General Choi Hong Hi was born on November 9^th 1918 in the Hwa Dae Myong Chun district of what is now known as North Korea. He was born during a turbulent time in Korean history as it had been invaded and colonised by the Japanese in 1910. This was a time of great unhappiness for the Korean people as they found their culture and national identity suppressed by the Japanese, including that of their traditional martial arts. It was General Choi, by developing the new and distinctly Korean martial art of Taekwondo, that helped give the Korean people a martial arts identity of their own. General Choi was also instrumental in Taekwondo’s global popularity as he took his martial art to over 120 countries, with its popularity reaching its zenith when it was made an Olympic sport in 1988.

His Early Life

Choi Hong Hi was the third child in a family of eight that owned a brew house. His strongly independent spirit manifested itself at the age of twelve when he was expelled from his Japanese run school for leading a patriotic student walk-out in protest of the Kwang-ju incident; when a group of female Korean students were harassed by Japanese students, who were then set upon by their male Korean counterparts at the Kwang-ju train station. They were in turn brutally quelled by the Japanese police, sparking the nation-wide student protests. As a result of being expelled from the Japanese education system in Korea, Choi was sent by his father to study calligraphy with the master Han Il Dong. It was Han Il Dong who first introduced the young Choi to martial arts when he taught him the traditional Korean martial art of Taek Kyon, noted for its dynamic and impressive kicks. After seven years of studying with Han Il Dong, Choi decided that he wanted to explore his interest in Western ideas of science and law in Japan, along with his friends. So he made his way to Kyoto, but not before receiving his next motivation for learning a martial art to provide himself with a solid self-defence system. Just before he left for Japan, in a fit of youthful wisdom, Choi gambled away his money for travel in Japan in a game of cards to a local shark named Mr Hur. After pleading with him to return the money, he hit Mr Hur on the head with an ink bottle, thus retrieving his money and giving the local gangsters a reason to make him a marked man. On arrival in Kyoto, he decided to learn a martial art and was introduced to Shotokan Karate by of his friends. Two years hard study earned him his 1^st Dan and when he moved to Tokyo to study at University, he gained his 2^nd Dan under the supervision of Shotokan Master Funakoshi, himself a pioneer in his own martial art.

Brush with Death

During the Second World War it was clear by 1943 that Japan was going to lose therefore, joining the Japanese army was not a good idea for any young man. However, along with many other Korean students, Choi found himself forcibly drafted in the Japanese army in 1943 and sent back to Seoul to take part in basic training. Again, utilising his independent spirit, Choi Hong Hi made a patriotic stand when in a group of 30 Korean student-soldiers, they attempted to join the Korean Liberation Army. They were caught and sent to prison where he was sentenced to a seven year term, which was changed to the death penalty due to be carried out on August 18^th 1945. To keep fit and occupied during his time in prison, Choi took the opportunity to practise his Karate which he also taught to his fellow prisoners and guards. It could be argued that this is where some of the ideas of creating his own martial art were conceived as he was kept prisoner by the nation who also taught him their version of Karate. Luckily though, Choi escaped the death penalty by the skin of his teeth when Korea was liberated from the Japanese on 15^th August 1945, three days before his scheduled execution.

The Birth of Taekwondo

After the Second World War and Korea gaining its independence, Choi joined the fledgling Korean army in a group called the 110 founding fathers. He quickly rose through the ranks and it was at this time that he taught his men Karate for both self defence and to make them more effective soldiers. However, to both the men and Choi himself, the Japanese label of Karate was distasteful seeing as they had just survived the oppressive occupation by that same nation. This was the time for the young officer Choi to research and develop his new and distinctly Korean martial art, which he fused from a combination of the traditional high kicking Taek Kyon and Shotokan Karate. It took him nine years and but on 11^th April 1955, the new martial art of Taekwondo was inaugurated.

Meanwhile, whilst developing his new martial art, the now General Choi was involved with the Korean war, which broke out on 23^rd June 1950. After successfully crossing the 38^th parallel, General Choi presented himself and his troops for a briefing with General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the United Nations Troops. In September 1953 General Choi created the 29^th Infantry division, as mentioned in the 2^nd Kup Taekwondo pattern Hwa-Rang. This became known as the Ik Keu Division or the “Fist Division” as General Choi and his instructors taught his men his new martial art.

In September of 1954, General Choi and his men of the 29^th Division demonstrated their martial arts skills, under the working title of Tang Soo, to the Korean President Seung Man Rhee. The President was so impressed with what he saw, he ordered that all of the Korean army were to be taught in this martial art developed by General Choi. So, General Choi ordered a gymnasium built, which he called the Oh Do Kwan, where he and his instructors taught Tang Soo to the military instructors. During this time, General Choi felt that this new martial art, different from the traditional art of Taek Kyon and definitely not the Japanese version of Karate, needed its own name. He formed a committee of all the different civilian dojangs (or “kwans”) and his suggestion of “Taekwondo” meaning the Art of Kicking and Punching was accepted both by the committee and after some convincing, by President Rhee himself.

Taekwondo becomes International

During the next few years, General Choi continued to oversee the training of the Korean Army in Taekwondo through the military dojang of Oh Do Kwan and the civilian dojang of Chung Do Kwan. In 1959, he and the Korean Taekwondo team went to Vietnam to demonstrate their martial art, which so impressed the Vietnamese President, he asked Korea to send over Taekwondo instructors to Vietnam to teach Taekwondo to both the military and civilian population. He also demonstrated Taekwondo in the Republic of China, also impressing the officials there who were also obviously fans of their own national martial art of Kung Fu.

In 1959, General Choi organised the first Korean Taekwondo Association, unifying all of the different civilian Kwans into one name so as to join the Korea Sports Union. Meanwhile, South Korean politics were in turmoil due to the student uprising in April 1960 and the military coup d’etat, which General Choi was involved in, that installed General Park Chung Hee as the new President of Korea. However, relations between General Choi and President Park soured and he found himself retired from the army and sent to Malaysia as the Korean Ambassador in 1962. Of course, General Choi took the opportunity to introduce Taekwondo to the Malaysian people and by the time he returned to Korea in 1965, he also re-established himself as the President of the Korea Taekwondo Association. In 1966, General Choi formed the International Taekwondo Federation; which initially consisted of nine countries of Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, West Germany, the United States, Turkey, Italy and Egypt. This grew rapidly in two years to over thirty countries but by 1971, General Choi found himself exiled to Canada due to the second election of President Park.

General Choi and ITF Move to Canada.

By 1971 General Choi found his existence under the President Park regime intolerable, mostly due to President Park and his associates taking control of the Korea Taekwondo Association and attempting to interfere with the affairs of the International Taekwondo Federation. General Choi’s intentions were not to make the ITF into a Korean political tool and so he made the decision to move himself into exile and the ITF headquarters to Canada, where one of his students, Park Jong Soo was establishing a new Taekwondo school. From then on, General Choi made it his mission to spread ITF Taekwondo to the rest of the world which became a global martial art. In response to General Choi’s move to Canada, the South Korean government formed the World Taekwondo Federation, which developed Taekwondo separately from its founder. During his latter years, despite resisting the continued pressure from the South Korean government, General Choi was successful in globalising ITF Taekwondo including introducing it to the communist run China and ironically, Japan, Korea’s former occupier. Considering that both these countries already had established martial arts, this was no mean feat. However, it was with benevolent intentions that General Choi introduced ITF Taekwondo to the communist North Korea, in the hope that one day, both the WTF and ITF could be reunited along with eventually, North and South Korea. Unfortunately, the South Korean government didn’t take kindly to this and denied him entry to South Korea in his last years. However, General Choi left a huge martial arts legacy with his Korean Art of Kicking and Punching, enjoyed by millions all over the world. He died in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital of stomach cancer on June 15^th 2002.

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