Photo: Ed Ikuta, Black Belt magazine
"Look up his history. Musashi is the hero of Japan, yet he murdered innocent men, women and children for money. He was a 'stone killer' (assassin) They despised him when he was alive and canonised him when he was dead. Mark my words, that's what they'll do to me"
Count Dante speaking to Massad Ayoob in 'Black Belt Magazine' March 1976.
1st World Karate Tournament, July 28, 1963, in Chicago. Left to right: John Keehan, Roy Oshiro, Phil Koeppel, George Mattson, Mas Tsuroka, Robert Trias, Ed Parker, Anthony Mirikian, Harold Long, Jhoon Rhee, Kim and Wendell Reeves. - courtesy R. Trias
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Searching for Count Dante
a film by Floyd Webb
Was Keehan/Dante's choice of this name concious or coincendental? I bet J. Edgar Hoover was asking himself the same thing. Especially since Keehan/Dante got along so well with the brothers on the other side of the tracks. Will this make it into the film? I don't know right now, but it is some compelling information. One of the Count's lady friends accused him of teaching "...black guys martial arts to help them revolt against the man!" Or something like that. She won't agree to an interview to elaborate on that quote.
I came across the following while researching the name Black Dragon:
Satohata Takahashi a key figure in the Black Dragons was suspected of being associated with the Black Muslims leading to the arrest of the Honarable Elijah Muhammad during World War II as well as many others as stated in the article below.
From Black Scholar, Vol 24 No1
Satokata Takahashi and the Flowering of Black Messianic Nationalism "During World War II, some 125 African Americans were arrested for resisting the draft or exercising seditious behavior. The twenty or so persons held on the more serious charges included Elijah Muhammad of the Allah Temple of Islam, a religious association; Mittie Maud Lens Gordon 'the Peace Movement of Ethiopia, an African repatriation movement in the Garvey tradition; the Rev. Ethelbert A. Broaster of the International Reassemble of the Church of Freedom League, Inc., a black Hebrew organization; and Bishop David D. Erwin and General Lee Butler, leaders ofthe Pacific Movement 'the Eastern World, an emigrationist group.
The arrests brought to light the existence ofstrong, pro-Japanese sentiments amongAfrican Americans that the authorities, not to mention black middle-class spokespersons, quickly dismissed as the
uttering of a small number of fanatics. The reality, however, was that pro-Japan feelings among black workers as well as the black middle class had been building since the turn of the century, followingJapan's celebrated victory over the Russian fleet. This mood wrrs given greater impetus during the worstyears of the Great Depression by the appearance in Detroit ofaJapanese ndtional known as Major Satokata Takahashi, who took command ofan association known as The Development of Our Own.
Mr. Takahashi's initial organizing activities in Detroit, Chicago and
St. Louis, and the "ripple of efects" therefrom, led to the messianic expectation on the part ~tens of thousands ofAfrican Americans throughout the midwest, the upperand lower Mississippi Delta, east~central Oklahoma and theNew York New Jersey region thatJapan's imperial army would free them from the ravages ofAmerican racism. Through the employ of newspaper articles, FBIdocuments, military intelligence reports, and court records the author has reconstructed a history which, up until the present; had been almost completely forgotten."