⑨ The Story of Wakizaka Yasuharu

I want to ask you something.

Do you know of anyone, in the whole of Korean history, who was respected even by his enemies -- and who is still honored and revered hundreds of years later?

With what little I know, I can't think of anyone besides Admiral Yi Sun-sin.

To Admiral Yi, the Japanese invaders were a mortal enemy he could not live under the same sky with.

Before his final battle, the Battle of Noryang, Admiral Yi is said to have spoken these words:

If only I can defeat this enemy, I would have no regret even if I died this very moment.

Given the seven years of war -- the Imjin War and the Jeongyu War -- it's only natural that the two sides became mortal enemies to one another.

And yet here I want to introduce a Japanese general who, standing before his enemy Admiral Yi, admitted his own crushing defeat exactly as it happened -- and I couldn't simply pass his story by. Somewhere in my heart, I also hope that we might learn from his honesty in the face of defeat, and become people who can learn even from our enemies.

Wakizaka Yasuharu -- Crushing 50,000 Joseon Soldiers with 1,600 Men

Wakizaka Yasuharu was one of the seven generals who distinguished themselves at the Battle of Shizugatake, the battle that made Toyotomi Hideyoshi the supreme ruler of the Warring States period. Known as one of the “Seven Spears” (七本槍), he enjoyed Hideyoshi's deep favor.

Wakizaka Yasuharu

In recognition of his service, he was made lord of the island of Awaji, which put him in charge of maritime transport and shipping -- and through that connection, he was assigned to manage Japan's sea transport and supply lines in the early stages of the Imjin War.

Then, to block the Joseon army advancing to retake Hanyang (present-day Seoul), Wakizaka was sent back into the field as a land commander, his original specialty.

This is what led to the Battle of Yongin. With a force of barely 1,600 men, he ambushed and shattered a northward-marching Joseon army of 50,000 -- the combined forces of the Three Provinces' Loyalist Army -- in a stunning victory.

The Battle of Yongin humiliated and terrified the Joseon army, and vaulted Wakizaka into the ranks of Japan's foremost generals.

Then, in the middle of this winning streak, something unexpected happened to him.

As the Japanese navy suffered defeat after defeat at sea against Admiral Yi, a rattled Hideyoshi ordered Wakizaka to take on naval command as well, and rushed him to the front at Hansan Island.

With 73 Japanese ships, he faced off against 58 Joseon ships -- including turtle ships, Admiral Yi's ironclad warships -- at Hansan Island.

But his confidence collapsed into a devastating defeat before Admiral Yi's crane-wing formation, built around the turtle ships. Of his 73 ships, only 14 escaped; 47 were smashed apart and 12 were captured. Wakizaka barely managed to flee to an uninhabited island, where he hid for over ten days living on seaweed before finally escaping.

A Record of Defeat Worth More Than the Victory at Yongin

The defeat at Hansan Island, and the memory of the seaweed that filled his starving belly on that deserted island, left Wakizaka with tremendous shock and fear. The experience was so intense that, once back in Japan, he set down in writing, exactly as it happened, the process of how he had come to lose.

What stands out here is that he recorded the defeat honestly.

Among Japanese warriors of the time, it was common to exaggerate one's own military accomplishments while hiding or downplaying defeats. But Wakizaka was different. He didn't minimize or dress up how utterly he had been crushed, how many ships he had lost, or how much fear drove his flight -- he set it all down as it was. Rather than protect his pride as a defeated commander, he chose to record the facts plainly.

Looking back on this historically, I think this attitude gave his Japanese descendants something even more valuable than the victory at Yongin.

Wakizaka and his descendants are said to still keep a family tradition today: every year, on the anniversary of the Battle of Hansan Island by the lunar calendar, the family gathers to eat nothing but seaweed, so as never to forget that bitter defeat and to guard against arrogance.

This spirit of Wakizaka's -- acknowledging defeat and trying to learn from it -- carried all the way down to the era when Japan possessed the world's mightiest navy, during the period of Japan's colonial rule of Korea.

Why the Japanese Navy Held Annual Rites at Chungnyeolsa Shrine

During Japan's colonial rule of Korea, the Japanese navy stationed at Jinhae set aside an official budget every year to visit Chungnyeolsa Shrine in Tongyeong, where Admiral Yi's portrait is enshrined, and held an annual memorial rite there. They recognized and paid respect to the very enemy general who had defeated them -- a man they had never once beaten -- as the God of the Sea and as their own teacher.

This respect went beyond mere ceremony.

Within the Japanese navy of the Meiji era, Admiral Yi became a subject of serious scholarly study, and something of a legend in his own right.

The Japanese war historian Sato Tetsutaro, in a 1927 book, described Yi as “a peerless commander, flawless in character and in the vessel of his leadership,” and praised him so highly that he judged even Britain's Admiral Nelson to fall short by comparison.

Ogasawara Naganari, an instructor in the Japanese navy, likewise studied Admiral Yi's strategy and left behind writings on it -- work that later had a major influence in shaping how Japanese naval officers came to see Admiral Yi.

The Japanese navy, which studied the strategies of its enemy general Admiral Yi and strove to learn from him, went on to defeat what was then the invincible Russian fleet and rise to become the dominant naval power in Asia.

Even today, Japan includes Admiral Yi in most of its mainstream textbooks, teaching him to its students.

Closing Thoughts

As I said at the start of this post, I believe we should learn from Wakizaka Yasuharu and the Japanese the way he learned from his defeat at the hands of his enemy, Admiral Yi -- by acknowledging it honestly.

As someone who takes an interest in history, I find it hard, and a little sad, to find figures in our own history who tried to learn even from their enemies. And looking at myself, I feel ashamed to ask how much I have tried to learn from people I dislike.

👉 Next post: ⑩ Getting to Know Admiral Yi's Five Great Naval Battles

— Momcheolhak