OVER 40 YEARS AGO, TAEKWONDO GRANDMASTER SUN T. CHOE ARRIVED IN AMERICA WITH THE HOPE OF BUILDING A BETTER LIFE FOR HIMSELF AND HIS YOUNG FAMILY. WE SAT DOWN WITH HIS SON, MASTER JAE Y. CHOE, TO TALK ABOUT THE GRANDMASTER’S REALIZED HOPE, AND HOW MASTER CHOE’S MARTIAL ARTS HAS HELPED COUNTLESS LAKELANDERS BUILD BETTER LIVES, TOO. The Lakelander: Yours is one of those classic American stories of arriving in the U.S. with very little and building a life and legacy. Could you share how and why you moved to Lakeland? Jae Y. Choe: My father, Grandmaster Choe, and his family were poor. He grew up on a farm in a rural area of South Korea. As a boy, he delivered the Stars and Stripes newspaper to American soldiers stationed at a nearby military base. Due to this exposure, he began learning English and became proficient rather quickly. When he served in Vietnam with the Korean Army and the White Horse division, he taught hand-to-hand combat to American soldiers. Due to his martial-arts skills and his understanding of English, his American students encouraged him to move to the States. Back then, and still to this day, every foreigner knows that America is a land of opportunity. Why my father chose Lakeland of all places is beyond me. He had the entire continental United States to choose from! Anyway, he had only $600 cash
and a suitcase when he arrived, while my mother, brother, and I stayed in Korea. I was four years old and my brother was two. There used to be an oldschool mom-n-pop pizza shop down the street from where we are now, and the owners let him sleep on a cot in the back while he searched for his first location. As you can imagine, my mother was anxiety ridden, awaiting word from my dad to see if he was OK. Remember, these were pre-internet days where dialing an operator to get international long-distance was the reality. TL: Your father achieved the highest possible rank in Taekwondo, but that isn’t his only remarkable achievement, right? JC: Throughout the years, my father earned many accolades. The ninth-degree black belt is indeed the highest rank to achieve in Taekwondo and to go beyond is a posthumous honor. Besides his rank and winning championship tournaments in South Korea, the number of students that he has taught would THE LAKELANDER 115