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superdave
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- #21
Originally posted by yilisifu
Yes, Trias did open the first karate school in the U.S. His story is that Tung Gee Hsing, a Hsing-I master, studied shuri-ryu karate in Okinawa under Motobu and then left for the Solomon Islands to work as a Christian missionary.
Trias met him there in, I believe, 1942.
I also have a copy of the ORIGINAL "Hand Is My Sword" book by Trias which is 10 kliks below horrible and he once tried to get it from me.......the newer, revised version is much different.
Anyway, as for his story......
In 1944 in the Solomon Islands, there was a skirmish going on known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and we were getting our butts kicked at first (Prior to 1944 we were nowhere near the Solomons). Trias was a seaman on a warship and I doubt that the commander would have stopped the ship in "the slot" (as it was known, because the Japanese were sinking lots of ships in it) to let an enlisted man take a longboat ashore......
But IF he did manage to commandeer a longboat and get ashore, he'd have 25,000 Japanese soldiers to contend with (how did he know Tung was there in the first place?) who would kill Tung just as quickly as they'd kill him, since Japan was also at war with China.
WHY would Tung, if he existed, teach a round-eye during the middle of one of the bloodiest battles in history? Why would Motobu teach Tung his shuri-ryu (shuri-te was never known as a "ryu" anyway) and why would Tung, a Chinese, even WANT to learn Okinawan karate in the first place?
I didn't know there were ANY Chinese Christian missionaries at that time - I have NEVER heard of any of them going to the Solomon Islands (Christianity was still being introduced to the Chinese by western missionaries).
Trias would have had to get that longboat ashore MANY, MANY times to keep training and become an "instructor" under this Tung fellow. And frankly, the battle didn't last that long anyway.
A photo (which I have seen myself) of Tung which supposedly shows him on the islands is in serious doubt since, in the background, one can (with the aid of a magnifying glass) read a small sign which says "Chinatown" and then something else on it.
Don't think the Solomons even today have a Chinatown......
However, it should be remembered that his USKA became the largest karate organization in the nation. It was comprised mostly of Okinawan and Japanese stylists.
His story must have been wrong. The Guadalcanal battle took place from August 42 until Febuary 43. Kind of makes you wonder about the rest of the story. Hmmmm.