War That Impacted East Asia the Most
While we, the people, had greatly wanted peace and prosperity over the course of history, peace and prosperity occur after a great loss or suffering, and most often, war. Not many wars are talked about in the Korean peninsula, Chinese dynasty, and the Japanese islands except for the Japanese empire during the 20th Century, however, there was a war that lasted 7 years. The war is known as The Imjin War or The Japanese Invasion of Korea. A war that was not necessary, but for long medieval East Asian politics
When we look at Japan today, we see one united island nation. However, that was never the case, similar in many other countries in medieval territories. Britain was never a united kingdom, Germany was just small territories after the Holy Roman Empire, and the even great Ottoman Empire was first a small tribe of Turks, and it goes the same for Japan. Japan was separated into multiple clans with their lord, the daimyo, with their knights, samurais. These clans would often or mostly fight with each other. However, this all changed after the unification. After Japan was unified by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 16th century, it gained peace, similar to what would happen later, the war than peace. Now, this allowed Hideyoishi to bring up his ambition and long-time dream to fruition; the conquest of Asia.
Korea was the opposite of Japan’s history. Joseon, the Korean dynasty at that time, was made in 1392 under King Yi Sŏng-Gye. And even before then, the nation was united into one dynasty for about 500 years. Korea, in most of its history, was united. The Korean nobles could not be more different from the Japanese. Korean noble, known as the Yangban, were not soldiers or warriors, it was completely the opposite. Yangbans was nothing but well-educated scholars. Korea was heavily influenced by Confucian ideals, so nobles would not even dare to touch a weapon, rather they would hold books and read. Now, we have two nations, one that is bred up for war and one that is barely even capable of fighting.
Hideyoshi would often carry a fan with him, this fan would have a drawing of East Asia. While the unification of Japan was an enormous accomplishment, Hideyoshi envisioned something much grander, an Asian Empire. He always planned to conquer China, Korea, and even India. So first, he needs to begin his campaign, in Korea.
Now, it will be a shame not to acknowledge that the Koreans and the Chinese knew Hideyoshis’s ambition. Both nations were warned by their traders, ambassador, and spies said that sooner or later, Japan will attack. Both nations’ leaders denied the accusation or believed the mobilization of the army would be too costly and that building up an army that will cost half of the treasury for an enemy that might not even attack would be a waste. So, Korea nor China prepared, even knowing about the news.
The Japanese had made an army of well over 150,000 men and began their conquest. The beginning went swiftly, just like the German at the beginning of the Second World War. The war goes on like this for half of the war. Then a man named Yi-Shun-Shin came and devasted the convoys of Japanese supply ships, halting the attack inland. Then, after hearing the news and constant request, the Chinese army came. The Buddhist monk warriors and the righteous army who were also defending Korea joined forces with the main army. The last Japanese holdout in Busan was defeated and the Imjin war was over. The entire war and Yi-Shun-Shin are both very interesting topics, please do take a look more deeply.
The Japanese were defeated in the year 1598. During the war, Hideyoshi passed away at the age of 62. This meant the sole and only reason why Japan attacked Korea, the dreamer of a grand Asian empire, and the leader of Japan was dead. Japan had no longer any wish or reason to keep this bloody campaign. The war was finally over.
How did the war affect Korea? When imagining the aftermath of the war, most people will imagine a decimated land with many casualties and the life of people getting worse, this was not the case for Korea. Pre-war Korea was in full panic. People were angry at the bureaucrats and the Joseon government. It would seem that Korea might have been going in the direction of peasant revolts and even revolution. During and after the war, the condition of the people did not improve, not yet at least. Families were killed and their lands’ were scorched. The economy of Joseon was at rock bottom. A famine also started, starving many people. Seeing how bad the country was at this point, the government made reforms, promoting agricultural, and justifiable tax rates. This allowed farming and the life of commoners had improved significantly.
While mainland China was not hit, it did bring some major changes to Ming China. First, the war brought Korea and China closer together. Korea even sent troops to aid China during the Manchu invasions. Second, it reinstated to all (China, Korea, and Japan) that China was still the superpower of Asia. Even though the Koreans did manage to hold for many years, it was due to the Chinese army that it was possible for that last offensive push that won the war. Finally, the Japanese started to send their tributes back to China. The tribute system was placed by the Chinese to make them the lord of all nations, receiving tributes all over their neighboring states. Now, the Ming government was replaced shortly after the Imjin war by the Qing, and most of these changes stuck or were put into action by the new Qing government.
Finally, how was Japan affected? The answer is very much. During the war, as I mentioned earlier, Hideyoshi passed away. So, a new government was formed by Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa made a new era in Japanese history, the Tokugawa period. This period brought peace and tranquility to Japan. The Tokugawa period made the relationship between Korea peaceful once more in the 17th century. While the government had quit international relations overall, the useless war was highly prohibited, a lesson from the Imjin war. While peace was restored, the mind of the Japanese was still at war. Many Japanese still believed Korea was and should be part of Japan. The idea of an Asian empire, once only held by Hideoyishi, had spread amongst the people. This will be proven when Japan entered the Meiji era, in which they annexed Korea immediately after the Russo-Japanese war.
The Imjin war in sense was many things. A bad consequence of negligence, a dream of a warmonger, a bloody 7-year conflict, and a war that reset East Asian politics as it was for the next 200 years. Japan became feudal, Korea regained its peace, and China was the dominant power once more. Imjin war itself was not peaceful nor even a necessary conflict, but it was a conflict that kept East Asia what it is.
If you want to read the full study, here.
