History ofTaekwon-Do

General Choi’s journey to develop Taekwon-Do began with his prior knowledge of Taek Kyon, the ancient Korean art of foot fighting, and his study of Karate in Japan during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Soon after Korea was liberated in 1945, he was placed in a privileged position as a founding member of the newly formed South Korean Armed Forces.

The former provided him with a definite sense of creation, and the latter gave him the power to disseminate Taekwon-Do throughout the entire armed forces, despite furious opposition.

The emergence of Taekwon-Do as an international martial art in a relatively short period of time was due to a variety of factors. The evils of contemporary society (moral corruption, materialism, selfishness) had created a spiritual vacuum. Taekwon-Do was able to compensate for the prevailing sense of emptiness, distrust, decadence and lack of confidence.

In addition, these were violent times, when people felt the need for a means of protecting themselves, and the superiority of Taekwon-Do technique came to be widely recognised. General Choi’s social stature, the advantage of being Taekwon-Do’s founder and his wonderful health also contributed to the rapid growth of Taekwon-Do all over the world.

General Choi had been born frail and weak and was encouraged to learn Taek Kyon at the age of fifteen by his teacher of calligraphy. In 1938, a few days before he was due to leave Korea to study in Japan, he was involved in an unexpected incident that would have made it difficult to return home without risk of reprisals.

He resolved to become a black belt holder in Karate while he was in Japan. The skills he acquired were sufficient protection against those who might seek to do him harm. Not only was he able to return to Korea, but he subsequently initiated the national liberation movement known as the Pyongyang Student Soldier’s Incident. Like so many patriots in the long course of human history, his actions aroused the wrath of those in positions of power, and he was imprisoned for a time in a Japanese army jail. In January of 1946, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the fledgling Republic of Korea army and posted to the 4th infantry regiment in Kwangju, Cholla Namdo Province as a company commander.

General Choi began to teach Karate to his soldiers as a means of physical and mental training. It was then that he realised that they needed to develop their own national martial art, superior in both spirit and technique to Japanese Karate. With this in mind he began to develop new techniques systematically. By the end of 1954 he had nearly completed the foundation of a new martial art for Korea, and therefore, on 11 April 1955, it was given the name “Taekwon-Do”.

Although Karate and Taek Kyon were used as references in the course of study, the fundamental theories and principles of Taekwon-Do are totally different from those of any other martial art in the world. General Choi formulated the following basic ideals for Taekwon-Do practitioners: