Practical Martial Arts Association

  Everything somebody does or says is information.  We sometimes note this in a self-defence context when we discuss such things as awareness or threat assessment - but how often do we apply this to the people who influence us and how often do we think about the information we ourselves are giving out in the context of instruction? I remember an instructor friend of mine attending a seminar, the sort where there is a round-robin of teaching.  One of the instructors was 'holding court', explaining to the kyu grades how he "was always sharpening his warrior's edge".  My friend asked if that was a euphemism (he didn't find it funny). Why do people say such things?  What response are they hoping for?  I don't know, however, it's good when they do because you know something important and relevant about them straight away. There are times when we are hyper-aware of these bits of information - in dealing with a prospective employer for instance - but too ofte...

On September 20, 1945, President Truman issued an executive order terminating the OSS, effective 1 October.    In the few days remaining to the agency, General Donovan ordered Lt. Edwin J. Putzell to assist him in microfilming select documents from Donovan's safe files for his own action and personal use. Donovan and Putzell worked, under pressure of time, with a Kodak Recordak Camera to produce 131 rolls of 35mm microfilm from the records of the Donovan files. You can find the summary of the contents of those microfilms here - not only is it a good place to look for other reference material, the summary itself makes for fascinating reading and shows just how many pies the OSS was trying to stick its fingers in by 1945.

In 1896, Ryohei Uchida (a skilled martial artist from Fukuoka who had been training at the Kodokan in Tokyo whilst studying Russian) established the first overseas Judo dojo, in Vladivostok. In the photo, Ryohei is on the extreme left, Jigoro Kano is seated in the middle.  Ryohei was a key member of Mitsuru Toyama's Genyosha (Dark Ocean Society) and founded the Kokuryukai (Black Dragon Society) in 1901. He founded the dojo on the grounds of the Higashi Hongan-ji Mission, across the road from the naval academy.  The dojo in Vladivostok was run by six hand-picked men to specifically cater to young Russian military officers.  Japan would be at war with Russia by 1904. With their substantial funding, the Genyōsha and Kokuryūkai were able to establish an extensive infrastructure to aid in their intelligence activities. Along with a training establishment in Sapporo for the training of agents, the Genyōsha would also found a Chinese headquarters (HQ) at Hankou, with a bran...

At the end of the 19th and into the early 20th century, the access abroad obtainable to ‘Jiu-jitsu’ (as it was commonly referred to at the time) men (often wrestlers) was quite extraordinary.  These men spread out across the globe - Asia, North and South America, Europe - the interest in Japanese martial arts, especially unarmed methods, was riding high.   Jiu-jitsu, including Judo, was demonstrated at the Whitehouse, and demonstration and teaching was commonly carried out at western military academies and law enforcement institutions. Early pioneers found what was to be a most excellent occupation in terms of accessing people and places and enabling movement from place to place. The SOE gave the following advice to its agents in training with regards to their selected occupation, as part of their cover: a. Cover occupation …a real one is best.  An occupation is necessary:- i To account for presence in locality. ii To explain the source of livelihood… The Job which you...

To understand the breadth of Japanese intelligence operations during the period of the Empire of Japan, let us consider their interaction with the Netherlands East Indies from around 1914 through to 1942.  We see here the massive scale of the Japanese intelligence machine at the time and the long-term vision of those committed to their cause. Japanese Fishermen as the Vanguard of the Navy A few thousand Japanese fishermen acted in and about the Netherlands Indian seas as forerunners of Japanese expansionism and as auxiliaries to the Japanese Navy...  Admiral Nobumasa Suetsugu, formerly commander of the combined Japanese Navy, subsequently Minister for Home Affairs, declared... that these fishermen had an important task to fulfil in the Japanese march towards the south. ...Already in 1914... they took up a threatening attitude against Netherlands rule, especially on the island of Dobo between Timor and Australia.  On the expert advice of the Japanese Naval S...

I retrieved the following from the Australian War Memorial, under the title  Annexure to intelligence Summary No.9 of 4 April 1942 “History of Espionage in NEI”.   In the previous post, I noted that Japan's war in the Pacific really begins with the establishment of 'The Empire of Japan' with the restoration of Emperor Meiji.    We must now begin to plant the seeds of understanding that along with political and military maneuvers, there were substantial and long-term supporting intelligence operations also taking place.

In my last post I did a quick review of a book looking at the Zigzag (Chapman, above) case during the second world war.  One of the problems of the Abwehr (Geman Military Intelligence), bearing in mind it is sometimes questionable how successful they wanted to be, hearkens back to the post I did on intelligence problems of the East India Company in early modern Afghanistan. Linking the success of controllers, and indeed the agency itself, with the success of an agent was a recipe for poor intelligence. The author described how the 'mutal dependence of spy and spymaster was not peculiar... it was the central defining flaw of the German secret service.' The small branches of the Abwehr, and even individuals within the branches, operated essentially in competition with each other - ones political worth and standing was essentially tied to the success of agents, in the Zigzag case this even included skimming money off the top of funds paid to the agent - there was therefore no ince...

Agent Zigzag follows the story of Eddie Chapman and his actions as a double agent during the second world war.  The story is truly remarkable. Chapman was an English criminal who along with his 'friends' had become quite successful at opening safes with explosives.  Whilst visiting the island of Jersey, he is arrested (the story of which includes the one factual time I have read of someone deliberately jumping through a glass window successfully).  'Luckily' for him, he broke the law in Jersey as well and is therefore imprisoned in Jersey rather than sent back to England to face in his estimation a fourteen year stretch. The war begins, and the Germans occupy Jersey, into which Chapman is released.  Along with Anthony Faramus he comes up with the idea of offering to spy for the Germans as a way to get back to England.  They are then both transferred to prison in France. Eventually the Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) interview Chapman and he convinces them...

Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare follows the main players and big events connected with the SOE and adjoining agencies throughout the second world war.  This book is an absolute page-turner!  Daring raids, weird weapons, ridiculous politics and stone cold killers make up the riveting tale of guerillas and commandos during the second world war. I picked this book up due to my interest in W E Fairbairn.  There are some interesting tidbits on Fairbairn and Sykes, however, they are not the focus here - the book does however give real context to the need for their brand of training. It is probably fair to say the central character in the book is  Sir Colin McVean Gubbins , who was the 'prime mover' of the SOE during the war.  At the outset of the war, Gubbins wrote two manuals on guerilla warfare, and like many believed the invasion of Britain was coming and they would be reduced to fighting this style of war.  One of his first jobs was setti...

For several years I have been compiling quite a few closed blogs, to be reference material for people who practice the same martial arts as myself.  It is important to understand what other people do - it is usually more than you think - and to be an ignorant martial artist is a shameful thing, especially with the ease of access we have to information nowadays. This was one of those things where everyone thinks it is a good idea, however, nobody uses it - so I have decided to bring most of the articles into one site and make it public. For the most part, I don't like to do much publicly in the martial arts world as it is unfortunately riddled with loons (in my experience) however I tend to do a fair bit of basic research on various topics and it is a shame to continually relegate those items to the bin. To begin I will be slowly moving basic 'what other people do' style articles across to this site, after which I will move some of the more detailed articles - I will also th...