In 1945, shortly after the end of WWII, Martial Arts schools began opening in Seoul, South Korea. The schools were opened by Korean Martial Artists with backgrounds in Japanese and Chinese fighting styles. At the time, indigenous Korean forms of Martial Arts, or Taekkyon, were slowly being forgotten even though they had been around since documented in 50 B.C. due to the Japanese rule for the last 40 years. In 1952, during the Korean War, president Syngman Rhee witnessed a demonstration by ROK army officers from the 29th infantry division. He thought they were performing Taekkyon and ordered martial arts to be introduced to the army under a single system. Until then Tae Soo Do was the term used for Korean karate. Eventually, Korean Martial Artists advocated for the use of the name taekwondo meaning tae, “to stomp or trample”, kwon “fist”, and do “way, discipline”. It was also the...
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