The Imjin War (84 page)

[259]
Japanese accounts of the Battle of Tangpo state that Kurushima, upon seeing the destruction of his men and ships, landed on a nearby island and committed seppuku, the ritual act of suicide (Murdoch, 336).

[260]
Dispatch of 14/6/Wanli 20 (July 22, 1592), Yi Sun-sin,
Imjin changch’o
, 43.

[261]
Ibid., 44.

[262]
Park Yune-hee, 158; Sadler, “Naval Campaign,” 192; George Kerr,
Okinawa. The History of an Island People
(Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1958), 151-152 and 155.

[263]
The names of Yi Sun-sin, Commander of the Cholla Left Navy, and Lee Sun-sin, captain of the Pangtap port under the senior Yi’s command, are composed of different Chinese characters but pronounced the same, and thus easily confused. To distinguish between them I have used the respective surnames “Yi” and “Lee,” which are both common English renderings of the single Korean surname.

[264]
Dispatch of 14/6/Wanli 20 (July 22, 1592), Yi Sun-sin,
Imjin changch’o
, 48;
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 5, 304, 21/6/Sonjo 25 (July 29, 1592).

[265]
“Three Strategies of Huang Shih-kung,” in Sawyer, 297. (The “Three Strategies” dates from the end of the first century B.C.)

[266]
Yi Sun-sin,
Imjin changch’o
, 56;
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 3, 257, (6/Sonjo 25; July 1592).

[267]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 6, 124 (1/9/Sonjo 25; Oct. 5, 1592).

[268]
Alexander Kiralfy, “Japanese Naval Strategy,” in
Makers of Modern Strategy. Military Thought from Machiavelli to Hitler
, ed. Edward Mead Earle (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1943), 464-465; Ballard, 51; Turnbull,
Military History
, 213.

Chapter 11: On to Pyongyang

[269]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 5, 210 (2/5/Sonjo 25; June 11, 1592);
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 3, 245 (5/Sonjo 25; June 1592). The top three posts in Korea’s
uijongbu
, or State Council, were
yonguijong
,
chwauijong
, and
u-uijong
, which I have translated respectively as Prime Minister, Minister of the Left, and Minister of the Right. These titles are also sometimes rendered as Chief State Councilor, Second State Councilor, and Third State Councilor.

[270]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 5, 216-217 and 221 (3/5/Sonjo 25; June 12, 1592);
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 3, 245-246 (5/Sonjo 25; June 1592).

[271]
Yu Song-nyong, 78-79.

[272]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 6, 308 (4/12/Sonjo 25; Jan. 6, 1593);
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 41 (11/Sonjo 26; Nov.-Dec. 1593).

[273]
Han Myong-ki,
Imjin waeran hanchung kwangye
(Seoul: Yuksa bibyongsa, 1999), 430.

[274]
Samuel Dukhae Kim, 24-25.

[275]
W. G. Aston,
Hideyoshi’s Invasion of Korea
(Tokyo: Ryubun-kwan, 1907), 21; Gari Ledyard, “Confucianism and War: The Korean Security Crisis of 1598,”
The Journal of Korean Studies
6 (1988-89): 84-85.

[276]
Ray Huang, “Lung ch’ing,” 566-567; Goodrich, vol. 1, 830-832.

[277]
Letter dated 16/5 (June 25), 1592, in Park Yune-hee, 112-113.

[278]
Aston, 14-15.

[279]
“Wei Liao-tzu,” in Sawyer, 258.

[280]
Yu Song-nyong, 86-87;
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 3, 247-248 (5/Sonjo 25; June 1592).

[281]
Hulbert, vol. 1, 372-373; Jones, 182-183.

[282]
Giles, 77.

[283]
Ibid., 6-7.

[284]
“The Methods of Ssu-ma,” in Sawyer, 142.

[285]
Yu Song-nyong, 88-90;
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 3, 247 (5/Sonjo 25; June 1592); Hulbert, vol. 1, 379-382; Murdoch, 326-329.

[286]
Kato Kiyomasa to Hideyoshi, 1/6/Bunroku 1 (July 9, 1592), in Park Yune-hee, 118-119.

[287]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 5, 270-272 (2/6/Sonjo 25; July 10, 1592). Chong Chol accompanied King Sonjo north to Uiju following his return from exile, and in 1593 was sent on a mission to China to express Korea’s thanks for its military assistance in the war. Later that year he was forced to resign from office again by renewed Easterner pressure. He spent his last days in quiet retirement on Kanghwa Island, where he died on February 7, 1594.

[288]
Turnbull,
Samurai Invasion
, 137.

[289]
“The Methods of Ssu-ma,” in Sawyer, 139.

[290]
Yu Song-nyong, 98-100.

[291]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 5, 276-277 (9/6/Sonjo 25; July 17, 1592); Yu Song-nyong, 102-103; Pak Dong-ryang, “Kigae sacho,” in
Saryoro bonun
, 68-69.

[292]
The Chinese military classic
Wei Liao-tzu
lists the following rule for holding a city wall: “The rule for defending a city wall is that for every
chang
[ten feet], you should employ ten men to defend it, artisans and cooks not being included. Those who go out [to fight] do not defend the city; those who defend the city do not go out [to fight]” (Sawyer, 253).

[293]
Yu Song-nyong, 111-112;
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 5, 294 (15/6/Sonjo 25; July 23, 1592); Aston, 20-21; Hulbert, vol. 1, 386-387.

[294]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 5, 301 (19/6/Sonjo 25; July 27, 1592).

[295]
Yu Song-nyong, 112-113; Park Yune-hee, 117-118. One hundred thousand sok of rice equals approximately 7,200 metric tons.

[296]
Yu Song-nyong, 114-118; Hulbert, vol. 1, 388.

[297]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 5, 284-287 (13/6/Sonjo 25; July 21, 1592).

[298]
Ibid
.
, 299 (18/6/Sonjo 25; July 26, 1592);
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 3, 267 (6/Sonjo 25; July 1592).

[299]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 5, 306 (22/6/Sonjo 25; July 30, 1592).

[300]
Ha Tae-hung,
Behind the Scenes
, 170.

Chapter 12: The Battle for the Yellow Sea

[301]
Hideyoshi to Wakizaka Yasuharu, 23/6/Bunroku 1 (July 31, 1592), in Park Yune-hee, 159.

[302]
Yu Song-nyong, 129.

[303]
Yi Sun-sin does not give a precise number in his battle report. According to the Japanese chronicle
Korai funa senki
, however, at the coming Battle of Angolpo, “Among the large [Korean] ships were three mekura-bune [blind ships, i.e. turtle ships]” (Turnbull,
Samurai Invasion
, 106).

[304]
Dispatch of 15/7/Wanli 20 (Aug. 21, 1592), Yi Sun-sin,
Imjin changch’o
, 59. The enemy commander Yi refers to may have been Wakizaka Sabei or Watanabe Shichiemon, who served under fleet commander Wakizaka Yasuharu and are known to have been killed in the battle.

[305]
Ibid., 56-60;
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 3, 279 (7/Sonjo 25; Aug. 1592).

[306]
Wakizaka ki
, in Turnbull,
Samurai Invasion
, 104.

[307]
Yi Sun-sin,
Imjin changch’o,
56, footnote; Park Yune-hee, 165.

[308]
Dispatch of 15/7/Wanli 20 (Aug. 21, 1592), Yi Sun-sin,
Imjin changch’o
, 62-63.

[309]
Ibid., 61;
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 3, 279 (7/Sonjo 25; Aug. 1592).

[310]
Dispatch of 10/9/Wanli 20 (Oct. 14, 1592), Yi Sun-sin,
Imjin changch’o
, 76.

[311]
Yi Pun, 215.

[312]
Hideyoshi to Todo Sado no Kami (Todo Takatora), 16/7/Tensho 20 (Aug. 23, 1592), Elisonas, “Trinity,” 279, n. 66; Turnbull,
Samurai Invasion,
107.

[313]
Yu Song-nyong, 129.

[314]
For example: “So ended, we may well believe, one of the greatest naval battles of the world….It signed the death-warrant of the invasion. It frustrated the great motive of the invasion, the humbling of China” (Hulbert, vol. 1, 400.) Also: “[I]t was a naval battle that really decided the campaign and saved Korea, even when a hostile force of close to two hundred thousand of the finest soldiers of the age were encamped upon her soil” (Murdoch, 337).

Chapter 13: “To me the Japanese robber army will be but a swarm of ants and wasps”

[315]
“Wei Liao-tzu,” in Sawyer, 243.

[316]
Yu Song-nyong, 125; Kuno, vol. 1, 156; Hulbert, vol. 1, 400.

[317]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 6, 35 (20/7/Sonjo 25; Aug. 26, 1592); Yu Song-nyong, 124-126; Turnbull,
Samurai Invasion
, 135-136.

[318]
Yu Song-nyong, 124-126; Ryusaku Tsunoda, trans., and L. Carrington Goodrich, ed.,
Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories. Later Han Through Ming Dynasties
(South Pasadena, Calif.: P. D. and Ione Perkins, 1951), 142; Hulbert, vol. 1, 401.

[319]
Yu Song-nyong, 135.

[320]
Turnbull,
Samurai Invasion
, 136.

[321]
Kuno, vol. 1, 156.

[322]
Ibid., 157.

[323]
Lee Hyoun-jong, 13-24.

[324]
Kuno, vol. 1, 159.

[325]
Dispatch of 17/9/Wanli 20 (Oct. 21, 1592), Yi Sun-sin,
Imjin changch’o
, 72.

[326]
Ibid., 69-75;
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 3, 287 (8/Sonjo 25; Sept. 1592).

[327]
The Koreans also were not eager to accept help from Nurhaci. Yu Song-nyong in particular sent a petition to King Sonjo in October urging him to reject the offer.

[328]
Tsunoda and Goodrich, 142; Goodrich, vol. 1, 730-731.

[329]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 6, 106-108 (17-18/8/Sonjo 25; Sept. 22-23, 1592).

[330]
Aston, 25.

[331]
Ibid., 24-25;
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 6, 137-138 (8/9/Sonjo 25; Oct. 12, 1592); Yu Song-nyong, 135-136.

[332]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 6, 132 (4/9/Sonjo 25; Oct. 8, 1592).

[333]
Goodrich, vol. 1, 830-832.

[334]
Ibid., 830-832.

[335]
Stramigioli, 99-103.

Chapter 14: A Castle at Fushimi

[336]
Sansom, 363.

[337]
Hideyoshi to Koya, no date (1589), in Boscaro,
Letters
, 34. Koya was a lady-in-waiting to Hideyoshi’s wife, O-Ne, who in turn took responsibility for the care of Hideyoshi’s mother.

[338]
Hideyoshi to Lady O-Mandokoro, 1/5/Tensho 18 (June 2, 1590), ibid., 38-39.

[339]
Sansom, 363.

[340]
Yamakichi (Yamanaka Kichinai) to Ladies Higashi and Kiyakushin (ladies-in-waiting to Hideyoshi’s wife), 18/5/Bunroku 1 (June 27, 1592), in Kuno. vol. 1, 319-320.

[341]
Hideyoshi to Maeda Gen’i, 11/12/Bunroku 1 (Jan. 13, 1593), in Boscaro,
Letters
, 48.

[342]
Sen Soshitsu XV, 392.

[343]
Hideyoshi to Maa (his youngest concubine), 26/12/Bunroku 1 (Jan. 28, 1593), in Boscaro,
Letters
, 49.