Judo: Dear Abby — Judo as Religion

November 1960

Dear Abby,
Our daughter is 19 and away at school. She writes that she is going with a man who teaches judo. We are good Christians. Are we wrong for wanting her to go with people of her own faith?
K.H.V.

Dear Mrs. K.H.V.,
JUDO is short for JUJITSU–the art of self-defense without weapons. Better check the man’s spiritual weapons.

Addendum: the next week this appeared in the Dear Abby column.

Dear Abby,
You stated that Judo was short for Jiujitsu. You are mistaken. Judo is a sport and Jiujitsu is the weaponless art of self-defense in which the aggressive movements of the attacker are used against himself by the use of leverage and off-balancing techniques. You are forgiven, however, because very few people know the difference.
JUDO INSTRUCTOR

Other examples of Dear Abby columns related to judo follow:

“If we all insist on ‘an eye for an eye,’ soon the whole world will be blind.”
Gandhi