Imjin War (Japanese invasions of Korea)

The sides

Timeline of the Imjin War (Japanese invasions of Korea)

1. 23–24 May 1592
   Japanese armies land at Busan and storm its fortress

   Having unified Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi demanded passage through Korea to conquer Ming China, and when the Joseon court refused he sent an army of about 158,800 soldiers, labourers and sailors in nine divisions. Konishi Yukinaga's First Division landed at Busan on 23 May 1592. The next day it stormed the fortress of Busanjin, commanded by Chŏng Pal, killing most of the garrison and many townspeople. Korea, at peace for two centuries, was badly prepared, and its defences in the south collapsed.

2. 25 May 1592
   Dongnae falls after a last stand by its governor

   Konishi's troops moved on to the walled town of Dongnae just north of Busan. Its prefect, Song Sanghyŏn, refused to let them pass, and the town was stormed after hours of fighting; about 3,000 defenders were killed by Korean count. The other Japanese divisions landed behind the first, and three columns, under Konishi, Katō Kiyomasa and Kuroda Nagamasa, began a race north along separate roads towards the capital, Hanseong (Seoul).

3. 3 Jun 1592
   Konishi routs General Yi Il at Sangju

   The court sent General Yi Il south to stop the invaders on the central road, but he found only a few hundred raw troops at Sangju. On 3 June 1592 Konishi's veterans, armed with thousands of arquebuses, surrounded and destroyed his small army; Yi Il escaped and fled north. The Japanese musketeers, trained in the long civil wars of the Sengoku period, were far superior to Korean troops in open battle in the early months of the war.

4. 7 Jun 1592
   Sin Rip's army is destroyed at Chungju

   General Sin Rip, Korea's most famous commander, chose not to hold the Choryong pass and instead deployed his cavalry on open ground at Tangeumdae, near Chungju, with rivers behind it. On 7 June 1592 Konishi's arquebusiers broke the Korean charges and drove the army into the rivers, where many drowned; Sin Rip took his own life. Chungju was the last organised defence before the capital, and King Seonjo fled north.

5. 10 Jun 1592
   Konishi's First Division enters the abandoned capital Hanseong

   The court had already left Hanseong, and parts of the city, including the offices holding the slave registers, had been looted and burned by its own people. Konishi's division reached the capital first, on 10 June 1592, less than three weeks after landing, with Katō's division arriving soon after. King Seonjo withdrew to Pyongyang and later to Uiju on the Chinese border, and the Korean court appealed to the Ming emperor, its overlord, for help.

6. 16 Jun 1592
   Yi Sun-sin wins his first victory, at Okpo

   While Japan's armies swept north, the navy of Jeolla province under Admiral Yi Sun-sin sailed east from its base at Yeosu. On 16 June 1592 it surprised a Japanese transport fleet anchored at Okpo on Geoje island and destroyed 26 ships without losing one of its own. It was the first of a series of naval victories, won with sturdy panokseon warships and heavy cannon, that began to threaten the Japanese supply line from Busan.

7. 6–7 Jul 1592
   The Japanese cross the Imjin River

   A Korean army of about 10,000 held the north bank of the Imjin river, the barrier on the road from Hanseong to Pyongyang, and the Japanese waited there for two weeks without boats. Then the Japanese feigned a retreat; the Korean troops crossed in pursuit and were ambushed and destroyed on 6–7 July 1592. The road north lay open: Kato turned north-east into Hamgyong province, while Konishi and Kuroda marched on Pyongyang.

8. 19–24 Jul 1592
   Konishi takes Pyongyang

   King Seonjo fled Pyongyang on 19 July 1592, and the panic his departure caused spread to the defenders. A Korean night attack across the Taedong river failed, and when the retreating troops showed the Japanese a ford, the defenders abandoned the city. Konishi's First Division entered Pyongyang on 24 July and found its granaries intact. Konishi halted there, waiting for supplies and reinforcements that the Korean navy and guerrilla attacks were making ever harder to deliver.

9. 15 Aug 1592
   Yi Sun-sin destroys a Japanese fleet off Hansan Island

   Hideyoshi ordered his admirals to destroy the Korean navy. Wakisaka Yasuharu's fleet of about 73 ships was lured out of the narrow strait of Gyeonnaeryang into open water off Hansan Island, where Yi Sun-sin's 56 warships, including turtle ships, closed round it in a crane-wing formation. On 15 August 1592 most of the Japanese fleet was destroyed. Hansan ended Japanese plans to supply their armies by sea along the west coast.

10. 23 Aug 1592
    A first Ming force is beaten back at Pyongyang

    The Ming court was busy with a revolt at Ningxia, but it sent a small force of about 6,000 men under General Zu Chengxun across the Yalu. On 23 August 1592 it attacked Pyongyang in heavy rain, broke into the city and was cut to pieces in the streets by Konishi's musketeers; Zu escaped with a few survivors. The defeat convinced the Ming that a much larger army would be needed, while envoys bought time with truce talks.

11. 30 Aug 1592
    Katō Kiyomasa reaches Hoeryong and captures two Korean princes

    Katō Kiyomasa's Second Division of more than 20,000 men crossed to the east coast, took Hamhung, the capital of Hamgyong province, and beat the provincial army at Songjin on 23 August. On 30 August it entered Hoeryong near the Tumen river, where two Korean princes and the governor had already been seized by local people and handed over. Katō even raided across the Tumen against the Jurchens. But Korean partisans soon rose across Hamgyong and retook its northern towns.

12. 8–13 Nov 1592
    Kim Si-min repels a Japanese army at Jinju

    Jinju guarded the road from Gyeongsang into the rich province of Jeolla, which had escaped invasion and fed the Korean war effort. About 30,000 Japanese troops besieged the fortress, held by Kim Si-min with some 3,800 soldiers and a few thousand irregulars and 170 newly made arquebuses. After six days of assaults with siege towers and ladders the Japanese gave up on 13 November, having lost heavily; Kim Si-min was mortally wounded. Jinju became a symbol of Korean resistance, alongside the Righteous Armies.

13. 6–8 Feb 1593
    Ming and Korean troops retake Pyongyang

    In January 1593 a Ming army of about 40,000 under Li Rusong crossed the Yalu and, with Korean troops and monk soldiers, reached Pyongyang on 5 February. Its cannon battered the walls, and after three days of assaults Konishi abandoned the city on the night of 8 February and retreated south, losing thousands of men. The Japanese gave up most of the north. Katō Kiyomasa, in danger of being cut off, withdrew from Hamgyong province in the following weeks.

14. 27 Feb 1593
    The Japanese halt Li Rusong's advance at Byeokjegwan

    Confident after Pyongyang, Li Rusong pushed on towards Hanseong with an advance force, mostly cavalry. At the post station of Byeokjegwan, north of the capital, on 27 February 1593 it ran into a much larger Japanese army under Kobayakawa Takakage and was driven back with heavy losses in the mud. Li withdrew to Kaesong and then Pyongyang, and the two sides settled into a stalemate along the line from Kaesong to Hanseong.

15. 14 Mar 1593
    Kwon Yul's garrison beats off a Japanese assault at Haengju

    General Kwon Yul fortified the hill fort of Haengjusanseong on the Han river west of Hanseong with about 2,300 soldiers, monks and townspeople. On 14 March 1593 some 30,000 Japanese attacked it in waves through the day, but the defenders, using cannon, rocket carts and stones, held out until the Japanese withdrew. Haengju, with Korean naval raids and the Ming burning of Japanese grain stores at Yongsan, left the army in Hanseong short of food.

16. May 1593
    The Japanese abandon Hanseong and fall back to the south coast

    Short of food, hit by disease and harassed by guerrillas, the Japanese commanders agreed in peace talks with the Ming envoy Shen Weijing to evacuate the capital and withdraw to the Busan area, while the Ming army would also pull back. They left Hanseong in the spring of 1593 and retreated to a chain of castles, the wajō, built along the southern coast of Gyeongsang province from Ulsan to Geoje, which they held for the rest of the war.

17. 20–27 Jul 1593
    The Japanese take Jinju and massacre its defenders

    Hideyoshi was determined to avenge the failure at Jinju. In July 1593 a Japanese army of about 90,000, the largest single force of the war, besieged the fortress, defended by a few thousand soldiers and crowded with civilians. After a week of assaults the walls were breached and the city fell on 27 July; the Japanese killed its defenders and much of its population, Korean sources counting 60,000 dead. They then withdrew to their coastal forts.

18. 1596
    Peace talks collapse at Osaka

    For three years Ming and Japanese negotiators, chiefly Shen Weijing and Konishi Yukinaga, misrepresented each side's demands to their masters in order to keep the truce. Hideyoshi expected Ming surrender of territory and a princess, while the Ming believed he had asked to become a tributary king. When the deception came out at his audience with the Ming envoys at Osaka Castle in 1596, Hideyoshi was enraged and ordered a second invasion of Korea.

19. 28 Aug 1597
    The Korean navy is destroyed at Chilcheollyang

    In 1597 more than 140,000 Japanese troops crossed to Korea. Yi Sun-sin had been removed from his command after a Japanese plot, and his successor Won Gyun was ordered to attack the Japanese fleet. On 28 August 1597, off Geoje island near Chilcheollyang, his tired fleet was surprised at night by a much larger Japanese navy. Most of the Korean fleet, by one count 188 ships, was destroyed, and Won Gyun was killed. The sea route to the west coast now lay open to Japan.

20. 23–26 Sep 1597
    The Japanese storm Namwon

    Japan's second offensive aimed at Jeolla province, which had escaped the first invasion. The Left Army of about 50,000 under Ukita Hideie besieged Namwon, held by about 3,000 Ming soldiers under Yang Yuan and a few hundred Koreans. The town fell on the night of 26 September after four days; Yang Yuan broke out with about 100 men, but most of the defenders and many townspeople were killed. The Japanese went on to take Jeonju.

21. 16 Oct 1597
    Ming troops stop the Japanese advance at Jiksan

    While the Left Army swept Jeolla, the Japanese Right Army under Mōri Hidemoto and Katō Kiyomasa marched north through Chungcheong towards Hanseong. On 16 October 1597 its vanguard under Kuroda Nagamasa met a Ming force of about 8,000 infantry and cavalry near Jiksan, south of the capital, and was driven back after a hard fight. Jiksan was the farthest the Japanese got towards Hanseong in the second invasion; with winter coming, their armies turned back towards the south coast.

22. 26 Oct 1597
    Yi Sun-sin's 13 ships defeat a Japanese fleet at Myeongnyang

    Restored to command after Chilcheollyang, Yi Sun-sin had only 13 warships left. He waited for the Japanese fleet, at least 133 warships, in the narrow Myeongnyang strait off Jindo island, where a powerful tidal current runs. On 26 October 1597 his ships held the strait for hours, sinking or disabling about 30 Japanese vessels, and when the tide turned the Japanese withdrew. The victory stopped the Japanese navy from advancing along the west coast to support their armies.

23. 29 Jan – 19 Feb 1598
    Ming–Korean armies fail to take Ulsan castle

    The Japanese held the winter in new coastal castles, and the Ming general Yang Hao led about 50,000 Ming and Korean troops against the new Japanese castle at Ulsan. Its garrison held out through repeated assaults until a Japanese relief army arrived; on 19 February 1598 the allies broke off the siege and retreated with heavy losses. A stalemate followed along the south coast, from Ulsan to Suncheon.

24. 18 Sep 1598
    Toyotomi Hideyoshi dies; Japan decides to withdraw

    Hideyoshi died at Fushimi Castle on 18 September 1598, leaving his five-year-old son Hideyori as heir. The Council of Five Elders that now governed Japan kept his death secret and ordered the armies in Korea home. Meanwhile allied armies attacked the Japanese castles at Sacheon and Suncheon in October 1598 and were beaten off, but the Japanese prepared to evacuate their forts and sail back to Japan.

25. 16 Dec 1598
    Noryang: the last battle; Yi Sun-sin is killed

    Konishi Yukinaga was blockaded at Suncheon by the Korean and Ming fleets, and Shimazu Yoshihiro sailed with about 500 ships to rescue him. Yi Sun-sin and the Ming admiral Chen Lin intercepted the relief fleet in the Noryang strait before dawn on 16 December 1598 and destroyed about half of it. Yi was killed by a gunshot at the height of the battle. Konishi escaped round the south of Namhae island, and on 21 December the last Japanese commanders sailed from Busan for Japan.

Related

• The world in 1530: Conquerors and Reformers

Other wars of the time

• Thirty Years' War 23 May 1618 – 24 October 1648