About Me: Samurai Sam

✅Growing up in Japan, I found a zen world full of nature, trees, and snakes.

My first memory is of seeing a snake in the park and wanting to touch it. Japan has a lot of water ways, as I recall seeing bridges rise up to let the boats go under while the cars waited.

My father trained in Kyokushin Karate with Master Mas Oyama,a Korean, books, plays and movies have been made of him. He was treated like shit but rose up and defeated all opponents. Japanese hate Koreans.

I am part Hawaiian-Korean, and thought I was Japanese, my mother had to explain that I am Han Chinese, her family escaped the Communism of China to find themselves enslaved in North Korea. She walked to South Korea during the Korean War. We moved to Japan.

I loved Japanese food, especially buckwheat noodles. I was in samurai heaven. Some thirty years later, I wondered about Japan, for I moved and lived in Lost Angeles, California. However, sometimes I returned to Japan to train with masters of samurai arts. I visited dojos in Tokyo to work out.

I grew up reading about Miyamoto Musashi and his "Book of Five Rings." However, one sensei or teacher, told me to not believe in the myth of the greatest swordsman. His martial arts teachers taught him that Musashi was not honest and would jump his opponents the night before the match and kill them. He would report that he defeated another master.

The way of the Samurai remains about honor. I have spent a life time teaching students in Korea and America. I love my students. I even taught a class on Samurai Cinema and Literature and another on Kurosawa. I am Doc Samurai Sam. I have many black belts! I have studied Kendo, Japanese Fencing for over 25 years. Next year, our club will go to Harvard to compete! My friend, a Korean Buddhist nun teaches at Harvard and will be there to greet us.

While dying in the hospital, I survived cancer twice by doing karate and developed samurai walking, walking in the hallways of MD Anderson Cancer Centrer for hours for 5 years fighting for my life, like a samurai.