Chapter 13: Turning Point

After the war ended, Choi Hong Hi and Tae Hi Nam founded the Oh-do-kwan within the military and for military personnel only, although it had strong links with the civilian chung-do-kwan which Choi later founded in 1954. Choi claims to be the developer of the changhon set of patterns used by the International Taekwondo Federation, but some believe they came from Tae Hi Nam, who had much more experience and training in the martial arts than Choi, who was his commanding officer. Special groups of martial arts trained commandos were formed to fight against North Korean communist forces. Some of these groups distinguished themselves, including the 29th Infantry Division, which was formed on Che-ju Island in 1953 under the command of now General Choi Hong Hi. The unit was responsible for all Taekkyon training in the Korean Army (their flag was a martial arts fist). Another distinguished unit was the Black Tigers, an elite commando unit involved in espionage missions behind enemy lines, including assassinations.

In September 1953, Hwang Kee (Moo-duk-kwan) resigned from the Korea Kong-Soo-Do Association and formed the Korea Tang-Soo Association, but it was renamed in 1960 to the more Korean name the Subak-Do Association. Hwang's first manual was published in 1950. The style taught by the Mu-duk-kwan was first called Hwasudo (flowering hand way), which was changed to Tang-soo-do in the early 1950's to reflect Korea's long cultural brotherhood with China. Hwang discovered a copy of the Muye dobo t'ongji (c. 1790s) in 1957 and began to study it extensively, using it to link Tang-soo-do to the pre-occupation martial arts tradition of Subak.