The system of knife fighting presented in this manual has been used to train tens of thousands of men and women for more than half a century. It originated in the 1930s in the International Settlement at Shanghai, China, under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel William Ewart Fairbairn, then Assistant Commissioner of the Shanghai Municipal Police; his son, Major John Edwin Fairbairn; and Major Eric Anthony Sykes, then officer in charge of the Shanghai Municipal Police Sniper's Unit. These techniques were subsequently modified by practical experience gained in hundreds of documented encounters with members of the Shanghai criminal underworld; by experience gained during the Sino-Japanese War; by a continuing program of instruction presented to the 4th and 6th Regiments of the U.S. Marine Corps, stationed in Shanghai; instruction presented to British colonial police all over Asia; and during World War II by British and American soldiers and marines.
