“Magnificent!” (South China Morning Post)
“A wonderful read!” (JoongAng Daily News)
“The scope is truly vast!” (Seoul Magazine)
“Like a prelude to Shogun!"(StrategyPage.com)
“A feast!” (Shogun-ki)
In May of 1592, Japanese dictator Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent a 158,800-man army of invasion from Kyushu to Pusan on Korea’s southern tip. His objective: to conquer Korea, then China, and then the whole of Asia. The resulting seven years of fighting, known in Korea as imjin waeran, the “Imjin invasion,” after the year of the water dragon in which it began, dwarfed contemporary conflicts in Europe and was one of the most devastating wars to grip East Asia in the past thousand years.
The Imjin War is the most comprehensive account ever published in English of this cataclysmic event, so little known in the West. It begins with the political and cultural background of Korea, Japan and China, explores the diplomatic impasse that led to the war, describes every major incident and battle from 1592 to 1598 and introduces a fascinating cast of characters along the way. There is Hideyoshi, hosting garden parties as his armies march toward Beijing; Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin, emerging from a prison cell to take on the Japanese navy with just thirteen ships; Chinese commander Zhao Chengxun, suffering defeat after promising to “scatter the Japanese to the four winds”; the courtesan Chu Non-gae, luring a samurai into her arms and then jumping into the Nam River with him locked in her embrace.
One nation fighting to expand, another to survive. Shockwaves extending across China and beyond. The Imjin War is an epic tale of grand perspective and intimate detail of an upheaval that would shape East Asia for centuries to come.
August 18, 2015
This is a great book on a war that few in the West know about. [Equally great, in my view, is Stephen Turnbull's "Samurai Invasion: Japan's Korean War 1592 -1598." Compared to Turnball, Hawley delves a little deeper into the Korean perspective, while Turnball has a wealth of detail on the Japanese. But this is not a criticism of either; I read them both, Turnball first, then Hawley, and in so doing it reinforced many of the key points of the war.]
One of the most gripping chapters in Hawley's book deals with "The Annals of The Chos'n Kingdom" and how these priceless historical records were nearly destroyed. Koreans are meticulous about record keeping, and the Annals which began in 1413 CE and ended in 1910 are claimed to be the longest continual record of a single dynasty in the world. They were written without interference from the king and his court, and followed the Confucian belief that records kept in the present would help future generations learn from the past. It was also felt that record keeping encouraged the living to follow principles of integrity and benevolence in order to keep their own legacy unmarred, and that this sense of responsibility towards one’s legacy should apply especially to the king.
As an example of the independence of the Annals, there is an actual entry that documents the king falling off his horse. Embarrassed that the fall would enter into the Annals, he told his scribes not to record the fall. They silently nodded and wrote away. The Annals recorded both the fall, as well as the king's order not to record the incident.
The Koreans kept four identical copies of the Annals in different locations, so that a fire or other disaster in one location would not wipe out the entire historical record. During the Imjin War, the invading Japanese army found and burned three copies of the Annals, and narrowly missed the fourth. The last remaining copy was then taken to a remote location where it survived the war. After the war, the court used the surviving Annals to once more make additional copies of their kingdom’s history.
Lessons from this book are as true today, as they were in 1592: some wars begin because of a colossal misunderstanding (the Japanese thought that the Koreans would welcome them, and could not understand why they fought back); not keeping up with the technology of the time can put you on the losing side (the Koreans did not exploit the matchlock firearm, which was used by the Japanese against them, to devastating effect); leadership is the ultimate force-multiplier (Admiral Yi Sun-shin's leadership of the Korean Navy enabled it to rule the waves against the Japanese, even when greatly outnumbered); politics and personal agendas frequently trump the common good (one of Admiral Yi Sun-shin's Korean rivals succeeded in getting him fired during the war; he was later reinstated).
A final observation is on the sheer savagery of war. In some battles, the victorious Japanese killed every man, woman, child, dog, cat, cow, pig, and chicken that they could. Both sides routinely cut the heads off dead bodies, in order to bolster claims of battlefield success. At least 60,000 Koreans lost their lives in the Second Battle of Chinju, most of them massacred after the taking of the city. The Japanese sent approximately 30,000 noses from dead Koreans to Japan as war trophies, and to this day they remain buried in an enormous mound in Kyoto, misnamed “The Mound of Ears.”
The war left Korea in terrible shape, nearly bankrupt, and it took them centuries to recover and to rebuild. As examples, two hundred years after the war ended, the Koreans still could not afford to rebuild their destroyed palace in Seoul, and agricultural production was still below pre-war levels.
Perhaps even more than the 1910-1945 Japanese colonization of Korea, this war goes a long way toward understanding why Koreans have ill feelings toward Japan.
Hawley is to be commended for his scholarship, and for being a pretty good writer, too. The book is very readable. It's hard to find in print at affordable prices, so consider the Kindel option.
One of the most gripping chapters in Hawley's book deals with "The Annals of The Chos'n Kingdom" and how these priceless historical records were nearly destroyed. Koreans are meticulous about record keeping, and the Annals which began in 1413 CE and ended in 1910 are claimed to be the longest continual record of a single dynasty in the world. They were written without interference from the king and his court, and followed the Confucian belief that records kept in the present would help future generations learn from the past. It was also felt that record keeping encouraged the living to follow principles of integrity and benevolence in order to keep their own legacy unmarred, and that this sense of responsibility towards one’s legacy should apply especially to the king.
As an example of the independence of the Annals, there is an actual entry that documents the king falling off his horse. Embarrassed that the fall would enter into the Annals, he told his scribes not to record the fall. They silently nodded and wrote away. The Annals recorded both the fall, as well as the king's order not to record the incident.
The Koreans kept four identical copies of the Annals in different locations, so that a fire or other disaster in one location would not wipe out the entire historical record. During the Imjin War, the invading Japanese army found and burned three copies of the Annals, and narrowly missed the fourth. The last remaining copy was then taken to a remote location where it survived the war. After the war, the court used the surviving Annals to once more make additional copies of their kingdom’s history.
Lessons from this book are as true today, as they were in 1592: some wars begin because of a colossal misunderstanding (the Japanese thought that the Koreans would welcome them, and could not understand why they fought back); not keeping up with the technology of the time can put you on the losing side (the Koreans did not exploit the matchlock firearm, which was used by the Japanese against them, to devastating effect); leadership is the ultimate force-multiplier (Admiral Yi Sun-shin's leadership of the Korean Navy enabled it to rule the waves against the Japanese, even when greatly outnumbered); politics and personal agendas frequently trump the common good (one of Admiral Yi Sun-shin's Korean rivals succeeded in getting him fired during the war; he was later reinstated).
A final observation is on the sheer savagery of war. In some battles, the victorious Japanese killed every man, woman, child, dog, cat, cow, pig, and chicken that they could. Both sides routinely cut the heads off dead bodies, in order to bolster claims of battlefield success. At least 60,000 Koreans lost their lives in the Second Battle of Chinju, most of them massacred after the taking of the city. The Japanese sent approximately 30,000 noses from dead Koreans to Japan as war trophies, and to this day they remain buried in an enormous mound in Kyoto, misnamed “The Mound of Ears.”
The war left Korea in terrible shape, nearly bankrupt, and it took them centuries to recover and to rebuild. As examples, two hundred years after the war ended, the Koreans still could not afford to rebuild their destroyed palace in Seoul, and agricultural production was still below pre-war levels.
Perhaps even more than the 1910-1945 Japanese colonization of Korea, this war goes a long way toward understanding why Koreans have ill feelings toward Japan.
Hawley is to be commended for his scholarship, and for being a pretty good writer, too. The book is very readable. It's hard to find in print at affordable prices, so consider the Kindel option.
March 25, 2017
Very good book. As a Korean American who wants to learn more about his culture this book detailed everything that I wanted to know and more about the Imjin War. The book is fairly long but did not feel like a chore to read. The author does a great job of balancing the political, military, and diplomatic aspects of the war without failing to mention the human aspect of how destructive the war was. The book mainly focuses on Korea but gives a good background of China and Japan as well. I cannot fully attest to the accuracy of the book as it is difficult to find many books on this topic in the west but many of the stories seem to be well researched and have been corroborated by many of the stories that I have learned from reading about Korean history.
January 10, 2016
I'm a self styled Koreaphile. I love the country and have visited it half a dozen times in the last decade and plan on visiting it many times more. I'm very interested in the history of Korea and it's very difficult to find much in the way of its history other than books about the Korean war and a handful of books on the modern era. This book covers, in depth, a fascinating and important era in Korean history. I cant recommend it highly enough. I "discovered" this book thanks to the now defunct Topics in Korean History podcast, so props to that guy, wherever he is now. Now the quest to find another good book on Korean history continues.
June 8, 2018
"In 1591 Hideyoshi in fact possessed the most powerful military machine the world had ever seen"
This sentence stopped me cold. In the 1500's the most powerful military was not in Europe, but... Japan? They had the most and best guns in the world? Why have I never heard of this???
As a Korean-Taiwanese-American, I am eager to learn more about my cultural heritage, to understand the culture that my father told me about. This book goes beyond just recounting an ancient war, but tells of its significance then and influence now. I never really understood my grandfather's dislike of Japanese things, such as his refusal to buy a Japanese car over a Korean one, even when the Korean cars were really bad, until I read of the true scale of the two invasions of Korea by Japan, as well as the invasion of Korea prior to World War One. This book explains the some of the
key strengths and weakness of both sides, and why they did what they did in these wars. The impact of the Imjin War was not just the devastation of Korea, but the downfall of key political powers in China, Korea, and Japan, with long lasting political and cultural influences to this day, making this books essential, not just to understand one's cultural heritage, but to understand much of the culture and politics in Asia from a unique viewpoint that is not Korean nor Japanese nor Chinese. Why do politicians in Japan and Korea care so much about an ancient shrine that it is a stumbling block for diplomacy between the two? Why were a bunch of books important that the Korean went to great lengths to preserve them? Why did Hideyoshi invade Korea? Did Korea really invent ironclad warships almost a century and a half before the Civil War? All of these questions and more are answered in this book, with thoughtful analysis that is fair to both sides. This book isn't just a history textbook, and I enjoy reading it over and over a again, and its length means I can just move to another part if I've read too much of a certain part. I think this book is essential to understand part of Asia today, especially in light of Asia's heightened political importance today.
This sentence stopped me cold. In the 1500's the most powerful military was not in Europe, but... Japan? They had the most and best guns in the world? Why have I never heard of this???
As a Korean-Taiwanese-American, I am eager to learn more about my cultural heritage, to understand the culture that my father told me about. This book goes beyond just recounting an ancient war, but tells of its significance then and influence now. I never really understood my grandfather's dislike of Japanese things, such as his refusal to buy a Japanese car over a Korean one, even when the Korean cars were really bad, until I read of the true scale of the two invasions of Korea by Japan, as well as the invasion of Korea prior to World War One. This book explains the some of the
key strengths and weakness of both sides, and why they did what they did in these wars. The impact of the Imjin War was not just the devastation of Korea, but the downfall of key political powers in China, Korea, and Japan, with long lasting political and cultural influences to this day, making this books essential, not just to understand one's cultural heritage, but to understand much of the culture and politics in Asia from a unique viewpoint that is not Korean nor Japanese nor Chinese. Why do politicians in Japan and Korea care so much about an ancient shrine that it is a stumbling block for diplomacy between the two? Why were a bunch of books important that the Korean went to great lengths to preserve them? Why did Hideyoshi invade Korea? Did Korea really invent ironclad warships almost a century and a half before the Civil War? All of these questions and more are answered in this book, with thoughtful analysis that is fair to both sides. This book isn't just a history textbook, and I enjoy reading it over and over a again, and its length means I can just move to another part if I've read too much of a certain part. I think this book is essential to understand part of Asia today, especially in light of Asia's heightened political importance today.
January 1, 2019
The Koreans kept meticulous records of an invasion of their country by Japan that occurred four centuries ago. This enabled the author to go into great detail about all the battles. Even though the book is long, the author prevents it from becoming boring. The war was started by the leader who first unified Japan, and who wanted to expand his empire. At that time, Korea was a protectorate of Ming China, and Korea was somewhat more culturally advanced than Japan. China gave a great deal of military support to Korea. The Korean navy saved the day by preventing the Japanese navy from bringing food to its army. But Korea suffered great devastation, from which it took centuries to recover. The last chapter gives an overview of what happened in Japan, China and Korea during the subsequent centuries.
February 1, 2016
This is an absolutely great book on the Imjin War. This is a time period where information is not easily accessible. The book covers the two Japanese invasions of Korea between the years 1592 and 1598. The book appears to be fairly well researched. It gives the viewpoints of the Koreans, Ming Chinese and Japanese throughout the entire text. This makes it easy to understand why each nation acted in its own interest during the conflict. Key events, leaders, battles, etc. are discussed in fairly good detail. The strengths and weaknesses of each nation are discussed. Diaries and written accounts from all three participants are used as the resource material. The aftermath and consequences of the conflict are also covered in good detail. Anyone interested in this time period in Asian history would probably enjoy this book. It is not meant for those looking for just a brief summary of the conflict. It is very detailed. The only things lacking would be illustrations and pictures but otherwise this is a great book! I highly recommend this book.
March 14, 2017
This is a thorough, well researched view of an important war. It is written to a western audience that knows little of Asian culture. I was thoroughly entertained.
There are times where the author would repeat a story, and the lack of maps made it hard to follow at times. This might be a problem with the kindle version though. The Names of places in Korea were not always easily found by google. Also, do NOT google "chindo". It is an island in south western Korea, just leave it at that.
There are times where the author would repeat a story, and the lack of maps made it hard to follow at times. This might be a problem with the kindle version though. The Names of places in Korea were not always easily found by google. Also, do NOT google "chindo". It is an island in south western Korea, just leave it at that.
September 26, 2017
One of the best histories of this period I have read. Samuel Hawley has written a masterful account of Japan's plan to conquer the known world. It is also the tale of how seapower bollixed the plan. The Japanese army, a strong force, was defeated because they were unable to establish the necessary logistics train. In an age of great admirals in Europe, the Korean Yi sun-sin exceeded them all, both in talent and results.
August 17, 2019
The book lays out background of the story from the three sides (china, korea, japan) very well and turns the image of Chinese invincibilty on its head. I never believed that japan had a stronger army than Spain but was impressed by the korean turtle-ship and the admiral who led them against ridiculous odds.
September 4, 2016
I first encountered that war years ago reading Clavell's Shogun. Yet I would never envisage war of such dimesions and scope , hunndres of thousands of crack troops , naval encounters won angaist all odds , wanton cruelty. Detailed accout ecompasing strategy ,weapons , fortitactios , key political and military figures , court intiques. After the war Ming dinasty collapsed , Korean flourisng state collapsed and Japan cut itself from rest of world at the moment no European army could match theirs.
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