I first heard about Japanese Kendo, or fencing, when I was at Molder A School from a fellow classmate named Tom Kitchen. Tom was very much into the Martial Arts, and was pretty good at it.
When Hector came over on its 1973/74 WESPAC tour, I decided to see about Kendo and give it a go.
After asking around and dealing with the language barrier, I finally found this little four-room dojo in Sasebo across from the fire station. Again, with a bout of language problems, I let them know I wanted to try and learn Kendo. So I was told to take off my shoes and socks, and start doing the footwork I needed to learn before anything else. All the other students were all just kids, and me with my American build rose above them like King Kong.
One of the kids was a mix of American and Japanese, and could speak English and Nippon, so it was a little easier to communicate with the sensei (instructor) for much of the time. But that kid wasn't there every day, so I still had some language-barrier problems.
After a few hours, my feet literally burned from the sliding across the wood floor, blisters were popping and now my feet started to bleed. I left bloody foot prints as I went, but I kept going. Every day after work except on duty days, or when the ship was out of port, I would be over there doing my foot work.
After a week or so, my feet began to heal and toughen, and the blood was now being wiped away from me sliding my feet over the same boards on the floor. When the sensei saw I was now cleaning the blood off the floor, I was told to go by a shinai, or bamboo sword, and learn how to hold it. So now, still in my civvies, but now with a shinai, I did my footwork. After a few days, I started to learn basic movements with the shinai, and then I was told to buy a Gi and Hakuma, or jacket and pants, to wear instead of my civvies.
As more time went on and I got more proficient with my movements and skills, I was told to purchase my various pieces of "Bogu", or body armor, to wear for protection. I went to a few places in town to get what I could, but because I was so large, some of it had to be specially ordered. The "men" or helmet was one such item.
I got to be as good as most of the other kids in the class, and we all seemed to be getting along OK too. One day, on my way over to the dojo, I stopped at the exchange and bought a couple boxes of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum. I kept it in the bag when I got to school and put it way up on top of the locker where they couldn't get at it, and we had class. All through the class, the others were eyeballing the bag and chattering about what it may contain, but I wasn't letting them in on it. At the end of the class, I told them I had a pack of gum for each of them and they were real excited about it. After I passed it out, it was clear that many of them had no idea how to chew gum...some kids just ate it!
As time went on, we finally had some matches and I had to the fight other students. After weeks of doing all the steps and movements in a straight line, I wasn't quite sure what to do in a fight. I lost my first one. But I also learned it was a FIGHT and I could do other moves and stuff too! I won my second match.
After a time, I got into a spot of trouble and had to be restricted, and Hector was going to be heading home, and my kendo gear was over at the dojo where I couldn't go. I bribed a shipmate to go over and get it, and he wasn't sure about what he was getting into...But he did the job and my Kendo gear was going home with me.
In 1975, Hector did not go to Sasebo, but to Guam, and then to Yokosuka, and that's when I was separated from active duty, so I never got to see any of my little Kendo buddies any more. Once out of the Navy, I thought Kendo was a past memory.
Upon a visit to my friend in Seattle, we went to a Martial Arts show at a mall and there was some Kendo being done! I asked around about Kendo being done down in my home city of Portland, Oregon and found there was. Soon, I was back at it, and doing pretty well. I already had most of the basics, and all I needed was a bit of toughening up.
I then got into trouble with a divorce and some other personal problems, so Kendo had to take a back burner, and my bogu sat in storage.
I got remarried and moved to Alaska. HEY! I found they had a Kendo club up here, too! I joined. Met some wonderful people. Had a lot of good times. But, age and my feet were getting out of control. I couldn't do much footwork anymore. It just plain hurt to do it. Then I ruptured a disc in my back and that was the end of my Kendo days.
I still have all my stuff. It is ready to go. But I just can't part with it after all these wonderful years.
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