James Yimm Lee was Bruce Lee's training partner, closest of friends, mentor, and co-instructor of the Oakland JKD school. After Bruce left to assume the role of "Kato" in the TV series, "Green Hornet" in 1966, James took over the instructor duties at the Oakland school, but Bruce was still the head instructor.

Before joining up with Bruce, James was already a well known and an established Sil Lum Gung Fu instructor and iron palm master in the Bay area. He was also a former weight lifter and amateur boxer. James was a welder by trade and made much of the JKD & Gung Fu training equipment for Bruce. He was a genius at developing martial arts equipment.


James was 20 years older than Bruce and was the elder of the JKD clan as well as being the "second in command" of the JKD group. James had converted his garage to a private martial arts studio, and conducted Jeet Kune Do & Gung Fu classes to a small exclusive group of ten or less students. Sifu Dill was fortunate to be accepted as one of these "ten" students in 1971 & 1972.



James died of lung cancer in December of 1972, just six months before Bruce passed away. James Lee left a legacy of martial arts excellence that is still often talked about in the martial arts community.


After finding out that I was honored by the JFJKD nucleus to be one guest speakers at the 3rd annual Bruce Lee banquet, many of our JKDA members requested a copy of the speech. Reflected below is the text of my presentation concerning James Lee and the Oakland school:

 

I would like to thank the nucleus for giving me this opportunity to speak tonight about my Sifu, James Lee, and the Oakland JKD school.

James Lee was 20 years older than Bruce, but they were best friends and training partners. When Bruce moved to Los Angeles , he turned the
Oakland JKD school over to James.

James was a man who wore many hats, he was truly a "renaissance" man.

He was of course a JKD instructor, a weightlifter, and was a welder by occupation. James even owned his own publishing company, Oriental Book Sales, and printed Bruce Lee's first book, "Chinese Gung Fu".

The Oakland school was not a big, elaborate, commercial operation, just the opposite, it was located in J ames's garage. You walk into his garage and it was lined on all three walls with training equipment. And most of that equipment was built by J ames, himself.

Over by the right wall as located his hydraulic kicking dummy, just in front of the stairway leading upstairs to his living quarters. On the left wall was the hanging bag on pulley system so it could be raised or lowered to a desired height. And on the back wall was the Mook Jon three arm dummy. Adjacent to the stairway was his " Lincoln " arc welder which was the small height as a chair. He used the welder as a "perch" where he would sit there like an eagle and watch everything that everyone was doing in class.

James handpicked all of his students, for example he interviewed me for over two hours before he accepted me as one of his personal JKD students. The O akland JKD classes were small and exclusive, with only 8-10 students in attendance. James only took those students who were sincere, open-minded, and willing to train hard and give him 100% effort in class.

There were no uniforms...you wore what you wanted as long as you perform the techniques. Many times James would wear slacks, sport shirt, and wing tip shoes. I usually just wore sweat pants, some guys wore blue jeans and biker boots. There were even times when i showed up in class wearing my navy uniform, because I didn't have time to change before class.

There were several interesting and sometimes humorous stories about my experiences with James at the Oakland school, but there just isn't enough time to share them with you tonight...perhaps another time.

Jeet Kune Do in Oakland was the essence of street combat. There were no rituals, no sport, no fancy acrobatics. Having served 15 years in law enforcement, I can testify that JKD really worked in the street. I was a criminal investigator who worked mainly homicides, organized crime, and narcotics. I have used Jeet Kune Do in the line of duty, and I would not be standing here tonight if it had not been for the effectiveness of JKD. I am indebted to Bruce for developing JKD, and to James for teaching it to me.

Bruce and James Lee not only gave us JKD techniques, but hey also set an example for us and influenced us in developing the fighting spirit and the "never give up" mindset which is need to function in today's society.

For example, several months before I left Oakland , James shared with me that he had lung cancer, and that he suspected that it was terminal.
People who are faced with the reality of their mortality, react in
different ways, such as withdrawing or seeking pity, etc...but not James Lee. What did he do? He was down in that garage working out and teaching JKD until the very end. He never missed a class, never complained, he just kept right on.


James Lee lived his life as a warrior...he died a warrior.