Chapter 16: Choi Hong Hi

In September of 1953, General Baek Sun Yuh, the Chief of Staff of the Korean Army, asked General Choi to create the 28th Division. Choi asked General Baek if this would be the last division created during the war? General Baek replied that one more division would be created in a few months. Choi asked Baek if he could create the last division, the 29th Infantry Division, and General Baek granted the request.

Choi organized and activated the crack 29th Infantry Division at Cheju Island off the South Korean coast. The division eventually became the spearhead of Taekkyon in the military. The first thing Choi did was to create a distinctive division flag. On the flag, the number two of the number 29 symbolized the divided Korean peninsula. The number nine symbolized a fist. The flag he thus was a fist over the Korean peninsula. After seeing the flag, people gave the 29th the nickname, "The Fist Division" or "Ik Keu Division" and later "The Taekwondo Division."

Choi's second task was to choose the division's command staff. To assist him in training the troop in military drills, he enlisted the aid of Colonel Ha Chung Kab and Lieutenant Colonel Kim Hwang Mok. He also recruited Master Nam Tae Hi and Master Nam Cha Kyo, both from Chung Do Kwan (Gym of the Blue Wave) to help him to train the soldiers in Tangsoodo. Although Choi still called the martial art Tangsoodo, the characteristic and quality of the techniques were now far different from the karate that he had practiced in Japan. A combination of Korean Taekkyon and Japanese Shotokan and Tang-soo formed the basis of his teachings, but at this point his art was much different from these arts.