Long ago, medieval Japan was going through a 100-year civil war called ” 전국시대 (戦国時代) “. You know, ‘profesional samurai’, ‘the concept that women are the property of men’, ‘unconditional obedience to Tenno (their emperor)’ are born from this war. one day some of them coincidentally met a spainsh who is merchant from the sea. yes they brought a gun to the first time to japan. actually it calls ‘matchlock’ what too slow to reload and not quite good at fire power. so, samurai who always need quick response to fight doesnt like that new weapon. but oneday a powerful Daimyo(lord) suddenly appeared. his name is ‘Oda Nobunaga’.
(戦国時代 is war between dozens of Daimyos who tried to conquier of terrotory of japan. and each Daimyo’s clan(가문) is contains of family and its follower. think about my sur name and its concept that I let you know long ago)
‘Oda nobunaga’ is symbol of innovation in whole history of japan.
He also knows that guns not powerfull and its slow(it takes about 2~3 min. to reload). but he had a great idea to fire with 3 rows. As soon as the first row fires, they immediatly goes to the back and reload. 2nd and 3rd row works same as well. the result is really shocking and effecient like bring a modern machine gun in medieval age. ( they won even in a 10:1 battle )
In the end, with such ingenious strategies and tactics, he almost unified all of Japan. but his subordinate betrayed him due to his sociopathic personality and led to his death. (insulted him as a tangerine head. haha this is real reason in history book you know, japanese has own history logs per a Clan. so its very good to cross checkable and very specific )
“Doyotomi Hideyoshi” the next successor is conquire whole japan at last. he is smartest person in japan history. but we recognize him to most unforgivable enemy. because he started the war of “임진왜란”
Ironically, the flag of the first unit sent to Korea was in the shape of a Catholic cross. Because the general of the unit that invaded us was a Catholic, they used a black cross as the unit’s mark.
His name is Konishi Yukinaga and his baptismal name is Augustine. almost same feeling when spanish arrived in south america at first. they slaugted us.
And also they used the gun just like Oda’s way to kill our people.
At that time, we have more powerfull cannon and missle-like waepons. but we did not have the foresight to accept small and efficient guns because we did not accept foreigners.we just either killed foreigners or used them as monkeys in the zoo.
Actually “임진왜란” caused by politics issues from inside of japan. The territory to be given to the samurai was saturated, and they used it to divert attention to the outside world. its all from Toyotomi’s head. At this point, he already had concrete plans to conquer not only until China but India.
Finally, They defeated by general “이순신” and war is over.
In fact, we won because of the interesting cultural differences from Japan. like as The king who ran away without committing suicide, Peasants who fight even though they are not samurai, monks who fight, and Soldiers fighting for their country even though the king fled.
They thought that if the king will be killed, everyone in our country would commit suicide as they do. So they advanced very quickly, but the king ran away and the people resisted, the army, which did not expect this, took a long time to pursuit the king’s cousins for hostage. due to this long supply line they got to weaker. eventually defeated due to 이순신’s blocking of the supply line.
But they were never give up. they were further convinced by the guns that had been so useful in all wars. And they started to beilive that only exchange with the West is the way to conquer the world.
While Korea pursued a policy of isolation, Japanese are open thier harbor to all of westerners. they sucked the culture and tech like sponges for a long time in peace. you know, while that time Van Gogh inspired by Japan and japan inspires to most of europe as Mordernism, Zen style.. they prepare to war again with the guns and cannons. This is the Renaissance period in Japan, named Edo period. The Tokugawa clan eventually conquered Japan and stabilized it for a long time.
( Oda, Toyotomi, Tokugawa they are most famous and important person in medieval history in japan. and there is a saying about thier characteristic. To make a bird sing:
Oda commands to sing, if the bird does not sing, it is killed.
Toyotomi laughs, cries, dances, gives money, and does everything to make bird sing.
Tokugawa waits quietly until to sing.
If you go for an interview at a Japanese company, you will be asked this question. Who do you like best among Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu?
who is your choice? )
Time passed to late 19th century, Japan won both the Chinese(Sino)-Japanese War and the Russian-Japanese War, and we too eventually fall into their hands. they believed that they could conquer the world. They stubbornly continued to use the tactics and spirit of the 전국시대 mentioned above. Technology has advanced greatly, but they did not changed the concept of living (world view?) until this moment at all. The samurai spirit (e.g. killing others for honor, 할복). 위안부 who turn women into tools. and sacrifice of their lives thinking of the king as a god (e.g. 반자이돌격, 카미카제), are applied to the new war. That is World War II.
This history tell us now why our military continues to accept and develop new technologies, and why we continue to beware about Japan’s armament.
History repeats itself. this time we need to prepare for Chinese expansion.
Chinese are preparing a war against Taiwan. It will occours within 2~5 years. China is in the exact same situation as Toyotomi, which started the war with Korea mentioned above. sadly but its true.