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3 unusual facts about Gōgen Yamaguchi


Gōgen Yamaguchi

During his military tour in Manchuria in World War II, Gōgen was captured by the Soviet military in 1942 and incarcerated as a prisoner of war in a Russian concentration camp; it was here that he battled and defeated a live tiger according to his autobiography (cited above).

In Australia, Paul Starling (the most senior Caucasian pupil graded by Gōgen Yamaguchi in his lifetime) had been training for four years with Gōgen's first Australian student Mervyn Oakley.

The Kokusai Budō Renmei - (The International Martial Arts Federation) in Japan, whose chairman was Prince Higashikuni of the Japanese Imperial Family appointed Master Yamaguchi as a Shihan - Master of that organisation's karate-dō division.



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