Ten Tigers, as with (sadly) alot of MA, the version of the ‘history’ of Ken(m)po you get depends alot on who is telling you the story. Several years ago tried to figure it all out and separate facts from opinions. For what it is worth, here is what I came up with. Anyplace where I express my opinion on matters, I try to give some explanation of the thought process I used to ‘fill in the gaps’.
In my original work on this subject I had footnoted all of of my sources, but I cant find that right now, so this will be mostly from memory; but the primary sources I used were interviews with several of the people who ‘were there’ including Professor Emperado, Ed Parker, GM John McSweeny, the Tracy’s , etc. Also, after the Chow/Mitose the branch I followed came from Ed Parker, so the other branches will have to wait till I have alot more free time 
So here is what I came up with.
William Chow most certainly knew some Martial art before he met James Mitose, and logically he would have learned it from his father, Hoon Chow. Hoon is alternately credited with being a some sort of Shaolin monk, to others claiming he had no martial arts training at all. As with most controversies, I would imagine the true lies somewhere in the middle. My best guess is that William and Frank Chow both studied a southern style ‘Chuan Fa’ system under their father. However I believe it was in a less formal atmosphere and to a less detailed degree than some would suggest.
There are two reasons I say this. One is that Hoon did not live in the United States for long, as he returned to Mainland China, not really leaving enough time to teach an entire kung fu system to his children. My second reason is that if the Chows were formally educated in a family kung fu system, I don’t think William would not have studied under Grand Master Mitose , as culturally this would not be acceptable. If you had mastered your families’ kung fu system, why would you want to learn some “inferior” system, from a Japanese, nonetheless? I dont have them available right now, But I have seen picture’s from the original school in Hawaii with James Mitose sitting in the traditional spot of the ‘master’ with William Chow clearly a student. Ask yourself this with your knowledge of Chinese martail arts masters…would someone who was an inheritor of their family’s ‘gar’ or family style be sitting cross legged at the feet of a Japanese teacher?
Now, Mitose’s family style of Kosho-Ryu Kempo was probably also at least ‘influenced’ by chinese MA, but that is a whole other story.
So to me it is clear that Chow was a student of Mitose’s. How much of what Chow ended up teaching came from Mitose I have no idea.
The next Chapter would be Ed Parker. Ed Parkers first exposuer to kenpo was through <b> Frank </b> Chow, not William Chow. This happened in Utah. Ed spent time with Frank , who was not ever a student of Mitose, so what he learned from Frank must have been whatever Hoon Chow taught his boys. Later when Ed Parker went to Hawaii he looked up William Chow. Ed also was a student of Mitose. Again, there is some revisionist histoy in some quarters about this, and since the death of Ed Parker some people would like to deny this, but it is true.
When Ed Parker moved to Ca and started teaching, he must have been teaching a combonation of what he learned from both Chow and Mitose. What the the breakdwon was, I have no idea, and my guess is the real truth died with GM Parker.
After teaching for a what he learned from Chow and Mitose, GM Parker changed what he was teaching. Rather than re - write this, I will ‘Cut and paste’ and interview from GM John McSweeny ‘who was there’ at the time.
Question seven: Kenpo’s history tells us originally Kenpo had very few classical forms. We know Master Parker included six forms to this style after he came to the United States. Could you tell us how Master Parker went about creating his Kenpo forms and why he decided to add them to his system?
"When Parker came to America from Hawaii, he studied at Brigham Young where he got his degree in 1957, and as soon as he got his degree, he went to Pasadena, California and opened his school. He had not learned any forms and sets from Chow. He learned strictly self-defense techniques and sparring, so he was excellent in both. He created his short form one himself. Then he created another form called the Book Form, which is in his first book, “Secrets in Chinese Kenpo.” It was a two-man form, that each man did individually, then at the end, they combined to show what the moves were for.
"In 1961 I went to Phoenix, Arizona after I had been with Parker for a few years. I was a brown belt. I trained with Bob Trias for a week because I was there on business. Bob was a former marine who brought Japanese-style Karate to America, even before Parker. Parker started Kenpo, but Trias, to my knowledge, was the first American Karate man who brought it to America. He started in Phoenix in 1955. He was a big fellow. About 6 foot 7, and 260 pounds. He was a hard hitter. Now with that kind of physique, you can understand, he would be going for power. So when I trained with him, he said my sparring was OK, and so was my self-defense. He had a high regard for the “Hawaiian boy,” which he called Parker.
"But he said ‘one thing you don’t have, and tell Parker this, is that you don’t have any forms’. So I went back to Parker in the summer of 61, and I informed him of what Trias said, and he looked at me, didn’t say anything to me. The next day I was with him before training class, he looked over to me and said, ‘You know, I’ve been thinking about what Trias told you, and he’s right. I don’t have any forms, I don’t have any sets. Just some simple stuff I created myself.’
"Then he said, ‘I’m going to solve this problem.’ And within a month he brought down Jimmy Wu from San Francisco, who was a Kung Fu man, a specialist in White Crane and Tai Chi, and other animal sets, but he especially loved the internal arts. So, Jimmy Wu lived with Parker for a full 12 months. Parker paid his room and board, but unfortunately, not any salary, and that’s why Jimmy Wu left us eventually, because he needed more money to survive and Parker gave very little, not enough for his needs, so he left.
"But before he left, Jimmy Wu created our forms. I was there when he created them, with the other belts like Al Tracy and Jimmy Ebrao and Rich Montgomery, guys who were my seniors at Kenpo. I was in the group, and we learned these forms together from Jimmy Wu. Parker learned the forms too, but then Parker made his own adjustments, especially to form one, two and three. He made more linear moves and some Kenpo moves in form two, but if you notice in forms four, five and six, they have the Chinese influence exclusively.
"I would say there was 90% Jimmy Wu and 10% Parker in those forms, and forms one through three would be half and half, Parker and Wu. But without Jimmy Wu, we wouldn’t have had forms one through six, a lot of people don’t realize that, and it’s essentially Chinese and that’s the basis of Parkers forms.
So depending on when you studied with GM Parker you learned quite a different system, one more ‘chinese’ than the other. Also, what is known as the ‘book set’ differs depending on which printing of Ed Parkers ‘Secrets of Chinese Kempo’ book you get. I heard a story of why it was changed, but being unable to confirm it, I wont spead that story.
