Kyu Ha Kim Inducted 1994 Kyu Ha Kim began his martial arts training in his home village at the age of five; his first teacher was his elder half-brother, Kyu Tae Kim. At fifteen, Kyu Ha Km entered Tae Jon High School and began formal martial arts training under Han...

Jim Onchi Inducted 1994 In 1932 Jim met and attended a Judo clinic that Japan’s Judo founder, Professor Jigoro Kano, presented when he came to Portland. This must have been a pivotal time for Jim to meet and train directly from the founder of Judo and to learn his...

Hideo Hama Inducted 1993 Tak Mizuta wrote: The following are anecdotal incidents regarding Sensei Hama. During the mid and late 1930s, I practiced judo at the Yakima (Wapato, Washington) Dojo. Sensei Hama occasionallly dropped in to our practices. I remember him...

Eichi Koiwai Inducted 1993 Eichi Karl Koiwai, M.D. (February 21, 1920 – February 23, 2009) was the president of the United States Judo Federation (USJF) in 1973 and 1974 and the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee in 1973. Koiwai was the chairman of the...

Joseph Fitzsimmons Inducted 2016 Dr Fitzsimmons tells his own story. I was born in Piqua, Ohio, a small farming community, on January 31, 1924. I am now 92 years of age. I attended St. Mary’s Grade school. I flunked the second grade, probably because I was deaf in the...

Mas Yamashita Inducted 1994 Beyond his devotion to family, Mas had two passions: judo and service to youth. For more than seventy years, Mas combined these two passions as an instructor of judo to the youth of Treasure Valley. In 1939, Mas was instrumental in founding...