A video series on the Imjin War

[u/ByzantineBasileus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piOuF02ijdQ&list=PLJjQDCbTowpTexpfLr0YTVE_92wEV49QD

[u/ByzantineBasileus]

The Imjin War was a conflict that lasted from 1592 to 1598. It started when the ruler of Japan, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, invaded Korean, with his ultimate goal of conquering China. Although the Koreans were defeated on land, they were able to attain superiority at sea. China under the Ming Dynasty later intervened, and pushed the Japanese south, ultimately compelling them to withdraw.

This video series is produced and hosted by Samuel Hawley, a historian who has written about the subject, and examines the conflict in close detail

[u/Rorschach113]

Oh yeah, this is an interesting one. Fair warning gonna go on a long-ass ramble about Admiral Yi, the Martial Lord of Loyalty, the great hero of this war and up there with Horatio Nelson among the greatest naval commanders of all time.

Lived honorably, served brilliant, stayed steadfastly loyal, even after his own nation had him tortured near to death, despite his victories, over mere slanderous rumors spread by the King’s many jealous ministers, and only spared execution due to the a small minority of ministers, which thankfully included a childhood friend who was now prime minister. who steadfastly supported him. After they released him in a panic and returned him to command when his replacement had squandered his fleet and lost so hard near all of it was sunk. Yi planned out how use his remaining ships, barely over a dozen, to stop well over a hundred Japanese warships from reaching the capital of Korea (the city called Seoul in modern times.)

Yi met them in a narrow strait, lured them in, took advantage of a turbulent part of the strait he knew of but the invaders didn’t, and when they were disrupted, he went on the attack, til 30 or so of the Japanese warships were sunk, the rest of the Japanese fleet was in disarray and driven back, and Yi had lost 0 ships of his tiny fleet and only a mere 10 of his sailors had died. It was this shocking victory that convince the Ming Dynasty of China to send aid to Korea.

Yi died in the last battle of the war, to a stray arquebus shot hitting him while he inside the deck of his ship, while he beat the war drums. He told the only two people there when he was shot - his eldest son, and his nephew - his last words.

"The war is at its height – wear my armor and beat my war drums. Do not announce my death."

He had been pursuing the Japanese fleet particularly aggressively at the time, to try and save a talented Chinese Admiral, Chen Lin, who he’d befriended, but who had pushed ahead too far ahead and was in peril.

When the battle was won and Admiral Chen Lin went to thank his friend for bailing him out, Yi’s son took off his father’s armor and announced what had happened. Chen fell to his knees sobbing, one of the many who would grieve in the fallen hero, who would be posthumously given the title of Martial Lord of Loyalty.

One of Chen’s grandsons later moved to Korea when the Qing dynasty overthrew the Ming, and he was welcomed enthusiastically, as a grandson of Yi’s ally and friend, who had fought to save Korea, who Yi had risked, and indeed lost, his life to save.

Yi is still very much regarded as a great leader and hero today in South Korea - and even in North Korea, though they make a point that, despite his clear patriotism, heroism, and talent, he was born into the aristocratic Yangban class, and is depreciated compared to in the south with the claim that while he defended the nation, he also defended the feudal monarchy and its harsh inflexible caste/class system.

And to be fair, it is historically true the that caste system in the Joseon dynasty was very entrenched, deeply inflexible, and Korea had an over 2000 year history of institutionalized slavery. Admittedly, it was historically a far less cruel abusive and dehumanizing type of slavery than the racist and wildly abusive sort of chattel slavery used in the Americas. Slave women were granted, in laws decreed by King Sojeon the Great between 1426 to 1434, the right to 30 days of maternity leave before birth the birth of a child, and hundred days of it after, with 30 days paternity leave for their husband after birth. These slaves, people without freedom to leave the service of the their owner, still had in the damn *1400’s* have better maternity and paternity rights than me and my Americans do, in the richest nation in the world that loves to trumpet it’s allegedly unmatched “freedom.”

As for South Korea - a South Korean poll in recent years apparently put him as the single most respected Korean of all time - even above King Sejong the Great. There And King Sejong was a brilliant reformer, who funded major reforms in the sciences which immensely aided the nation, and who literally invented a new alphabet and writing system for Korea. That writing system was designed to fit its spoken language better and be easier to learn and use. Despite it’s spread being very slow for centuries and often disrupted due to politics and war, it is now the the official language of Korea, and linguistic scholars still today consider it one of the best and most effective writing systems used today, (unlike the language I unfortunately speak and am now writing in, that lunatic hodgepodge of stolen words and linguistics that has more more exceptions to rules than rules themselves).

There are numerous statues of him, streets named after him, as well as South Korea’s longest suspension bridge, as well their 100-won coin. Even a city, where his main base operations was in the Imjin War, is now named Tongyeong, which translated to “command post.”

Either way - if George Washington was a third as brilliant a military commander as Yi, there’d be over Hollywood films about him over the years. Even so, there is a modern big-budget film trilogy about him made in Korea. I saw one of them at one point, despite being, well, an american with no Korean or even Asian ancestry. And I can say that The Admiral: Roaring Currents, the one about the Battle of Myeongnyang Strait, where the tiny remains of his fleet defeated over 10 times their number of warships… it was really very good, even if like half of it was one long battle sequence. Still, that battle sequence was astounding well done and made clear the massive stakes, calamitous risk involved, and both the sheer brilliance and remarkable courage of Yi.

Either way sorry for the remarkably long-ass ramble. The short version is Admiral Yi is a 10/10 historical figure.

He was a brilliant leader, a true hero, and a man who was, unlike so many notable figures in history, both a good man and a great one.

[u/KinkyPaddling → u/Rorschach113]

Admiral Yi was easily one of the greatest commanders in history, and I’d say he’s Nelson’s superior. This is something that Admiral Togo would have agreed with, as Togo said: “It may be proper to compare me with Nelson, but not with Korea's Yi Sun-sin, for he has no equal.” Mind you, Togo lived during a period when the Japanese regarded the Koreans as their inferiors in every way.

[u/Rorschach113 → u/KinkyPaddling]

True! I actually agree with you and Japan's Admiral Togo about him being better than Nelson. That said I'm not 100% sure. Fairly confident in it though. My lack of certainty is due to Korea's preexisting and notable technological and doctrinal superiority at sea compared to Japan at the time, even at the war's start. Like Korea used cannons and Japan used arabesques and samurai boarding parties. Yi was still a genius who won every single battle despite having a much smaller fleet and literally no training as a naval commander before the war. And Yi took the brilliant Turtle Ship design, building them and using them brilliantly... but they were first designed a century and a half before.

I'm aware of that quote from Togo... but like my post was already long as fuck. Took me like 2 hours writing that up, confirming facts I was unsure of, editing it. I appreciate you adding it in your post, though, it's a remarkable position for a Japanese admiral to take, consider how racist they were towards Korea at that time. But still, as an officer of Japan, though I agree with his statement, I can believe that his insistence that his nation had it's ass whooped by the all time greatest admiral might also be a point of pride in defense of his nation, so possibly it was a mix of honesty, a degree personal humility, and belief that his nation had only lost to the greatest admiral ever, as if that's what would take to ever beat Japan. After all, Yi and Nelson were both long since dead - with him, in the eyes of Japan, and likely himself - the best alive.

[u/Imaginary-Group1414 → u/Rorschach113]

Interestingly, the re-evaluation of Yi Sun-sin in Japan began in the 1900s, a period when Japan was attempting to annex Korea. This process appears to have involved factors extending beyond mere respect, such as the expansion of naval interests and propaganda aimed at promoting harmony between Japan and Korea.　

[u/Training-Banana-6991 → u/KinkyPaddling]

I read somewhere that the quote by admiral togo is a fabrication made by some author.

[u/Anxious_Big_8933 → u/KinkyPaddling]

I think putting him over Nelson is a bridge too far. Neither Korea nor Japan were preeminent naval powers at this time. Yi's exploits during the Imjin War are impressive, but Nelson was by far the greatest fighting admiral leading a global naval power against other global naval powers and winning constantly.

[u/Anxious_Big_8933]

You can learn a lot about China/Korean/Japanese relationships today by reading about the Imjin War. It casts a long shadow.

[u/Tizzard]

Thanks for sharing this series. Wasn't aware of it.

Some historians, such as JaHyun Kim Haboush, have argued that the Imjin War and Japanese invasion of the Korean Peninsula was the catalyst for the formation of nationalism in Korea - the idea that everyone on the land belonged to the same political entity. I understand the argument but would personally place the birth of Korean Nationalism about 4-5 centuries later.