New Materials on Japanese American Martial Arts Training Now Available

Hoover has acquired and made available the papers of Hirozumi Ashizawa, which highlight the activities of Hokubei Butokukai (the North American Military Virtue Society), branch of the Dai Nippon Butokukai (the Great Japan Military Virtue Society) in California in the 1920s and 1930s. The North American branch was founded to train the second generation Japanese American Yamato-damashii(Japanese spirit) through martial arts. It organized study tours for Nisei to visit Japan, Korea, and Manchukuo. The collection includes numerous photographs of Hokubei Butokukaiactivities in the United States and abroad and family gatherings and Ashizawa’s immigration records and speech manuscripts to promote emperor worship and militaristic training upon his return to Japan.