Episode #202- What Was The Great East Asian War? (Part II)

When the Japanese army landed in Korea in 1592 the Korean defenders were woefully underprepared. Confused diplomacy and divisive court politics had hampered Korean preparations for the coming Japanese attack. The only Korean commander who came out looking good was the war hero Admiral Yi Sunsin. Admiral Yi is still remembered in South Korea as the most respected Korean to ever live. With a reputation that inflated is it possible to get an accurate understanding of Yi as a person? Tune-in and find out how heroic statues, baby pee, and some truly terrible battle plans all play a role in the story.

Works Cited

Haboush, JaHyun Kim. The Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation. Edited by William Joseph Haboush and Jisoo M. Kim, Columbia University Press, 2016.

Hawley, Samuel Jay. The Imjin War : Japan’s Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China. 1st ed., Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, 2005.

Hwang, Kyung Moon. A History of Korea : An Episodic Narrative. 2nd edition.,Palgrave, 2017.

Lee, Peter H. “The ‘Imjin Nok’, or the ‘Record of the Black Dragon Year’: An Introduction.” Korean Studies, vol. 14, 1990, pp. 50–83. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23717863. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.

Lewis, James Bryant, editor. The East Asian War, 1592-1598 : International Relations, Violence and Memory. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.

Nam-lin Hur(허남린). “Works in English on the Imjin War and the Challenge of Research.” International Journal of Korean History, vol. 18, no. 2, 2013, pp. 53–80.

Swope, Kenneth. A Dragon’s Head and a Serpent’s Tail : Ming China and the First Great East Asian War, 1592-1598. University of Oklahoma Press, 2009.

Swope, Kenneth M. “PERSPECTIVES ON THE IMJIN WAR.” The Journal of Korean Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, 2007, pp. 154–61. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41490237. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.