Edited sentence: After independence from Japanese occupation, many of the martial arts schools in Korea were started by masters with varying degrees of training in Japanese (including karate), Chinese and Korean martial arts.Although major techniques of taekwondo differ from Japanese Karate and reflect influence from indigenous Korean martial arts such as taekyon, karate provided an important comparative model for the early founders of taekwondo in their formalization of a standard Korean martial art.Early taekwondo masters such as Choi Hong Hi had studied Shotokan karate under Funakoshi Gichin.Economic and social hardships of colonial Korea caused waves of migration of Koreans to mainland Japan and the few Koreans who were able to receive education in Japan were often exposed to Japanese martial arts.In 1955, at the behest of President Syngman Rhee, the dozens of Korean martial arts schools were standardized and the resulting construction became Taekwondo.Japan's occupation of Korea lasted from 1910 until 1945.Taekwondo also inherited from karate some kata and the  grade and dan rank system