please note that at the time Ueshiba was in Hawaii and stated that his biggest regret was taking human life, a lot had happened since he had taken human life. It's possible that Ueshiba's time in the Russo-Japanese War affected his aikido, but that he didn't regret any taking of human life until much later. So, perhaps war's affect on aikido is unconnected to the conversation in Hawaii.
(2) According to Shioda Gozo in Aikido Shugyo and Aikido Jinsei, his experience of fighting (and killing?) in Shanghai during WWII greatly affected his aikido.
(2a) I talked with a senshusei graduate who told me that all Shioda's stories are bunk. I have no way to evaluate that claim. However, if it is true... then, since Shioda was training with Ueshiba after his Russo-Japanese experiences but before WWII, it's possible that Shioda believed confabulating a story about life and death experience was important because he believed a life and death experience was important to budo training based on his time training with Ueshiba.
(3) 1924-1925 is not a random time to go to Mongolia. It was just at the time Mongolia became communist. That raises the question in my mind of why Ueshiba was interested in Mongolia. Did he know what he was getting into? Mongolia is a strange place to go to set up a community since farming there is very difficult and the winters are extreme.
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