OHANA  MARTIAL ARTS  ASSOCIATION​

Ed Parker's desire to build up American Karate as an entity in itself has been one of his main goals.  While the art originated in the Orient, America is a different environment, demanding different approaches and standards.  Through his first twenty years, two major projects - one success and the other failure - were devoted to that end.  Today, the world-famous Long Beach Internationals and snuffed hopes that created Action Karate Magazine still invoke strong reactions from the man behind both.

 

Concerning Action Karate, Parker believes that the five-issue life of what he hoped to establish as the voice of American Karate wasn't a total failure.  "At the time (1968-69), the leading magazine wouldn't even mention me," Parker recalls, "but when Action Karate came out, it forced them to come out with a second magazine, more liberal than the first, to fight us.  So although we folded, I think we accomplished in part what we set out to do, since now there was a newer, more liberal magazine on the market."

 

Ed Parker: The First Twenty Years  /  Inside Kung-Fu  /  May 1974