George Uchida (July 22, 1925 – August 6, 2004) was a

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

ka, wrestler, author, and coach. Uchida was the brother of San Jose Judo Coach Yosh Uchida. Uchida and other family members were sent to the Poston internment camp during World War II, following the signing of

Executive Order 9066 Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. This order authorized the secretary of war to prescribe certain ...

. He later served in the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in the field of military intelligence. He got key intelligence about Russian involvement in the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. Upon his return he enrolled in

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

majoring in physical education.

Competition

Uchida was a bronze medalist in the 1954 US National Championship for the sport of Judo. He wrestled at San Jose State in 1956, 1957, and 1958.

Coaching

In 1962, he was selected to be the Wrestling Coach at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

at Berkley. He hoped to establish Judo in the school as well. By 1972 he served as the Olympic Coach for the US Judo Olympic Team. He also served as the Coach for the US Pan American Team. He also served as the head coach for the National High School Championships in Judo.

Author

Uchida wrote ''Judo Contest Rules for the Amateur Athletic Union Judo Handbook''. He also co wrote ''Fundamentals of Judo''. In his later years he would be an IJF Level A referee.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uchida, George 1925 births 2004 deaths American male judoka American military personnel of Japanese descent Sports coaches from California Japanese-American internees