Khaberni -Toyotomi Hideyoshi is one of the most important figures in Japanese history. Despite his humble beginnings, he managed to attain the highest positions in Japan. Through his political and military career, this samurai and feudal lord, or Daimyo, managed to unify Japan after a long period of division. Thanks to this, Toyotomi Hideyoshi earned the title of the second greatest unifier of Japan.
The first attack on Korea
With his success in unifying Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi set his sights during the last decade of the 16th century on China, where he planned to invade and annex this region to the Japanese territories. Hoping to reach China, which was under the rule of the Ming dynasty, the Japanese needed to cross the Korean Peninsula, which was ruled at that time by the Joseon dynasty.
In 1592, Toyotomi Hideyoshi prepared an army of about 150,000 soldiers to invade the Korean Peninsula. With this military operation, the Japanese forces quickly advanced and managed to take control of both Pyongyang and Seoul. The reason for this Japanese victory at that time was the unpreparedness of the Korean soldiers and their declining morale following the defeats they suffered at the beginning of the war.
Furthermore, Chinese intervention helped tip the balance of the war. As the Japanese approached their borders, the Chinese emperor, from the Ming dynasty, Wanli, sent forces led by General Li Rusong to face the Japanese. Concurrently, Korean warships launched attacks on Japanese supply ships, causing a decline in the amount of supplies and military equipment the Japanese forces penetrating the Korean Peninsula received.
The second attack on Korea
By 1593, Japan began to withdraw its forces from Korean territory and subsequently started peace negotiations with the Joseon dynasty.
And with the failure of these negotiations, Japan organized a second invasion of the Korean Peninsula. During the year 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the beginning of the second military intervention against Korea.
Just like the first war, Chinese forces intervened to support the Koreans. Because of this, the Japanese faced many difficulties in advancing.
In this second war, the Korean Admiral Yi Sun Sin played a pivotal role in defeating Japan, as he was able to achieve several naval victories against the numerically superior Japanese. In his naval battles, Yi Sun Sin relied heavily on turtle ships, described as the first battleships in history.
With the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1598, the Japanese invasion of the Korean Peninsula came to an end as the Japanese withdrew after losing tens of thousands of their soldiers. On the other hand, the Korean Peninsula suffered unprecedented destruction, with many of its cities, temples, cultural and historical sites destroyed and burned. Additionally, these two wars resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Koreans.
