Admiral Yi Sun-sin single-handedly safeguarded the entire existence of the Korean people. Without this one man Korean culture, the Korean language, and Korean political independence would have ceased to exist. Sun-sin is one of the greatest military minds in recorded human history. This is his story.

It’s all here and it’s all free on Battlecast – the world’s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact. This is part two of an ongoing series on the Imjin War. You can find part one here.

Download episode 59 here: download link

Maps and Illustrations:

References:

Samurai invasion: Japan’s Korean war by Stephen Turnbull (2002)

Book of Corrections: Reflections on the National Crisis During the Japanese Invasion of Korea, 1592-1598 by Song-Nyong Yu and Byonghyon Choi  

Imjin changch’o: Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s memorials to court by Sun-sin Yi. Translated by Ha Tse-hung

Admiral Yi Sun-sin of Korea by Jong-dae Kim. Translated by Philip K Rhyu

Nanjung Ilgi: War Diary of Admiral Yi Sun-sin by Yi Sun-shin. Translated by Ha Tae-hung.

A History of Korea: from “Land of the Morning Calm” to states in conflict by Jinwung Kim

A concise history of Korea: from antiquity to the present by Michael Seth

A concise history of Japan by Brett Walker

The Cambridge history of Japan volumes 3 and 4 edited by Kozo Yamamura and John Whitney Hall 

The Imjin War by Samuel Hawley 

The samurai invasion of Korea by Stephen Turnbull 

A dragon’s head and a serpent’s tail: Ming China and the First Great East Asian War, 1592-1598 by Swope, Kenneth M. (2009)

The Japanese experience by W.G. Beasley

The Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, translated by William Scott Wilson

Samurai wisdom by Thomas Cleary

A history of Japan by R.H.P. Mason and J.G. Caiger