Story: Martial arts

Intelligence officer Rod Miller (centre, with beret) and other New Zealand members of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces are shown with Japan's police judo training unit in 1947. While stationed at Matsue in southern Japan, some members of the force learned judo. Listen to Miller describing how his sergeant used him as a sparring partner. Servicemen stationed in Japan helped popularise martial arts in New Zealand after their return home.

Transcript

Two or three of our guys learnt judo. They learnt it at the police academy in the town. One of our guys got very good. On one occasion we was sitting in this sort of parlour, the parlour being a room that had a special kind of hangs on the wall and a better quality sliding doors. Then there was a verandah that ran round the house and in the summertime, cos got very hot, we would open all the windows and all the sliding doors and sit on the verandah. Anyway, on this occasion cos it was winter, my sergeant decided to demonstrate how he'd learnt a new judo hold or pass, which included lying backwards, throwing yourself backwards, grabbing his opponent by whatever bits of clothing he could catch hold of, putting these feet in his opponent's stomach and then letting go. And of course he demonstrated it on me and I became a missile, I went through two lots of sliding doors and the outside wall and ended up on the road!