Many US servicemen found the exercises and drills carried out by the Japanese ex-servicemen fascinating, so much so they wanted to join in and find out what the Japanese were doing. It was during the American armed forces' occupation of Japan after World War II that Westerners gained their first sight of karate-do. The literal meaning is 'empty hand way', emphasizing the lack of conventional weapons in this fighting art. Thus karate-do (along the lines of ju-do and aiki-do) was born in Japan. Two years later, Funakoshi discarded the word 'jutsu' in favour of the word 'do' ('the way of'). Therefore, the new karate-jutsu developed by Funakoshi meant 'empty'. In 1933, Funakoshi changed the concept of 'kara', which was originally written with the Chinese character meaning 'China hand', buy substituting another character for 'kara' signifying 'void' or empty. From the traditionalist point of view, Funakoshi must be considered the father of Japanese karate-do, as it is he who was responsible for making many important innovations to akrate-jutsu and who brought this Okinawan art to the Japanese, and later, the western world.
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