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All the foregoing may seem to be rather pointless and the importance attached to the distinction made between the two groups of karate practitioners called into question. However, it must be remembered that the proliferation of those less-than-qualified instructors had led to misconceptions of Japanese martial arts by many Americans and, by extension, to great misunderstandings about Japanese culture. These distortions have been almost impossible for the classical combative groups to overcome. As a result, the author has long felt that some discussion of the traditions of the Japanese people and how those traditions are expressed in contemporary martial arts is necessary. Accordingly, the task at hand has several facets. First of all, it will be useful to survey the history of karate. In addition, an overview of the history of Japan during its military period will help to clarify the traditions that sprang from that time. The changes in these traditions and the adoption of these changes by the nation as a whole will also be discussed, including the influences that such mass adoption had on the practice of karate in Japan. A basic problem to be addressed here, however, is the difference between that which truly belongs to the past, the traditional, and that which mimics it, the "traditionalistic"; the modern-day karate-ka (karate practioner) who demonstrates his skill on the gymnasium floor is not the same as the Okinawan peasant who faced the Japanese samurai in the seventeenth century. Similarities in form exist, to be sure, but an examination of the history of these arts and the society that produced them may help to distinguish the traditional mode of thought from the contemporary traditionalistic trend.