Category: Korea-History

Hideyoshi knew that to regain the military power to restart his campaign in Korea, he would need to eliminate Admiral Yi Sun-shin. Showing the cunning that Hideyoshi was famous for he decided that the best way to eliminate Yi was not through warfare, but Korean court intrigue.

The Japanese sent a soldier named Yoshira to the military camp of the Korean General Kim Eung-su where he convinced General Kim that he would be willing to spy on the Japanese military for him. General Kim fell for the plan and Yoshira supplied Kim with intelligence that led to a few Korean military victories that caused Kim to trust Yoshira even more.

Eventually Yoshira gave Kim information that Japanese General Kato Kiyomasa would be arriving on the Korean peninsula with his naval armada from Japan at a certain date and location. Yoshira suggested that Admiral Yi should be sent to ambush and sink the armada. General Kim sent a request to King Seonjo to have Yi ambush the Japanese armada. The king concurred and General Kim ordered Yi to ambush the Japanese armada. However, Yi refused the order because the area where the armada was to arrive was narrow and studded with underwater rocks. Yi relied on tactics and maneuvers to overcome numerically superior Japanese armadas. He knew that this location would lead to the destruction of his smaller fleet and refused to fight the Japanese there. Plus Yi felt the intelligence was dubious to begin with.

General Kim immediately informed King Seonjo of Yi’s noncompliance and unbelievably the King in 1597 during a time of war, had Korea’s best military commander and hero Admiral Yi arrested, imprisoned, and tortured over his noncompliance. King Seonjo also decided to have Admiral Won Kyun, who Yi had initially saved from the Japanese attack during the opening months of the war replace Yi. Won was another commander that heard served in both North Korea and in Cholla-do with Yi and was jealous of Yi’s success over the years. With General Kim’s help he took over Yi’s naval forces and became the head admiral of the Korean navy while Yi remained in prison.

The King wanted to have Yi executed, but his supporters at the royal court led by his childhood friend Prime Minister Yu Song-nyong were able to convince the king to spare Yi and instead, once again, Yi was demoted to the rank of a common infantry soldier. The ever honorable Yi executed his duties as soldier without complaint or ego. This reaction to such treachery committed against him only emboldened his image in the minds of the Korean populace.

Map depicting locations of major bases and battlefields during the 1592-1598 Japanese Invasion of Korea.

While Yi was executing his duties as an infantry soldier, Hideyoshi saw an opening to begin his second invasion of Korea in 1597 with Yi out of the way. Hideyoshi sent over a thousand ships to Korea filled with over 140,000 Japanese soldiers. The Korean and Chinese soldiers, however, were much better prepared for the second Japanese invasion. The combined Sino-Korean force were able to keep the Japanese bogged down in the southeastern portion of the country, while Admiral Won began his assault on the Japanese naval forces using the intelligence provided by the spy Yoshira. Won to his credit had also doubted the intelligence but felt compelled to obey the orders of the King. Won knowing full well the odds were against his success led the Korean navy into battle. Won would not be able to replicate the successes of his predecessor and lost the battle and most likely if Yi Sun-shin was still in command of the Korean navy, the Japanese ships would have never reached the Korean mainland.

Won had inherited from Yi a Korean navy with over 160 warships and 30,000 experienced crew members. Won, however, replaced all of Yi’s battle tested officers with his own men and showed little regard for common soldiers. In addition the arrogant Won applied little strategy during his assaults and took to many chances. His arrogance would catch up with him on August 28, 1597, when the Japanese conducted a successful night attack on the Korean navy located at Chilchonnyang which is a narrow straight near Goeje-do Island.

Won ordered his ships to close in and attack the Japanese ships. This would end up being the tactical blunder that doomed the Korean navy. The Japanese excelled at close quarters combat due to their samurai training and mentality. The Japanese soldiers quickly boarded the Korean ships and defeated the Korean defenders. Seeing his defeat Won tried to escape from the Japanese. He was chased down, captured, and beheaded by the victorious Japanese. Out of the 133 warships only 13 warships led by an officer named Bae Sol had managed to escape the Japanese attack. Bae was able to lead the remaining ships to the safe harbor at Yoesu. The Japanese had not only effectively destroyed the Korean navy, but they had also captured the Korean naval headquarters on Hansan Island. This was a defeat that most navies could never recover from, however the fact that 13 warships escaped the Japanese would ultimately come back to haunt them.

Prior Posting: Rise of a Korean National Hero

Next Posting: The Return of Yi Sun-shin

After Admiral Yi’s first battle against the Japanese at Okpo; Yi decided to return to his base in Yoesu in order to rest his men and refit his ships. During this time he discarded his commandered fishing boats due to the completion of three of his vaunted “turtle boats”. Yi’s 24 warships and 3 turtle boats would be used to continue his campaign against the Japanese navy.

Yi’s next battle would take place on July 8, 1592 in the bay near Sanchon. The receding tide meant that the Koreans could not safely enter the harbor. Yi decided to have his ships pretend to retreat from the numerically superior Japanese ships in order to lure them out of the harbor. The Japanese ships did come out to fight and Admiral Yi immediately had his three turtle boats assault the front ranks of the Japanese armada. In ferocious battle the three turtle ships sunk 12 of the Japanese ships, but Yi was struck in the shoulder by a bullet. Yi during the battle never aknowledged being wounded because he did not want his men to lose morale during the fight. He would recover from his wound and would lead the Korean navy to many more naval victories over the Japanese.

In one battle at Tangpo Harbor Admiral Yi had caught the Japanese Admiral Kamei Korenori and his 21 ships. Yi attacked the Japanese fleet and destroyed the ships and even captured the Kamei’s flag ship. During the battle Kamei had been killed by an arrow. Inside Kamei’s ship Yi had found an elaborate captain’s quarters that featured a golden fan inscribed with Hideyoshi’s name. He also found a Korean woman that was forced to be Kamei’s mistress. The woman claimed that Kamei was about 30 years old and liked to walk around in a yellow robe with a golden crown and sat upon a throne on his flag ship as if he was a king. He was not a king like entity anymore because he was dead and Yi quickly had his body beheaded and put on display for all the Korean populace to see. Admiral’s fame continued to grow much to the dislike of his rivals.

Yi’s greatest victory during this time was when he defeated almost the entire Japanese armada at the Battle of Hansan Island. Using a semi-circular formation Yi called the “crane wing” that allowed the Korean navy to mass their firepower the navy led by Yi’s “turtle boats” sunk over 59 enemy ships. This battle was the death blow for the Japanese navy. After the Battle of Hansan Island Hideyoshi had ordered his remaining ships to avoid contact with the Korean navy at all costs. This in effect surrendered the oceans to the Koreans thus cutting off the Japanese military on the Korean mainland from resupply.

The Japanese army without naval resupply could not advance into China. For those not familiar with the topography of the Korean peninsula; it features extremely mountainous and rugged terrain which back then would have been even more difficult to navigate because of the primitive dirt roads. In addition, Admirals Yi’s destruction of the Japanese navy occurred during the same time frame as the Korean monsoon season which made the roads even more muddy and hazardous to cross thus creating the imperative need for naval resupply as the army moved north.

This locked the Japanese military into fixed locations on the peninsula and unable to move due to the lack of supplies, but they were still strong enough to remain in Korea and live off the Koreans food and resources for the time being. It is during this time that the Korean resistance movement was formed and many successful guerilla attacks were launched against the Japanese army. These guerillas became known as the “Righteous Armies”. In effect the Japanese army was now completely bogged down in a war they couldn’t win as long as the Koreans controlled the seas. On the other hand the Korean army was not strong enough to defeat the Japanese and the guerilla attacks were not enough to dislodge them just harass the Japanese, so the Koreans naturally turned to the Chinese for help.

The Ming Chinese officially entered the war at Korea’s request by crossing the Yalu River on the Chinese and North Korean border in late January of 1593. On February 10, 1593 the Ming Chinese defeated the Japanese garrisoned at Pyongyang and continued to move south. The Japanese however had plenty of fight left in them and defeated the Chinese army in a battle north of Seoul two weeks later. The Japanese were prepared to move north in pursuit of the retreating Ming troops but were pushed back to Seoul when they were counterattacked by Korean guerilla fighters. Due to the irony of war; instead of the Chinese saving the Koreans, the Koreans had instead saved the Chinese.

The Japanese still controlled Seoul and areas further south but were quickly losing power to control the country side as the “Righteous Army” continued to harrass the Japanese troop movements. One of the most famous “Righteous Army” leaders was the warrior monk Samyeong-daesa of Geonbongsa Temple that I have described before on this blog.

Ultimately the Japanese and the Chinese entered into armistice talks and the Japanese consolidated their forces to the southeastern corner of the peninsula as the talks continued for the next three years.

During this time, Admiral Yi consolidated his own forces on Hansan Island, constructed a new headquarters, and continued to build his naval power preparing for his next battle with the Japanese. However, the fleet Yi built, he would never be able to use in battle due to political scheming by his enemies in the Korean government. In a weird twist of fate, Yi’s greatest enemy was never the Japanese, but his own Korean government.

Here is an example of the rugged South Korean coastline. This picture is of the Geoje Island coastline near where Yi Sun-shin’s first battle against the Japanese took place.

Prior Posting: Prelude to War

Next Posting: The Fall of a Korean Legend

Japanese Shogun Hideyoshi; the man responsible for the 1592 invasion of Korea.

Prior to 1592 the Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi had continued his predecessor Oda Nobunaga’s dream of uniting all of the Japanese islands under one Shogun. With the consolidation of all the Japanese islands under the rule of Hideyoshi, he became hungry for more military conquests, plus he had to keep his men busy or in a long line of prior Japanese conspiracies they could turn on and dispose of him as well.

So in 1592 Hideyoshi set off to conquer China by first of all subjugating the kingdom of Chosun. China was considered the standard bearer of culture at the time and a Japanese defeat of the Chinese would prove the superiority of the Japanese people over the cultured Chinese who had long considered the Japanese a nation of pirates. The Korean Chosun kingdom was a fractured society with a backward fuedal Yangban class that was expected not to put up much of an organized resistance. In fact the Japanese demanded that the Koreans allow them access through their country to attack China. The Koreans had long respected the Chinese and the Korean court did not take the threat of invasion by the Japanese seriously because they had long been considered nothing more than barbarian pirates. However, Korea was looked at by the Japanese as a afterthought to the eventual conquest of China while the Koreans looked with indifference to the Japanese threats due to their perceived superiority over the Japanese barbarians. This indifference would cost the Koreans hundreds of thousands of lives due to a military and citizenry unprepared for the invasion.

The views of the Japanese were initially proven true as the 150,000 soldiers in the Japanese military raced from one victory after another over the ineffective Korean military in what would become known in Korea as the Imjimgaeran War. One Japanese victory in the city of Sangju turned the defenders of that city into Korea’s version of the Alamo, however the Korean people still didn’t have a Davy Crockett to rally behind like the Texans did after the Alamo. That was until Admiral Yi Sun-shin came onto the scene.

Admiral Yi had received a request for military assistance from Admiral Won Kyun of Pusan who commanded all the naval forces of Kyongsang province in southwestern Korea. Yi was initially reluctant to come to Won’s aid because he had only 24 ships and the turtle boats were not yet complete. After confering with his fellow Cholla commanders, Yi decided to come to Won’s aid despite the shortage of boats and no official orders from Seoul to assist Won.

Though Yi would be greatly outnumbered by the Japanese Navy he felt he would still have a chance to defeat them due to the number of advantages he did enjoy. He and his men were extremely familiar with the many islands, bays, and tides that make up the southern coast of the Korean peninsula. Plus the local Korean population would prove to be a great asset in gathering military intelligence on the Japanese forces. Finally the Korean ships were much stronger than Japanese ships. The Korean boats were large and extremely sturdy and featured large cannons that gave Korean ships an advantage in naval firepower.

One of the heavy cannons that gave Admiral Yi’s navy superior firepower over the invading Japanese naval forces.

An ironic fact about the Japanese military is that for being an island nation they had poor naval power to compliment their superior army. Admiral Yi understood this and felt that for Korea to successfully defeat the Japanese he would need to destroy the Japanese navy which would prevent the Japanese from resupplying their army on the Korean mainland.

In June of 1592 Admiral Yi would begin to implement his strategy by winning his first naval battle at the port of Okpo located on Geoje-do island. Before the battle Admiral Yi had been able to increase his naval force to a total of 91 ships by recruiting fishing vessels to sail with his 24 warships. Admiral Yi’s fleet ambushed 50 Japanese boats that had been raiding the city of Okpo. In the initial battle Yi’s fleet destroyed 26 of the Japanese ships without any Korean losses. Over the next two days of battle Yi would sink 18 more Japanese ships without any friendly losses. This victory was only a prelude of greater victories to come led by Admiral Yi’s legendary “turtle boats”.

Prior Posting:  The Beginning of the Legend of Yi Sun-shin

Next Posting: The Rise of a Korean National Hero

One name or statue that new comers to Korea will undoubtedly encounter is of Korea’s most famous historical figures, Admiral Yi-Sun-shin. Most Koreans will just tell you that he was a famous admiral that defeated the Japanese navy many centuries ago with his “turtle boats” thus saving the country from Japanese domination. This achievement has given Admiral Yi a mythical status in today’s Korean society that is comparable to the mythical status given to George Washington in the United States. Like George Washington everyone knows the legendary achievements of Admiral Yi, but very few know the man himself.

I hope through this series of posts on Admiral Yi, I will be able to shed some light on the achievements of Admiral Yi, his rise, fall, and rise again, which is much more interesting and heroic than the casual observer would think. Plus the history of Yi Sun-shin also displays interesting insights into even today’s Korean society.

Yi Sun-shin much like his future Japanese rival Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was born into a humble family on April 28, 1545 to a family of minor scholars in Seoul. His family would move to Ansan, Gyeongi Province south of Seoul. In Ansan he would marry at the age of 19 and began to study the military arts a year later. Yi applied for the military academy in 1572 but failed because he broke his leg during a horsemanship examination. Yi tried again in 1577 and passed the exam this time and enters the military for the first time at the age of 32.

Yi began his military career with an assignment in the remote North Korean frontier with China. In 1579 he moved to a position in Chungcheong province and then received his first naval position in Cholla province in 1580. In all of his positions Yi was considered a talented leader, administrator, and had a strong sense of honor. However, during the Korean Chosun era, honor was not something that got you advancement in the corrupt, class driven political system. Jealous officers eventually forced Yi out of his naval post in Cholla-do and he was once again sent to the remote mountainous frontier with China to guard against barbarian invasions.

In 1583, the North Korean Hamgyong province that Yi and his men guarded was invaded by barbarians from Manchuria led by the bandit Mu Pai-nai. Mu was a notorious “Oranckay” (barbarian) who had led many successful raids from Manchuria into Chosun Korea. Yi was able to get Mu to come out into an open battlefield to fight Yi and his men. Yi’s forces crushed the barbarian invaders and Yi received his first level of fame, but he never attempted to capitalize on it. In fact he ended up resigning his post and returned home to Ansan after his father died. However, the fame he earned defeating Mu caused many of his contemporaries to be jealous of his success.

Yi was a student of the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu who advocated cunning and discipline in war. Pictures of Yi always feature him with a stern and disciplined face because of this.

Yi remained out of the military for three years observing the mandatory three year mourning period of the time. He returned to the military in 1586 to a post once again in North Korea’s Hamgyong province where he once again earned prestige for defeating barbarian invaders. However, the jealous commander of Hamgyong province Yi Il arrested Yi Sun-shin after his victories over the barbarians. Yi Il accuses Yi Sun-shin of desertion during battle and tortures him to try and get him to admit to to false crimes. Yi Sun-shin even though under torture never admits to the offenses. The King later releases Yi from prison and dismisses him from his officer posting; Yi is instead made a common soldier and forced to work his way back up the ranks. In 1588 Yi Sun-shin returns home to Ansan and is out of the military.

However, a year later a childhood friend of Yi Sun-shin, Yu Song-nyong became prime minister of Korea and he brought Yi back into the military and Yi worked for him in Seoul. In 1591 Yu had Yi appointed fleet admiral of Eastern Cholla province in southeastern Korea. Yi is based in the city of Yoesu and it is this time frame that he begins the construction of the first “turtle boats” that would win him so much fame in Korea. Yi originally had the “turtle boats” constructed in order to combat frequent pirate attacks from Japan. However, the “turtle boats” a year later in 1592 would have more than just pirates to worry about as the Hideyoshi invasion of the peninsula was about to begin.

Next Posting: Prelude to War

Today the 9th of December is the 38th anniversary of the 1968 death of a young Korean boy, Lee Seung-bok, who was murdered by North Korean commandos who had infiltrated into Gangwon province. On the night of December 9th the communists stormed into the small traditional home that the Lee family lived, in search of food and shelter. The family gave them what food they had and hoped that the commandos would soon leave.

However, things turned tragic when the communists asked the 7 year old Lee Seung-bok if he preferred North Korea or South Korea. The young boy said he liked South Korea. The commandos began to beat him, but he would not change his mind and before being killed he said the now famous line, “I hate Communists!” The North Korean commandos then proceeded to cut out the 10 year old boys mouth and then began to butcher the rest of the family after they tried to stop the killing of Lee Seung-bok.

In total the 7 year old Seung-bok, his 5 year old, brother Seung-su, his 2 year old sister Seung-ja, and his 31 year old mother Joo Dae-ha were killed by the communists and left to die outside. However, his older brother who was also stabbed and had his head smashed with a rock, did survive. Though seriously wounded he was able to stagger to the residence of his family’s closest neighbor once the commandos left and plead for help and warn others of the infiltrators. Also a family friend had arrived at the residence and was attacked by the North Koreans and stabbed in the leg but he was also able to escape and warn nearby ROK Army officials.

The now alerted neighbors immediately began to take up what crude weapons they had and began guard shifts to watch for the North Koreans until local authorities arrived. The ROK Army arrived and began to secure the area and search for the communist spies.  Unfortunately the murderers were never found and escaped, but the words of Lee Seung-bok served as a rallying cry in schools across Korea and continue to resonate to this day. However, these words resonate today not with an anti-communist message but as a myth created by the authoritarian government of then President Park Chung Hee.

So how did this change in perceptions occur? Of course by repeating a lie over and over again until people just assume it is true. This is propaganda 101 for every communist and that is exactly what they did in the Lee Seung-bok incident. Over the past 12 years so called “progressive groups” using names that actually sound legitimate, which in this case the pro-North Korean sympathizers called themselves the People’s Coalition for Media Reform, to disguise who they really are because they just can’t come out and say they are communists because then people would not take them seriously. This is the same tactic being used currently in the General MacArthur controversy raging in Inchon. Anyway this group accused the then Park Chung-hee government and the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reporters who covered the tragedy as fabricating the entire story and not even being at the scene.

This tactic of disinformation in the Lee Seung-bok case has been allowed to simmer in the Korean publics for over the last 12 years where now people take it to be the truth even though last year the Seoul District Court sentenced the leaders of the People’s Coalition for Media Reform to jail terms for fabrication and libel, but the damage has already been done in the publics’s perception of this incident.

It is amazing to me that such blatant disinformation about the incident would be allowed to simmer for this long even though there are numerous eyewitnesses including Lee Seung-bok’s own brother who survived the massacre who verify the accounts of what happened that night. The only reason I can see that this disinformation has been allowed to simmer in the public’s imagination for so long is because more liberal governments who have come to power in South Korea over the last 12 years have been eager to defame the former President Park Chung-hee who still holds a positive image with many South Koreans for turning the country from one of the world’s poorest countries and into an economic power house. There is also the dual reason of appeasing the North Koreans as well in the name of the “Sunshine Policy” even if it means destroying the image and sacrifice of this young boy.

If you want to see for yourself the story of Lee Seung-bok, I encourage you to check out the Lee Seung-bok memorial located near the Soksa interchange on Interstate 50. Just exit off of Interstate 50 on the interchange and head North for about 10 minutes on highway 31 until you see the memorial located to your right. The memorial is quite large and with a huge parking lot, so you can’t miss it.

The memorial is located near where the incident actually happened and includes an accurate replica of Lee Seung-bok’s home, his grave site, a military static display, a park, and a museum with a theater that depicts all the details of the Lee Seung-bok tragedy. The video they play in the theater can also be viewed online by clicking here. I checked the memorial out as part of a side trip while traveling to Odaesan National Park. The memorial is an interesting excursion if you are in the area and the ride up highway 31 features some really gorgeous Gangwon-do mountain scenery.

The Chosun has a really surprising editorial condemning efforts by left wing Korean politicians who are trying to get the US to apologize for the Taft-Katsura Agreement signed in 1905:

In the secret accord, signed in Tokyo in 1905, the U.S. and Japan acknowledged the latter’s control of the Korean Peninsula and the former’s control of the Philippines. Korea was at the time already in Japanese hands as a result of Japanese victories in wars with both Russia and China. Calling for the U.S. to be held to account for the agreement is tantamount to asserting that it should have intervened on the Korean Peninsula even if that meant risking a war with Japan.

(…)

To blast the U.S. for failing to intervene in one instance and for intervening in another, for not seeing one attack on our sovereignty (by Japan) but seeing another (by North Korea) is tantamount to damning the U.S. if it does and damning it if it doesn’t. While anti-American acts may seem profitable gimmicks for our politicians and America-bashing is rewarded with popular applause, we should also think how such careless accusations make us look in the eyes of the international community.

It is hard to believe that this common sense dare I say, “pro-American” article, came out only a few days after the same paper published this piece of anti-American crap. Both articles are a great example of the love/hate relationship Korea has with the US. The left wing politicians really need to get over obscure history references that have little to do with Korea today. Stop focusing on the past and have a vision for the future. Actually the left wingers do have a vision for the future; unfortunately it involves tearing down the MacArthur statue in Inchon and replacing it with Kim Jong Il’s likeness. When that happens I don’t think anybody will care about the Taft-Katsura Agreement then.