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Radio War Nerd EP #116 — The Imjin Wars, or Japan's Invasions of Korea 1592-1598 (Patreon)

Published:
2018-01-11 18:36:31
Edited:
2021-03-28 15:31:14
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

Guest: Richard Kim, historian

The wars on the Korean peninsula in the 1590s involving Japan against Korea and China may be the finest war narrative ever. For some reason nobody in the Anglosphere knows about these massive epochal wars in East Asia—Richard Kim joins the War Nerd to correct this, and tell the story of Japanese warlord Hideyoshi's doomed and bloody invasions of Korea, and the incredible story of Korean Admiral Yi Sun-Sin, without question the greatest naval commander of all time.

Maps & images

* Map of first Japanese invasion of Korea, 1592

* Map of second Japanese invasion, 1597

* Major naval battles of 1592 (Hansan Island) and 1597 (Myeongnyang)

* Japanese war ships

* Korean war ships

* Modern replica of Korean "turtle ship"

* Japanese pikemen

* Japanese arquebusiers

* Korean Pyeonjeon

* Various firearms

Reading: Samuel Hawley's "The Imjin War" 

Total time: 2:38:23

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here 

Files

Comments

Steven Thomas

Late to the party, but to Mark's question if a game has ever covered this, a little known Real Time Strategy game called Empires: Dawn of the Modern World had an "Admiral Yi Campaign" that covered a lot of these battles. Played it back when I was fifteen or so (eons ago now) and was surprised at how many of the details carried over. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-J9MIbpWKM" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-J9MIbpWKM</a>

Mark Ames

Amazing! Thanks for this

Mark Ames

The YouTuber's vo is great

Richard Kim

I highly suggest anyone who found the show interesting to read Hawley’s “Imjin War.” Despite some flaws, it’s still the best overall narrative of the war, and there’s a lot of drama and fun side stories I had to skip. If you don’t want to read a ~600 page book, there’s a ~200 page version titled “Samurai Invasion” by Stephen Turnbull, who may not exactly be the best-regarded Japanese military historian but nonetheless wrote a good concise military narrative. I personally think these two books underrate the importance of Chinese armies/logistics, and this is addressed by Kenneth Swope’s book, “A Dragon’s Head and a Serpent’s Tail.” However, in terms of providing a clear, overall narrative, I think Swope’s book is the weakest of the 3. Pyeonjeon-shooting: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bATQBe4_hU" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bATQBe4_hU</a> If anyone’s interested, here’s a good site to browse through Ming firearms and other weapons: <a href="http://greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com</a>

Benjamin Glover

Oh man I hate to be that person who wants to hit the Sengoku button - but you should totally consider an episode or three on the Sengoku! It has literally everything. Larger than life characters on both sides, loyalty and betrayal, sieges and vicious battles, sacrifice and utter brutality... Richard Kim's comment of it being an exciting period is an understatement.

Seth Reed

This is another fantastic episode and I am really enjoying listening to Richard Kim multiple times on the War Nerd/Clash podcast axis. On a

Seth Reed

On a personal note I'm not getting the War Nerd email. Could you please send the latest email to sethlr@yahoo.com ? I am a subscriber and a War Nerd junky. Bless!

Carl Zha

Richard Kim is fantastic as usual. I just finished listening to this on the drive home. What a great episode!👍 for people who want to hear more of Richard Kim talking about Korean history, here is one where he talk about Origin of Korea <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-8-rise-of-and-15485213">https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-8-rise-of-and-15485213</a> More Richard Kim on Korean Three Kingdoms and links to ancient Japan <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-20-korean-and-16212966">https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-20-korean-and-16212966</a> Richard Kim on Rise and Glory of Goguryeo <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-21-rise-of-of-16246810">https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-21-rise-of-of-16246810</a>

Mat K

I want to contribute and say something witty or clever after every one of your casts but I just find myself saying the same thing. Awesome cast. Excellent work. Please keep up the great work. 10 out of 10.

Grant Cameron

Hi Richard, do you have a Twitter to follow and who was the gentlemen whose theories on political history you mentioned? It sounded like Peter/Pierre Turgeon. Great show.

Richard Kim

Sorry, I'm not much of a social media user so I don't use twitter. The guy I mentioned is Peter Turchin, who wrote some really interesting books such as "Secular Cycles" and "Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth." Here’s an example of his ideas about intra-elite competition: <a href="http://nationalpost.com/opinion/peter-turchin-how-elite-overproduction-and-lawyer-glut-could-ruin-the-u-s" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://nationalpost.com/opinion/peter-turchin-how-elite-overproduction-and-lawyer-glut-could-ruin-the-u-s</a>

Paul Vd

Looking forward to world of wars update next week. I think Russia is right. The drone attack was just another CIA op to try and wreck Russian Turkish cooperation. Just as the su 24 shoot down was and the ambassador assassination. And like clockwork we get the "shades of Afghanistan" trope from western defence media. We even had them make dubious comparisons to Bushes *mission accomplished* blunder b/c of the Putin visit. Seems like Russia absorbs a cheap shot first before it makes more progress in the war.

Benjamin Glover

BTW if people are interested, Extra Credits on YouTube covered Admiral Yi over six episodes a couple of years ago. <a href="https://youtu.be/3ieaDfD_h6s?list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5Aq7g4bil7bnGi0A8gTsawu" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/3ieaDfD_h6s?list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5Aq7g4bil7bnGi0A8gTsawu</a> They're not the most accurate in their history episodes (sometimes getting dates or details wrong) but I think it's a fun little addendum especially if the Myeongyang Strait beatdown wasn't clear.

radiowarnerd

Thanks very much! I'll take that over wit any day.

Adam Walters

As a kid I remember playing a game called Empires: Dawn of the Modern World which covered the Imjin War. I've no idea how it holds up but I enjoyed it at the time (partly because I loved learning the story), and apparently it got good reviews. Anyway great episode, as always.

Mark Morales

There's a mod for Shogun 2: Total War that expands the map from just Japan to include Korea and China. From what I've seen, there are pretty well fleshed out army rosters for Korea and China, but I don't think they've gotten to adding Korean naval units yet.

grey

I really enjoyed this episode! I wanted to make a suggestion for a future episode: Timur AKA tamerlane. This is one of the least known amazing conquerors in world history. Not only was he undefeated in every battle but he built one of the last great steppe armies in central Asia. Just a few months ago, I finished reading "Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World" by Justin Marozzi and when he isn't going off on tangents about modern day central asia, the book's accounts of Timur's campaigns into Russia, Persia, India, the middle east are fascinating.