Gordon Warner
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Gordon Warner (October 24, 1912 – March 4, 2010)[1][2] was an American one-legged swordsman who became the highest-ranked westerner in the Japanese martial art of kendo.[3][4] He was also a world-record-holding breaststroke swimmer, a decorated World War II Marine officer, an academic in educational administration, and an author of books on kendo, the culture of Japan, and the history of the Ryukyu Islands.
Warner grew up among Nisei in Long Beach, California, and began watching Samurai cinema and studying Japanese martial arts as a teenager.[5][3] Tall and athletic, he became captain of the University of Southern California swim team,[6] and lived in a Japanese dorm.[5] On graduating in 1936 with a bachelor's degree in social science he joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve as a second lieutenant. At the urging of two senior officers, lieutenant colonel Anthony Biddle and captain Chesty Puller, he traveled to Tokyo in 1937 to continue his studies in Japanese martial arts. He became a student of Moriji Mochida and Masuda Shinsuke, and reached the rank of shodan in kendo two years later, also beginning to learn iaido,[6] but had to leave Japan in haste after the Kenpeitai learned from his correspondence that he was a Marine officer.[5] From 1939 to 1941, Warner was a teacher and swimming coach in Hawaii, at the Punahou Academy in Honolulu and then at Maui High School. In an exhibition event of the Palama invitational swim meet in Honolulu in 1939, he set the world record for the 220-yard breaststroke, previously held by Leonard Spence, with a time of 2:51.5.[6][7]
In 1941 he was called to United States Marine Corps service as a combat instructor at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. He was later deployed to the South Pacific,[6] where his fluency in the Japanese language allowed him to understand spoken orders from the Japanese and to confuse Japanese soldiers with false orders of his own.[8] He became the first to raise the American flag on Bougainville Island in the Landings at Cape Torokina in November 1943.[6] Less than a week later he lost his left leg when a tank he was commanding was attacked after taking out six machine gun nests.[6][8][9] He was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism in this battle,[8][9] and the Purple Heart for being injured while serving.[10]
