In 1593, the Chinese invaded capturing Pyongyang from the Japanese and driving them southwards. However, the Korean strength was in their navy and the vital Korean naval victory of Hansando disrupted the flow of supplies to the invasion forces, forcing them to hold their positions around Pyongyang. The Japanese division under Kato Kiyomasa even started to advance into Manchuria. These two Japanese divisions rapidly overran their Korean counterparts, taking the principal cities of Seoul and then Pyongyang and driving the remnants of the Korean Army into China. In 1592 a huge invasion force of 150,000 men landed at the ports of Busan and Tadaejin under the commanders Konishi Yukinaga and Kato Kiyomasa. Hideyoshi planned to invade and conquer China, ruled at the time by the Ming dynasty, and when the Korean court refused to allow his troops to cross their country, Korea became the first step in this ambitious plan of conquest. Mason and J.G.The invasions of Korea launched by the dictator Toyotomi Hideyoshi (98) are unique in Japanese history for being the only time that the samurai assaulted a foreign country. The Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, translated by William Scott WilsonĪ history of Japan by R.H.P.

The samurai invasion of Korea by Stephen TurnbullĪ dragon’s head and a serpent’s tail: Ming China and the First Great East Asian War, 1592-1598 by Swope, Kenneth M. The Cambridge history of Japan volumes 3 and 4 edited by Kozo Yamamura and John Whitney Hall Translated by Ha Tae-hung.Ī history of Korea: from “Land of the Morning Calm” to states in conflict by Jinwung KimĪ concise history of Korea: from antiquity to the present by Michael SethĪ concise history of Japan by Brett Walker Nanjung Ilgi: War Diary of Admiral Yi Sun-sin by Yi Sun-shin. Translated by Ha Tse-hungĪdmiral Yi Sun-sin of Korea by Jong-dae Kim. Imjin changch’o: Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s memorials to court by Sun-sin Yi. Samurai invasion: Japan’s Korean war by Stephen Turnbull (2002)īook of Corrections: Reflections on the National Crisis During the Japanese Invasion of Korea, 1592-1598 by Song-Nyong Yu and Byonghyon Choi Maps and Illustrations: The second Japanese invasion of Korea (Turnbull, 2002) An illustration of combat during the Imjin War (Turnbull, 2002) You can find part one here part two here and part three here.

It’s all here and it’s all free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact. This is the story of that conflict – The Imjin War. In this episode there is weeping without end pain without ceasing. Entire regions were depopulated – former provincial capitals turned into ghost towns. The Imjin War was one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history.

Samurai Invasion by Stephen Turnbull