Okinawa teaches karate to the US
The American GIs occupying Okinawa had money and were looking for something to do...Some teachers of the martial arts in Okinawa soon found the American GI, although big in stature and build, had an extremely useless form of fist-fighting. They also discovered that the American GIs were willing to pay high prices to learn to fight the Okinawan way.
Teachers began to accept American men into their schools. Competition to get GIs raged between schools as instructors tried to make money to feed family and friends. Advertisements went up that a GI could "learn the secrets" and be a black belt in just six months... Some schools would charge what we today value at $100 for a black belt (1997 prices).
...As the number of service men in Okinawa and Japan fell during the 1960s and 1970s more creative opportunities had to be devised. Some instructors, noting that the GIs were returning home after only a short time in training, and knowing how difficult it was to recruit new GIs to train, suggested, for a percentage, that the GIs open schools of their own when they returned to the US...Thus, many such US martial arts "masters" were born. (Mr. Kim has often repeated that "America is the land of the green belt sensei.")
...Susan wonders why the thousands of Sensei in Japan and Okinawa haven't exported the deeper aspects of their art.
...[T]he Japanese have always considered us (and still consider us) as quite socially undeveloped, perhaps even to the point of barbaric. Many masters do not even consider the possibility of teaching their art to such unrefined people whether these people are in America or Americans living in Japan. The master just remains silent, teaching his "secrets" only to the native Japanese. (I know. I have been in such schools and felt this discrimination full force.)
