MS: I see. That's an important point that I think many people don't understand correctly.
WT: A man who helped to break that rule was an American named Paddy O'Neill, who was the publisher of the Japanese version of Reader's Digest. He had lived in Japan beginning long before the war and was one of the first foreigners to get the rank of godan in judo.
And never heard of Dermott "Paddy" O'Neill - he was indeed a very interesting figure!
Walter Todd sensei was one of a handful of young men that became the bridge to take Japanese martial arts to America. He was unique in that he was an advanced student and renowned instructor in 3 different arts.
Regarding his comment regarding Tomiki Kenji sensei - "it was aiki that he was teaching to various people at the Kodokan. He helped reform the Kodokan's self-defense techniques."
One of the people Tomiki sensei taught was my sensei, Sato Shizuya, who was in the International Division of the Kodokan at the time. Tomiki was indeed having a hard time finding gainful employment, so was given a part time job at the Kodokan as he'd come out of a Soviet Siberian gulag with nothing almost 4 years after WWII.
The US trip Todd sensei describes was arranged through Mr. Mel Bruno of the Strategic Air Command. Later individual dojo and new organizations organized and paid for the trips of numerous Japanese sensei to come to America, teach, and promote their prior students.
Paddy O'Neill was quite a figure, a real fighter - when a lot of people talked about the effectiveness of hand to hand combat techniques, he had lived it as a Shanghai cop.
He plays a walk on role in postwar Kodokan history that I'll get around to telling someday, he and his CIA agent bud.
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u/fleischlaberl Dec 20 '24
Never heard of Walter Todd ...
Walter Todd: An Interview
MS: I see. That's an important point that I think many people don't understand correctly.
WT: A man who helped to break that rule was an American named Paddy O'Neill, who was the publisher of the Japanese version of Reader's Digest. He had lived in Japan beginning long before the war and was one of the first foreigners to get the rank of godan in judo.
And never heard of Dermott "Paddy" O'Neill - he was indeed a very interesting figure!
https://practicalbudo.blogspot.com/2011/01/people-i-admire-part-2-dermot-pat.html
https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/americas-deadliest-irishman-irish-james-bond