# Interview with Hapkido's Choi



## Disco (Oct 6, 2004)

Saw this and thought it may be of some interest to other's. Due to copyright matters, just the link will be posted.

http://www.rimshapkido.com/ysc.html


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## iron_ox (Oct 6, 2004)

Hello Disco,

There is tremendous controversy over this interview.  Only because a similar (some say literally identical) interview was held days before this interview supposedly took place by GM Michael Wollmershauser.  As is public record, a well known New York Based Hapkido master took the tape and returned an edited copy to GM Wollmershauser - the interview was video taped, and the returned tape had all the questions removed from the audio, as well as the translated answers - leaving only the answers from Choi to unknown questions, then this interview "surfaced".

More lore to add to the Hapkido books...

Sincerely,

Kevin Sogor


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## Master Todd Miller (Oct 6, 2004)

I read this interveiw in 1996 and it was not quite the same as the one on there now. artyon: 

Take care

www.millersmudo.com


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## Rodzilla (Oct 7, 2004)

Whoah, for a second I thought that this thread was about a recent interview with Yong Sul Choi.  It almost gave me a heart attack.


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## greendragon (Oct 12, 2004)

I'm confused here, are you folks saying that GM Rim fabricated this interview?  Are you saying that Chin Il Chang edited the interview? Are you saying that Wollmershauser was the one that interviewed Choi?  I'm not trying to get anything started here and I mean no disrespect, I just don't understand what you guys are stating on here.
                                                         Michael Tomlinson


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## American HKD (Oct 12, 2004)

Greetings,

This should be on Coast to Coast the radio program with Art Bell and George Norry as a major conspiracy theory!

Ha just kidding, but this stuff is really going pretty far. 

Are we this crazy and obsessed about all this stuff and all the controversy surrounding Choi? What he really learned in Japan? Who he taught the longest?  Who does real HKD? Who's the real successor to Choi? 

Yeah I guess maybe we are!


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## glad2bhere (Oct 12, 2004)

Well, its like I have said time and again. Folks would rather bicker back and forth about WHO did things rather than WHAT they did. FWIW. 

Best Wishes, 

Bruce


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## Master Todd Miller (Oct 13, 2004)

When this interveiw first came out on Rim's web site I contacted them and I was told that the interveiw was done by Mike Wollmershauser by video tape.  GM Chang somehow got this tape and held it for many years then the written translation was given to Rim by GM Chang.  

The only question I have is that the original interveiw has been changed a little bit or some things cut out.  I may have the original one that was on Rims site, I will check.

Take care

www.millersmudo.com


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## glad2bhere (Oct 13, 2004)

When I am doing genealogy work I often use q&a sorts of interviews to gather general information to guide the direction in which I will do my digging. The actual interview does not get much weight as, very often, the person I am working with must recall though their own experience, and even THOSE responses can change each time I ask the same question over time. I would encourage folks to take the same tack with this material as well. We need to remember that the interviews were conducted with older gentlemen, that folks doing the interview may have been listening for the material they wanted to emphacize, and that later recipients (such as Todd mentions) may have edited what they thought was less important while keeping that which was seen as more important. I really think we need to be pressing forward and looking for documented materials. I suggest that such things as Japanese records including alien registration, census, tax records, school enrollment records, travel records, military and deferment records, salary and police file would provide greater opportunities than continuing to hammer on these oral traditions. Might it be that the only reason we keep coming back to this material is that folks are unwilling to do the sort of hard work it takes to find hard evidence?  FWIW. 

Best Wishes, 

Bruce


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## iron_ox (Oct 13, 2004)

Hello Bruce,

Generally, I would agree, except that in this oral tradition, Dojunim Choi repeated the exact same story from 1948 to Suh, Bok Sub until his passing in 1986 - I would say that forty years of consistancy is hardly the same condition you describe.

Another point, I have no worries about finding all the "hard" proof of which you speak - the techniques of Dojunim Choi speak volumes enough to hard training and an ability to transmit them...

Sincerely,

Kevin Sogor


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## glad2bhere (Oct 13, 2004)

Dear Kevin: 

Absolutely.  I concur with everything you wrote. Please know that my position comes out of my academic background. I have no problem with the discussion and I think it is important to keep oral traditions alive. My hope is that at some time we might move ahead and begin to firm-up these oral traditions with documents that support what is said. For instance, there is some part of the oral tradition which suggests that Choi may have actually traveled back and forth between Japan and Korea a few times during his residence in Japan. Finding travel records documenting this would be a way of supporting not only this immediate point but a variety of other things by extension (IE. His residence by noting the point of origin for each visit back to Korea). FWIW. 

Best Wishes, 

Bruce


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## greendragon (Oct 13, 2004)

Todd,
Thanks for the clarity on this subject....
                                                  Michael Tomlinson


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