son to attend. Luckily, judo was perhaps the most widespread martial art in the area at the time, with a number of quality schools available. Suenaka ultimately studied judo at two different schools under three instructors: Higami Sensei at Honolulu’s Shobukan (“We called him ‘Rubber Man,’ because he was so limber”); Yukiso Yamamato, who taught at the local YBA (Young Buddhist Association) hall; and Matsumoto Sensei (“I never knew his first name,’’ Suenaka says. “We just called him ‘Sensei’.”), a member of Japan’s Kodokan, who taught at his own local school. Suenaka at first studied primarily with Higami, though he soon found himself drawn more to study under Yamamoto. Personality and not quality of instruction was the reason. Suenaka remembers Higami as being “too hard. When we got something wrong, he would whack us with a stick!” Eventually, Suenaka’s judo instruction took place exclusively under Yamamoto and Matsumoto, with Yamamoto the primary instructor. Of course, Warren Suenaka was always there to offer his son additional instruction and advice.
Left to right: Tanaka Sensei, Warren Suenaka, Roy Suenaka, “Ike” Ikehara Sensei, at the YBA (Young Buddhist Association) hall in Honolulu; 1954
As one can imagine, Suenaka’s childhood was extremely active, with little time for the carefree play normally associated with youth. The young martial artist would rise just in time to make it to school by 8:00 am. When classes ended at 3:00 pm, and his fellow classmates would spend the rest of the afternoon playing sports or hanging out with friends, Suenaka would spend a brief time in exercise, usually running or working out in the school gym, before heading to Okazaki’s dojo to train. Once study under Mitose began, there was no longer time after school for free exercise. Suenaka would leave school and immediately walk or hop a bus the three miles or so to the Okazaki dojo in downtown Honolulu, where he would spend anywhere from ninety minutes to two hours in hard practice. Around five o’clock or so, Suenaka would dash home, staying there only long enough to change and grab a quick bite to eat before heading off for Mitoses dojo for another hour or two of study or, when his judo study began, a couple hours at the YBA. Finally, at around seven-thirty in the evening, Suenaka would return home for the day, leaving him with just enough time to bathe, eat, do his homework, and go to bed. Weekends were not much different, with his training augmented by lessons under his father. Of course, there were those rare free moments where he could relax with his friends on the beautiful beaches of his home, but in all, young Roy Suenaka spent an average of thirty hours a week in hard training, an incredible schedule for a boy barely into his teens.
By the age of thirteen, Suenaka already possessed the martial skills and discipline of a man twice his age, forged by nine years of hard study under his father and many of the world’s most celebrated contemporary Japanese martial masters. While he was to augment his skill in these and other arts with later training, his early years perhaps only set the stage for his introduction to the art to which he would ultimately devote his life: aikido.
CHAPTER TWO
Shinbashi
By 1953, Suenaka’s training reached a turning point. Henry Okazaki was now gone, having passed away a year earlier, while James Mitose had relocated to Los Angeles not long after. Both events strongly affected Suenaka: “Both my great teachers were gone.” Somewhat disillusioned, and without the constant impetus of his accustomed teachers, twelve year-old Suenaka cut back on his jujutsu and kempo training, although his judo study continued as usual. Still, there existed a void—more emotional than physical—created by the absence of the two men who, other than his father, exerted the greatest influence in shaping him physically and spiritually. In retrospect, however, it appears that the departure of Okazaki and Mitose merely signaled the end of the first stage of Suenaka’s martial evolution; it could be said these two teachers were made a part of his life in order to lay the foundation for his first meeting with a man who would later become more important to him than either of his former mentors.
In February of 1961, aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba O’Sensei was invited to Hawaii to preside over opening ceremonies of the first aikido dojo established there. At a farewell party held in his honor just before his departure, O’Sensei briefly addressed the assembled well-wishers, summarizing his feelings thusly:
“The reason I am going to Hawaii is to build a “silver bridge” of understanding. I have been building a ‘golden bridge’ within Japan, but I also wanted to build bridges overseas and, through aikido, to cultivate mutual understanding between East and West. I want to build bridges everywhere and connect all people through harmony and love. This I believe to be the task of aikido.” (The Spirit of Aikido, Kisshomaru Ueshiba)
Although O’Sensei’s first and only visit to Hawaii did not occur until 1961, construction of his “silver bridge,” or shinbashi, began with another man’s earlier visit. Katsuzo Nishi, a wealthy local businessman and owner of the Nishi Kai health club in Honolulu, extended to O’Sensei a formal invitation to send a representative to Hawaii to demonstrate the art that had impressed him so much during an earlier visit to Japan. In response, in February of 1953, O’Sensei dispatched Koichi Tohei Sensei to Oahu as his ambassador.
Born January 17, 1920, Koichi Tohei had just turned thirty-three years old at the time of this historic first visit. Having begun his study of what was then known as aiki-budo in 1939, by 1953 Tohei was ranked hachidan (eighth degree black belt) and was shihan bucho (chief instructor) at the Aikikai Hombu headquarters dojo in Tokyo. This, understandably, made him a natural choice to introduce this relatively new martial art to the Western world. Not surprisingly, the Hawaiian martial arts community was buzzing with anticipation of Tohei Sensei’s visit. As Suenaka recalls, “Everybody got all excited and said, ‘Hey, this is a new martial art, they say it’s better than anything around.’” Also not surprisingly, Warren Suenaka learned early on through Nishi-san of the impending visit and made a point of attending Tohei’s first Hawaiian demonstration. Naturally, he took his sons with him.
Suenaka Sensei with Shin-Shin Toitsu Aikido founder Koichi Tohei at a party in Punaluu honoring O’Senseis Hawaiian visit; March, 1961.
Tohei Sensei’s first Hawaiian aikido demonstration took place at the Nishi Kai and was attended by the Nishi Kai membership and invited guests, which included many of the area’s prominent martial artists, among them Yukiso Yamamoto; karateka “Koa” Kimura (who would later shift his study to aikido and ally himself with Tohei’s Ki no Kenkyukai before breaking away to found his own organization): judoka Kazuto Sugimoto; noted kendoka and respected local business-man Isao Takahashi; and judoka and Okinawan Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler Oki Shikina. Suenaka has vivid memories of this important event:
“[The demonstration observers] took part in the demonstration and, naturally, they resisted, they tried to really, really overthrow [Tohei Sensei], and they couldn’t do it; he threw those guys around like nothing. Tohei Sensei was a bear. He was about five-feet three-inches tall, and at that time probably weighed about 180 pounds, so he was a bear—a big, little man—extremely powerful, and these guys could not hold him down. Even . . . Oki Shikina... he was thrown around, and said, ‘My, this guy is phenomenal.’ His demonstration was very impressive. But, at the same time, everyone who stepped onto the mat with him was very respectful of who he was, and why he was there. They tried hard to throw him, but they didn’t come at him full-force, as in a street-fighting situation. It was a very controlled situation.”
Suenaka and his father followed Tohei to several of the demonstrations he gave on Oahu, with the exception of a private demonstration given for the benefit of the local police. Tohei even gave a demonstration in the auditorium of Suenaka’s school, McKinley High, before traveling to the other islands in
