“Martial arts is not just a process for training fighters. Fighting is of least importance. What is important is the growth in the student’s physical structure, mental discipline and emotional control.”
—Bong Soo Han
Much has been written about Bong Soo Han (1933–2007), his career as a hapkido master and his connection to the Billy Jack films. What’s not so well-known about his storied life is that his early education and training occurred while Japan occupied his homeland of Korea. As such, lessons in Korean history were replaced with lessons in Japanese history, and many critical documents about the Hwarang, the young male nobility of Korea’s Silla dynasty renowned for its fighting prowess, were destroyed.
Although the Japanese used the word “assimilation” to
