Podcasts about pusan

The Korean peninsula was split into two countries after the Second World War.  The Soviet backed North and the U.S. backed South.  North Korea tried to unify the two by invading South Korea in June 1950.  Initially North Korea had great success.  It pushed South Korea's small military aside and rushed down the peninsula while the United States tried to get forces onto the peninsula.  The North Koreans were finally stopped around the port of Pusan at the very bottom of the Korean peninsula.  While fighting around Pusan was going on, the U.S. commander, General Douglas MacArthur, contemplated his next move.  Instead of using his growing force to reinforce Pusan, MacArthur chose to do something far more risky.  He would conduct an amphibious landing deep in the rear of the North Korean army, cut its logistics, and cause it to collapse.  The place he picked for this landing was the port of Inchon.  Robert D. Heinl, Jr. tells the story in "Victory at High Tide: The Inchon Seoul Campaign."

【句子】When I was in Korea, I was stationed outside of Pusan. 【Desperate Housewives S2E8】【发音】/wen/ /aɪ/ /wɒz/ /wɑːz/ /ɪn/ /kəˈriə/ /aɪ/ /wɒz/ /wɑːz/ /ˈsteɪʃnd/ /ˌaʊtˈsaɪd/ /əv/ /ˈpusɑːn/【发音技巧】When I连读；was in连读；outside of不完全爆破+连读；【翻译】当我在韩国的时候，我驻扎在釜山附近。【适用场合】今天我们来学习一下station的一个特别的用法。平时我们都知道station可以当名词用，表示“车站；火车站”这样的意思；但今天视频中，它当动词用，可以理解成to send someone to a particular country or place in order to do a job, especially for the military;所以就是“驻扎；派遣；派驻”这样的意思；在造句的时候，经常会使用被动语态的形式be stationed； eg: He was stationed in Germany for three years.他在德国驻扎了三年。 eg: I was stationed there just after the war.战争结束后我驻扎在那里。 eg: I hear your son's in the army--where's he stationed?我听说你的儿子在部队，他在哪里驻扎？ eg: Armed guards were stationed around the airport.武装警卫驻扎在机场周围。 【尝试翻译以下句子，并留言在文章留言区】The regiment was stationed in Singapore for several years.

On June 25, 1950, 150,000 soldiers of the North Korean People’s Army launched an attack across the 38th Parallel into South Korea. They quickly pushed the outnumbered, outgunned, and demoralized South Korean army southward and captured the southern capital Seoul and several other key cities. The United States rushed ground, air and sea forces to the region and set up a perimeter around the key port of Pusan, stopping the North Korean advance….for a while, at least. Join Evan and James as they narrate the exciting opening of the Korean War.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Depuis le 25 novembre, la diplomatie environnementale se réunit à Pusan en Corée du Sud. Avec pour objectif de mettre fin à la pollution plastique. 175 pays sont rassemblés pour la cinquième et ultime session de négociations d'un traité mondial pour stopper cette pollution hors de contrôle. Et ce projet de traité, nous lui avions consacré un épisode. Nous en étions alors à la 2e session de négociation et cela se déroulait à Paris.Largement utilisé depuis cinquante ans, le plastique est un danger pour les écosystèmes, la santé humaine ou le climat. Stéphane Mandard, journaliste au service Planète du « Monde », nous explique pourquoi il est crucial d'enrayer cette pollution massive.Un épisode de Dorali Mensah initialement diffusé le 9 juin 2023.Réalisation, musique et générique : Amandine Robillard. Présentation et rédaction en chef : Jean-Guillaume Santi. Dans cet épisode : un extrait de l'émission « La France défigurée », du 22 avril 1973 (RTF/ORTF), un extrait de la campagne de sensibilisation The Plastic Forecast, et un extrait du message vidéo d'Emmanuel Macron du 29 mai 2023.---Abonnez-vous à la chaîne Whatsapp du "Monde" : https://lemde.fr/4eMPTJd Hébergé par Audion. Visitez https://www.audion.fm/fr/privacy-policy pour plus d'informations.

A la Une de la presse, lundi 25 novembre, la décision du gouvernement israélien de boycotter le journal de gauche Haaretz. Le début du sommet de Pusan, en Corée du sud, pour tenter de limiter la pollution liée au plastique. Des révélations sur les pratiques de TotalEnergies au Mozambique. Et la Journée internationale de l'élimination des violences faites aux femmes.

rWotD Episode 2686: Battle of the Pusan Perimeter Welcome to Random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia’s vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Tuesday, 10 September 2024 is Battle of the Pusan Perimeter.The Battle of the Pusan Perimeter (Korean: 부산 교두보 전투), known in Korean as the Battle of the Naktong River Defense Line (Korean: 낙동강 방어선 전투), was a large-scale battle between United Nations Command (UN) and North Korean forces lasting from August 4 to September 18, 1950. It was one of the first major engagements of the Korean War. An army of 140,000 UN troops, having been pushed south to the brink of defeat, were rallied to make a final stand against the invading Korean People's Army (KPA), 98,000 men strong.UN forces, having been repeatedly defeated by the advancing KPA, were forced back to the "Pusan Perimeter", a 140-mile (230 km) defense line around an area on the southeastern tip of South Korea that included the port of Busan (then spelt Pusan). The UN troops, consisting mostly of forces from the Republic of Korea Army (ROKA), United States, and United Kingdom, mounted a last stand around the perimeter, fighting off repeated KPA attacks for six weeks as they were engaged around the cities of Taegu, Masan, and Pohang and the Naktong River. The massive KPA assaults were unsuccessful in forcing the UN troops back farther from the perimeter, despite two major pushes in August and September.North Korean troops, hampered by supply shortages and massive losses, continually staged attacks on UN forces in an attempt to penetrate the perimeter and collapse the line. The UN forces, however, used the port to amass an overwhelming advantage in troops, equipment, and logistics, and its navy and air forces remained unchallenged by the KPA during the fight. After six weeks, the KPA force collapsed and retreated in defeat after the UN force launched a counterattack at Inchon on September 15, and the UN forces in the perimeter broke out the following day. The battle was the farthest the KPA would advance in the war, as subsequent fighting ground the war into a stalemate.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:23 UTC on Tuesday, 10 September 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Battle of the Pusan Perimeter on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Kimberly.

This is Part 3 of our Gishiwajinden Tour--following the route of the Wei embassy through the land of Wa and looking at the various locations along the way.  So far we've looked at the old land of Gaya, as represented at Gimhae, the site of the old Geumgwan Gaya, and the island of Tsushima, on the border.  This episode we look at the next island:  Iki. It might be easy to overlook Iki--it was neither the center nor exactly the periphery.  From the point of view of those in the court or those outside it was rather "mid", in a literal sense.  However, it was certainly at the center of its own vibrant history, which was certainly important to everyone there, and hosted a thriving community. It is also a great place to visit in the modern day: something of a hidden gem for anyone looking for a slightly more out of the way place to visit, with a slower pace than cities like Tokyo. For more, see our blog page:  https://www.sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/iki-koku Rough Translation: Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is Gishiwajinden Tour Part 3: Iki-koku. As regular listeners know, we are currently taking a break from the Chronicles.  With the Isshi Incident of 645—see Episode 107—we are about to get into the time known as “Taika” or “Great Change”.  Spoiler alert: This is the rise of Naka no Oe, aka Tenji Tennou; Nakatomi Kamako, aka Nakatomi Kamatari, the progenitor of the Fujiwara family; and more.  It is the beginning of what is known as the Ritsuryo System, the idea of a state governed by laws and punishments similar to what we see on the continent, based largely on Confucian principles, but mixed with a healthy dose of local tradition.  There is a lot there, and I want to do it justice.  And so for now I have a little bonus content for you. Earlier this year, Ellen and I took a trip based on the account in the Gishiwajinden, the Wa section of the Weizhi, the section in the Wei Chronicles regarding the trip to visit Queen Himiko of Wa.  In Part 1 we talked about our trip to Gimhae, formerly known as Geumgwan Gaya, a part of the old Gaya—or Kara—confederacy, with close ties to the archipelago.  Part 2 we talked about our next stop, the island of Tsushima.  But we didn't just talk about it in the 3rd century, because if you visit there is so much more to see from an historical perspective. This episode we are talking about the island of Iki, aka Ikijima, though in the Weizhi it is known as its own country:  Iki-koku. Relative to Tsushima, Iki island is much smaller—about one fifth the overall landmass.  However, it is much flatter as well—the highest point is only 212 meters above sea level, compared to Tsushima, which rises to about 649 meters at Mt. Yatate.  This makes Iki an island with a lot of flat land or rolling hills—perfect for the kind of wet rice paddy agriculture that created the population boom in the Yayoi period, which we will talk about here in a minute.  However, I will note that even today the population of Iki is similar to that of Tsushima despite having much less space. The flora and fauna of the island is much closer to that of the rest of the archipelago—in fact, it is nearly identical to what you would find in southwest Kyushu.  This is not surprising given how close it is.  For reference, Hitakatsu, on Tsushima is under 50km from Busan, Korea, and about 147 km to Hakata port in Fukuoka, or 138 km if you depart from Izuhara port instead.  Comparatively, it is about 76 km from Hakata to Iki, and even less—just about 42km—from Iki to Karatsu, south of Fukuoka, and these routes are dotted with islands along the way.  At its closest point, Iki is probably only 20km from Kyushu, but the ferries only stop at certain ports.  Tsushima to Iki, on the other hand, is around 68 km, from Izuhara to Iki.  Iki is about as close to Karatsu as Tsushima is to Pusan, and they are both further away from each other than from their respective larger landmasses.  That makes this leg – Tsushima to Iki - the longest leg in the trip, realistically. Today, both Iki and Tsushima, along with the Goto islands to the south, are all part of Nagasaki prefecture, despite the fact that they are both closer to Saga and Fukuoka prefectures.  This is in part because Iki came under the jurisdiction of the Hirado domain, which also was heavily involved with foreign trade through Nagasaki. Today, Iki is broken up into roughly four areas.  This includes Katsumoto, Ashibe, Indoji, and Gonoura, based around the four main port towns on the island.  Three of these ports, Ashibe, Indoji, and Gonoura, have ferries that regularly travel to either Tsushima or Kyushu. And all of them have various boats to take people out the islands around Iki, one of the major draws for many people coming to the island being to see the natural beauty of its coastline and surrounding waters.  There is also a small airport. Although Iki is small—you can drive from one end to the other in 40 minutes or less—I highly recommend renting a car, much like Tsushima.  This will be helpful to get to various sites, although be aware that while the main roads are well cared for, there are plenty of roads where it is better to go on foot rather than get stopped by fallen trees and branches in a less well maintained area.  Taxis can be had, but aren't always convenient, and that adds cost and time.  A car will give you much more freedom to get around. Iki is a popular tourist destination, with more people coming during the summer months.  We were there in the off-season, which was somewhat nice, but also meant that many restaurants and the like were closed.  Also, similar to Tsushima, there isn't a konbini—a convenience store—on every street corner.  You can certainly find them, but just be aware.  That said, we never really had a problem finding what we needed. Iki is known for several things.  One, perhaps unsurprisingly, is the squid, and you can see the squid boats in the harbor or out at night.  They have arrays of lights set up, to help draw the squid to the surface, a common technique around the world that makes squid fishing quite distinctive. In addition, Iki island is quite proud of its beef, a much more recent addition.  The flat land allows them to raise cattle, and the Iki raised wagyu cattle, known as Iki-gyu, is highly prized.  You can find several yakiniku restaurants around the island, that particular Japanese style of Korean barbecue where you grill up thinly sliced beef on a hot skillet or even an open grill at your table. An older product is the barley shochu.  Iki island is said to be the birthplace of barley shochu, developing it in the 17th century.  Back then, taxes from the island had to be paid in rice, and there wasn't enough left to make much alcohol, such as traditional sake.  As such, the local farmers started using barley and koji, instead, to make the base alcohol that they then distilled into shochu.  Shochu itself goes back to at least the 16th century, as distilling techniques reached southern Japan via either the Ryukyu kingdom or via the Korean peninsula—records are unclear, as these techniques reached both places before Japan, and Kyushu had connections to each.  That said, early shochu was made with rice, and later it would be made with cheaper ingredients, such as barley, in the case of Iki, or sweet potato, in Satsuma, modern Kagoshima.  These methods spread to other parts of Japan. There are plenty of other food options available on the island as well, and I don't think we had a bad meal anywhere we went. And so we left Izuhara port, on Tsushima, early in the morning and arrived at Ashibe port around lunchtime.  We had arranged a car to meet us at the port, and after grabbing a bite at a locally renowned yakinikuya, we decided to start getting our historical bearings on the island.   Our main objective on Iki island was to see the Yayoi site of Harunotsuji and the Iki-koku Museum, the museum of the country of Iki. Quick note for anyone looking this up:  The “Haru” in “Harunotsuji” is typically pronounced “Hara” outside of Kyushu and Okinawa.  This affects a lot of placenames in Kyushu, including Iki, and likely comes from remnants of an old dialect of Japanese spoken in this area.  Whatever the reason, if you look up the site in Japanese you may want to type “Hara-no-tsuji” to help find the right kanji. Harunotsuji site is an incredible find in regards to the Yayoi period.  It was a large settlement built on flat land in the interior of the island.  Today it is surrounded by rice fields, and fortunately nobody else seems to have built up on the raised hills where the settlement once stood, allowing the site to remain for us to find years later.  This is one of the better preserved sites from the Yayoi period, and is often touted as the likely center of activity in Iki during that period.  Of course, as with other sites, like Yoshinogari, we can only see those sites  that were preserved—those that were built upon in later generations may not have left any trace.  However, in this case there's clear evidence that there was a thriving community here.  And because of that, and the tremendous effort they've put into reconstructing the site, as well as the excellent museum, we wanted to make sure that we gave Iki a visit. There aren't many museums on Iki island, but the Iki-koku museum ranks up there with some of the best we've visited.  The building itself is built to blend into the landscape, and from the observation tower you can look out over the Harunotsuji site.  The museum provides an automated introduction to the area, with a small film depicting what they believe life was probably like back in the Yayoi period.  From there you travel down a hallway that takes you through the history of Iki, but eventually deposits you in a room focused on the Yayoi period.  Here they show a reconstructed boat, as well as a large diorama of the Harunotsuji site. One of the major finds at Harunotsuji is what appears to be a dock, reinforced with rocks, similar to what they find on the continent.  This dock was at a small stream that was once larger, and was likely used to ferry goods and people from Harunotsuji to a settlement or outpost on the shore.  It gives greater insight into what trade and life looked like. Speaking of which, props to the museum for their excellent use of often comical figures in their diorama, which is clearly made to appeal to young and old alike.  They help humanize the figures, and each part of the layout that they created of the site tells a story about what was going on. In addition to the diorama of the site, and what it may have looked like, there were also actual Yayoi era pots that were there which you could pick up and handle yourself.  I have to admit that I did this with some trepidation, even knowing that these were not particularly special, and that there are many pots and shards that are found at sites like these.  Still, it was something to actually handle a pot that was made back in that time—something that was made by an actual person living back then and used for whatever purpose before it was discarded or lost, only to be found centuries later.  Besides the room on the site, there is another side to the museum in that it is a working archaeological center.  You can see the lab where people are working, and they also have a room where you can see the stacks—the giant shelves with all of the historical and archaeological bits and bobs that weren't on display for one reason or another.  That is something that many people don't always appreciate:  For many museums, only a portion of their collection is actually on display.  It was really great to see all of that out in the open. The museum also has a café and some function rooms, as well as a giant observation tower, from which it feels like you can see the entire island, and beyond.  You could definitely look down and see the site, but you could also see some of the more distant islands as well. From the museum we went down to see the actual Harunotsuji site.  There is another museum there, which was a little less impressive but still quite informative, and it was where you park and then walk over to the site itself.  And here I admit that it was getting late, so we came back to it another day, but it doesn't really take that long to see the site itself. Most of the site sits on a rise of land that sits just a little higher than the surrounding fields, with a gentle slope to it.  It is oddly shaped, likely because they used the natural contours of the land rather than explicitly building up a terrace.  There is another rise towards one end of the settlement, with what may have been a fence around the area, indicating that the buildings in that area were set aside as special.  There are also ditches that appear to have been purposefully dug to separate a part of the rise from the area of the settlement, as buildings were apparently found on one side but not the other.  What was found was a small area surrounded by a moat, generally thought to have been used for some kind of ritual. At the site today are reconstructed buildings of multiple kinds, based on the archeological findings.  There are pit buildings, buildings sitting flush on the ground, as well as raised buildings, all based likely on the arrangements and size of post-holes and the like.  There also appears to have been some kind of gate or barrier structure, also based on postholes, which they have physically reconstructed. It is always tricky to interpret what a building looked like other than guessing at its general shape and size.  Extremely large post-holes likely held larger posts, which would make particular sense if they were for a tall structure, like a watchtower, but exact architectural features such as doorways, roof structure, etc. are derived based on other examples as well as Shinto shrine architecture, which seems to originate from some of the early Yayoi buildings. There were also some finds in the surrounding areas, including what appears to have been a stone-lined dock for boats to pull up, some kind of guard post to inspect people entering or leaving the settlement, and moats, which likely surrounded the settlement as well. Harunotsuji is not the only Yayoi site that has been excavated on Iki island, but nothing else is quite so large.  Put in context with other archaeological sites from the same time period, Harunotsuji is thought to have been the most powerful, and therefore where the ruler, or the quote-unquote “King”, of Iki would have lived. Here I'd note that the interpretation of Harunotsuji as a kingly capital is quite prevalent in the local literature, but what exactly was a “king” in this sense isn't fully explored.  As we talked about two episodes back with Gimhae and the quote-unquote “Kingdom” of Gaya, Iki-koku probably better fits the English term of a large chiefdom, rather than a kingdom.  However, that would also likely apply to Queen Himiko, as well—even if her chiefdom dwarfed Iki-koku by comparison. That said, there certainly appears to be a social stratification of some kind going on at the site, especially with a special area clearly set aside at one end of the settlement.  Was that where a shaman-king—or queen—similar to Himiko carried out private, arcane rites on behalf of the entire settlement?  Perhaps the entire island?  Or is it something else? Unfortunately, we can't really know, at least not right now.  However, we do know that it was an important part of the trade routes from the continent out to the archipelago.  This isn't just because of the Weizhi, or the common sense that this is the clearest route between the two, but also because of artifacts found at the site, which include abundant goods from the continent.  In addition we found evidence of dogs, armor, shields, and various pots. One thing I didn't see evidence of was a large funkyubo, like at Yoshinogari, where they buried people in pots on a large, communal cemetery mound.  Here the highest elevations appear to have been used for living structures.  There were graves discovered, and some of these were the pot-style burials found at Yoshinogari and the continent, and others were rectangular, stone-lined coffins, similar to those used on the Tsushima kofun:  they are lined with large, flat slabs that define a rectangle, into which the body is placed, and then flat slabs of stone are used to cover it back up. Harunotsuji shows signs of habitation from the start of the Yayoi period to the beginning of the Kofun period.  After that, though, the trail grows a bit cold. We do know, however, that people were still living on Iki through the Kofun period—we assume they didn't just pack up their bags and leave—and that is thanks to the many kofun found across the island.  There are some 280 kofun preserved today, and Edo period accounts had that number at more like 340.  Indeed, Iki has one of the largest and best preserved collection of kofun of all of Kyushu.   Many are smaller kofun, but there are plenty of groups of large kingly kofun.  A group of the larger kingly kofun can be found in the border area between Katsumoto-cho and Ashibe-cho, due west of Ashibe port.  This includes the large Soroku Kofun, Oni-no-iwaya Kofun, the Sasazuka Kofun, as well as the Kakegi kofun and the Yurihata Kofun-gun.  Soroku kofun, a large, keyhole shaped tomb, boasts a length of 91 meters, making it not only the largest on the island, but the largest in all of Nagasaki prefecture.   Kofun culture on the island differed slightly from elsewhere.  For instance, there is evidence of multiple burials in the same tomb, suggesting that they were viewed more like family mausoleums than  simply a single tomb structure. The earliest kofun found on Iki so far can be dated to about the latter half of the 5th century, with most of them being built in the 6th to 7th centuries.  Many are stone chambers with a horizontal entryway, which in the case of the Kakegi and Sasazuka kofun, are open to those who want to get in and explore.  Be aware, though, as many signs tell you, various local residents have also made these tombs their homes, including bats, centipedes, snakes, and more.  Most of them are relatively harmless, but it is always good to know what you are getting into. With the earliest kofun on the island dating to about the 5th century, this does pose a slight question yet to be answered by the archaeological record:  Where were people living in the century between the end of Harunotsuji and the start of the kofun building period?  Heck, where were people living on the island at all?  We certainly know where the dead were buried. Looking at a map, one probably assumes that many of the kingly kofun would have been built somewhat near a population center.  After all, you don't build giant burial mounds just to hide them—these would have likely been visible to people in some way, shape, or form.  I would note that modern roads, likely built on earlier pathways, wind in between the kofun, even today. Personally, I can't help but notice that the Iki Kokubunji temple, the Provincial temple built in the 8th century, was quite close to some of the kingly kofun in Katsumoto.  It is said that this temple was originally built as the family temple of the Iki clan.  As one might guess from the name, the Iki were the traditional rulers of Iki, officially appointed by Yamato as the “Agata-nushi” or district lord, and later as “Shima no Miyatsuko”—the island equivalent of a “Kuni no Miyatsuko”.  Various biographies trace the Iki back to various lineages close to or intertwined with the Nakatomi.  However, this is not without some debate, and it is entirely possible that any such ties were fabricated to give the Iki clan greater clout and stature.  It is possible, and even likely, that the Iki clan grew out of the ruling elite on Iki island. In addition, we have the old Tsukiyomi Jinja, said to be the oldest on the island, and the Kunikatanushi shrine built right next to the Kokubunji site.  The Tsukiyomi shrine is dedicated to the moon god, who is said to be the god of navigation, among other things, and this is the clan shrine of the Iki clan. It is unclear, but seems plausible that the center of the Iki polity may have shifted north, to the modern Kokubun area.  If so, and if this continued to be the area of the regional government headquarters through the Nara period and beyond, then it is possible that any earlier settlements would have simply been covered up and even erased by later buildings and structures.  I don't think we'll ever truly know, though, unless something significant is uncovered. We do have some historical records of later Iki, quite understandable as it was where many of the envoys and expeditions to and from the mainland would have stopped. In the 11th century, Iki, along with Tsushima, was attacked by pirates from the mainland, thought to be of Jurchen descent, in an event called the Toi Invasion, which caused quite a bit of destruction.  After that we see the rise of the Matsura clan.  They arose in the Matsura area of Hizen province, just a little ways over from Karatsu.  That name may be related to “Matsuro”, but we'll talk more about that when we get to Karatsu. The Matsura largely came to power thanks to their navy—which was a navy to some and pirates to others.  They ended up gaining a foothold in Iki island. Whatever plans they had, however, met with a giant setback in 1274.  As we discussed last episode, that was when the first Mongol invasion hit Japan, and after steamrolling through Tsushima they began a bloody conquest of Iki.  The video game, Ghosts of Tsushima, which we talked about fairly extensively last episode for, well, obvious reasons, actually has an expanded Iki island area for those who want to try fighting off this invasion for themselves.  There are numerous reminders across the island of the invasions, both in 1274 and 1281.  The death toll was catastrophic, and even today parents will often tell their children that if they don't behave the Mongols will come back and take them away. In 1338, soon afer the Ashikaga shogun came to power, Ashikaga Takauji and his brother, Tadayoshi, directed the erection of temples in all 66 provinces, including Iki, to pray for the repose of those who died in battle during turbulent times, including the Mongol invasions and the later civil war.  That temple is still there, just a little ways north from the Harunotsuji site. The temple building itself only dates from the Edo period, as it burned down multiple times, but it is still said that it is the oldest extant temple building on the island.  There is a large cedar tree thought to be over a thousand years old, which may have even been there during the Toi and Mongol invasions.  There are also signs of Christian activity in some of the artwork, if you know what to look for. When Europeans arrived in Japan in the 16th century, they brought not only guns, but also a new religion:  Christianity.  Priests were given permission to set up churches and convert people.  Some daimyo converted—whether out of true faith or simply to get more lucrative trading deals with Europeans—and they often made their entire fief convert as well.  When Christianity was eventually outlawed, many Christian communities went underground, becoming known as “Hidden Christians.”  A lot of these communities continued, especially in the Iki and Goto islands, which were a little further away from shogunal authority.  They continued despite the lack of priests and Bibles, often using iconography that could be plausibly passed off as Buddhist or Shinto in nature.  Many remained in hiding throughout the Edo period, only revealing themselves after the Meiji government came in and issued a law protecting the freedom of religion, including Christianity.  Around Iki you will occasionally find little hints of such communities' existence. The 16th century saw more than just European traders and new religions.  The Matsura clan retained control over the island from their base in Hirado, even during the tumultuous era of Warring States.  Last episode we talked about how Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the new Taiko, came out of that time and declared war on the Joseon court, in Korea. To start with he built Nagoya castle on Kyushu and moved himself and all of his retainers out to it.  And before you ask, no, this probably isn't the Nagoya castle you are thinking of.  Similar name, but different kanji characters Anyway, from Nagoya on the coast of Kyushu, supply lines were run out to Tsushima, and then across to Busan.  To defend against a counterattack by Joseon forces, they built castles along the way as well.  In Iki, this meant building several, including Katsumoto-jo, at the northern end of the island, under the command of Matsura Shigenobu. Later, Tokugawa Ieyasu, eager to restore good will with the peninsula, would have the castles intentionally ruined, often by removing key stones so that they could no longer be considered defensible.  Today you can climb up to the Katsumoto-jo castle site and see the stones of the main gate and get a tremendous view from the observation platform. Katsumoto Castle isn't the only thing in Katsumoto that still remains from that time.  There is a local shrine, the Shomogu Shrine, which has a gate donated by Kato Kiyomasa, one of the generals who led troops on the invasion of Korea.  They also hold a cup that he is said to have donated. This shrine is certainly interesting and worth a visit.  Traditionally, they say that it was built on the site where Jingu Tennou departed from Iki during her legendary conquest of the Korean peninsula.  According to at least one source, at that time she called the place Kazamoto, the place where the wind comes from, and when she returned she changed it to Katsumoto, the place where her victory came from.  Of course, as we know, that whole narrative is rather suspect.  It is possible that the area was known as Kazamoto and that changed to Katsumoto. It also doesn't help that this is also where the Mongol army came ashore back in the 13th century, and I suspect that not much remained from before.  Still, there is a stone that is said to have the print of Jingu's horse's foot as she left, and it was at least connected to the ocean, given its location. There is a contention that this shrine may have once been known as “Nakatsu” shrine, literally “Middle port” shrine, one of the shrines listed in the Engi Shiki.  However, there is another Nakatsu shrine that also claims this distinction, also in Katsumoto-cho.  The Shomogu shrine theory holds that this was a branch shrine of Shomogu shrine, then known as Nakatsu.  This makes some sense as the current Nakatsu shrine is more inland, not exactly lending itself to being the “Middle Port” Shrine.  Then again, it would have referred to “Nakatsumiya”, meaning the “middle shrine” or “middle palace”, which puts us back at square one. More important than the actual history of this shrine, at least in the 16th century, is the fact that those generals heading off to conquer the Korean peninsula definitely would have appreciated praying to the spirit of Jingu Tennou before heading off to try it a second time.  Shomogu Shrine clearly had a link with her by then. By the way, slight side note, the “Shomo” of “Shomogu” literally means “Holy Mother”.  In this case it is referencing the “Holy Mother” Jingu Tenno, who was pregnant when she left Japan and didn't give birth until she came back—not quite a virgin birth.  “Shomo” was also the term that Christians, particularly hidden Christians, used to reference the Virgin Mary.  While I cannot find any evidence that Shomogu Shrine was connected with Christianity—its existence and worship there predates that religion coming to the archipelago by some time—it is still one of those things that the Hidden Christians could have used to their advantage, hiding their worship of the Virgin Mary and her holy child behind the name for Jingu Tenno. Now the town of Katsumoto, although only briefly a castle town, was still quite important through the Edo period, and the main street certainly recalls a time long past.  We stayed in a ryokan there that was over 100 years old, and there is both a sake brewery, and a craft beer brewery inside an old sake brewery, just down the street.  It isn't a big town, but it has character. In the Edo period, many of the Joseon envoys stopped in Katsumoto on their way to or from the archipelago.  These envoys typically had around 400 to 450 of their own people from Korea, but by the time they reached Iki they were joined by about 800 quote-unquote “guides” from Tsushima who were there to help them with whatever they needed.  Technically it was up to the Matsura daimyo, in Hirado, to provide for their needs, but it seems that more often than not that role more immediately fell to the wealthiest family on the island, the Toi family. The Toi family—not to be confused with the Toi invasion—made their money from capturing whales; a lucrative but dangerous enterprise, especially given the state of the boats at the time.  The stone wall of their mansion can still be seen in Katsumoto, though it is now wedged in between other buildings, as the mansion itself is otherwise long gone.  They may not have been daimyo, but they were apparently the rough equivalent for the people of Iki, and certainly Katsumoto. The envoys ended up calling at Katsumoto about 19 times between 1607 and 1811—11 times on the outbound trip and 8 times going the other direction.  For one mission, in the 18th century, we are even provided the amount of food that they required, which included 1500 sweet potatoes, 15,000 eggs, 7 and a half tons of abalone, 3 tons of squid, 7 and a half tons of rice, and 15 koku of sake, equaling about 1500 standard bottles, today.  A drawing of the 1748 envoy showed parts of Katsumoto that you can still visit, today, including the old boat launch, the Shomogu shrine and nearby streets, Shigayama, and what is today “Itsukushima Shrine”, related to the worship of Susano'o's three daughters, as are the Munakata shrines and the Itsukushima shrine on Miyajima with the famous torii in the water. Besides the historical sites, Iki island offers a plethora of other activities and attractions.  The famous monkey rock, or Saruiwa, is a famed natural feature, as are many others.  There are also beaches that people appear to enjoy—though we were there in the winter, so not great—or just getting out in a boat and seeing the natural beauty of the island.  There are also many more shrines and temples to visit; Iki has its own 88 temple pilgrimage based on the 88 temple pilgrimage of places like Shikoku.  You can also do a pilgrimage of the many Shinto shrines, some of which are mentioned in historical documents like the Engi Shiki and others that are more modern.  While many of the buildings are often newer, and things have of course changed over the centuries, these sites often still contain connections to history, and may even have historical treasures in their storehouses or on the grounds. We only had a limited time, so tried to keep our trip focused on more of the Yayoi and Kofun era stuff.  We both agreed we would gladly go back again in a heartbeat. Next up, we caught the ferry from Indoji on Iki over to Karatsu port on Kyushu, what is thought to be the site of the old Matsuro kingdom.  While others might point to the modern Matsuura city area, this region is may be more likely, and we'll talk about that next episode.  In addition, we'll talk about Karatsu, which literally means “Chinese port”, and about the nearby castle ruins of Nagoya castle—an area that was, for about seven brief years, in the late 16th century the de facto capital of Japan. But that will be next time. Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to us at our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

This is Part 2 of our special Gishiwajinden Tour from Gaya to Tsushima, Iki, Matsuro, Ito, and Na--aka Gimhae and Busan to Tsushima, Iki, Karatsu, Itoshima, and Fukuoka.  This time we talk about the island of Tsushima, the border island between Japan and Korea.  While itself a difficult place to make a living, it has long been the border--a place for foreign ambassadors, invadors, and pirates alike. For photos and more, check out our blogpost:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/tsushima Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is Gishiwajinden Tour Stop 2: Tsushima. As I mentioned last episode, we are taking a break right now from the workings of the Chronicles while I prep a bit more research on the Taika reform.  As we do so, I'm taking you through a recent trip we took trying to follow the ancient sea routes from Gaya, on the Korean peninsula, across the islands to Na, in modern Fukuoka.  This may have been first described in the Wei Chronicles, the Weizhi, but it was the pathway that many visitors to the archipelago took up through the famous Mongol invasion, and even later missions from the Joseon kingdom on the Korean peninsula. Last episode, we talked about our start at Gimhae and Pusan.  Gimhae is the old Geumgwan Gaya, as far as we can tell, and had close connections with the archipelago as evidenced by the common items of material culture found on both sides of the strait.  From the coast of the Korean peninsula, ships would then sail for the island of Tsushima, the nearest of the islands between the mainland and the Japanese archipelago.  Today, ships still sail from Korea to Japan, but most leave out of the port of Pusan.  This includes regular cruise ships as well as specialty cruises and ferries.  For those who want, there are some popular trips between Pusan and Fukuoka or Pusan all the way to Osaka, through the Seto Inland Sea.  For us, however, we were looking at the shortest ferries, those to Tsushima.  Tsushima is a large island situated in the strait between Korea and Japan.  Technically it is actually three islands, as channels were dug in the 20th century to allow ships stationed around the island to quickly pass through rather than going all the way around. Tsushima is the closest Japanese island to Korea, actually closer to Korea than to the rest of Japan, which makes it a fun day trip from Pusan, so they get a lot of Korean tourists.  There are two ports that the ferries run to, generally speaking.  In the north is Hitakatsu, which is mainly a port for people coming from Korea.  Further south is Izuhara, which is the old castle town, where the So family once administered the island and relations with the continent, and where you can get a ferry to Iki from. Unfortunately for us, as I mentioned last episode, it turned out that the kami of the waves thwarted us in our plans to sail from Busan to Tsushima.  And so we ended up flying into Tsushima Airport, instead, which actually required us to take an international flight over to Fukuoka and then a short domestic flight back to Tsushima.  On the one hand, this was a lot of time out of our way, but on the other they were nice short flights with a break in the Fukuoka airport, which has great restaurants in the domestic terminal.  Furthermore, since we came into the centrally-located Tsushima airport, this route also gave us relatively easy access to local rental car agencies, which was helpful because although there is a bus service that runs up and down the islands, if you really want to explore Tsushima it is best to have a car.  Note that also means having an International Driver's Permit, at least in most cases, unless you have a valid Japanese drivers' license. As for why you need a car:  There is a bus route from north to south, but for many of the places you will likely want to go will take a bit more to get to.  If you speak Japanese and have a phone there are several taxi companies you can call, and you can try a taxi app, though make sure it works on the island.  In the end, having a car is extremely convenient. Tsushima is also quite mountainous, without a lot of flat land, and there are numerous bays and inlets in which ships can hide and shelter from bad weather—or worse.  Tsushima is renowned for its natural beauty.  Flora and fauna are shared with continent and the archipelago.  There are local subspecies of otter and deer found on the islands, but also the Yamaneko, or Mountain Cat, a subspecies of the Eurasian leopard cat that   is only found in Japan on Tsushima and on Iriomote, in the southern Okinawan island chain.  They also have their own breed of horse, as well, related to the ancient horses bred there since at least the 8th century. Tsushima is clearly an important part of Japan, and the early stories of the creation of the archipelago often include Tsushima as one of the original eight islands mentioned in the creation story.  That suggests it has been considered an ancient part of the archipelago since at least the 8th century, and likely much earlier. Humans likely first came to Tsushima on their crossing from what is now the Korean peninsula over to the archipelago at the end of the Pleistocene era, when sea levels were much lower.  However, we don't have clear evidence of humans until later, and this is likely because the terrain made it difficult to cultivate the land, and most of the activity was  focused on making a livelihood out of the ocean. Currently we have clear evidence of humans on the island from at least the Jomon period, including remnants such as shellmounds, though we don't have any clear sign of habitation.  It is possible that fishermen and others came to the islands during certain seasons, setting up fish camps and the like, and then departed, but it could be that there were more permanent settlements and we just haven't found them yet.  Most of the Jomon sites appear to be on the northern part of Tsushima, what is now the “upper island”, though, again, lack of evidence should not be taken as evidence of lack, and there could be more we just haven't found yet.  After all, sites like Izuhara, which was quite populated in later periods, may have disturbed any underlying layers that we could otherwise hope to find there, and perhaps we will one day stumble on something more that will change our understanding.  Things change a bit in the Yayoi period, and we see clear evidence of settlements, pit buildings, graves, and grave goods at various sites up through the Kofun period.   Unsurprisingly, the assembly of goods found include both archipelagic and continental material, which fits with its position in between the various cultures. Understandably, most of these archeological sites were investigated and then either covered back up for preservation or replaced by construction – so in many cases there isn't anything to see now, besides the artifacts in the museum.  But some of the earliest clear evidence that you can still go see today are the several kofun, ancient tumuli, scattered around the island at different points.  Most of the kofun on the island appear to be similar, and overall fairly small.  These are not the most impressive kofun—not the giant mounds found in places like Nara, Osaka, Kibi, or even up in Izumo.  However, to students of the era they are still very cool to see as monuments of that ancient time.  One example of this that we visited was the Niso-kofungun, or the Niso Kofun group.  The Niso Kofungun is not like what you might expect in the Nara basin or the Osaka area.  First, you drive out to the end of the road in a small fishing community, and from there go on a small hike to see the kofun themselves.  Today the mounds are mostly hidden from view by trees, though there are signs put up to mark each one.  Some of them have a more well defined shape than others, too, with at least one demonstrating what appears to be a long, thin keyhole shape, taking advantage of the local terrain.  Most of these were pit style burials, where slabs of local sedimentary rock were used to form rectangular coffins in the ground, in which the individuals were presumably buried.  On one of the keyhole shaped mounds there was also what appears to be a secondary burial at the neck of the keyhole, where the round and trapezoidal sections meet.  However, we don't know who or even what was buried there in some instances, as most of the bones are no longer extant. Besides the distinctively keyhole shaped tomb, two more kofun in the Niso group caught my attention.  One, which is thought to have been a round tomb, had what appeared to be a small stone chamber, perhaps the last of the kofun in this group to be built, as that is generally a feature of later period kofun.  There was also one that was higher up on the hill, which may also have been a keyhole shaped tomb.  That one struck me, as it would likely have been particularly visible from sea before the current overgrown forest  appeared.  There are also plenty of other kofun to go searching for, though some might be a little more impressive than others.  In the next episode, when we talk about the island of Iki, we'll explore that ancient kingdom's much larger collection of kofun. After the mention of Tsushima in the Weizhi in the third century, there is a later story, from about the 6th century, involving Tsushima in the transmission of Buddhism.  This story isn't in the Nihon Shoki and was actually written down much later, so take that as you will.  According to this account, the Baekje envoys who transmitted the first Buddha image to Japan stopped for a while on Tsushima before proceeding on to the Yamato court.  While they were there, the monks who were looking after the image built a small building in which to conduct their daily rituals, effectively building the first Buddhist place of worship in the archipelago.  A temple was later said to have been built on that spot, and in the mid-15th century it was named Bairinji. While the narrative is highly suspect, there is some evidence that the area around Bairinji was indeed an important point on the island.  Prior to the digging of the two channels to connect the east and west coasts, the area near Bairinji, known as Kofunakoshi, or the small boat portage, was the narrowest part of Tsushima, right near the middle, where Aso Bay and Mitsuura Bay almost meet.  We know that at least in the 9th century this is where envoys would disembark  from one ship which had brought them from the archipelago, and embark onto another which would take them to the continent, and vice versa. Likewise, their goods would be carried across the narrow strip of land. This was like a natural barrier and an ideal location for an official checkpoint, and in later years Bairinji temple served as this administrative point, providing the necessary paperwork for crews coming to and from Japan, including the various Joseon dynasty missions in the Edo period. Why this system of portage and changing ships, instead of just sailing around?  Such a system was practical for several reasons.  For one, it was relatively easy to find Tsushima from the mainland.  Experienced ships could sail there, transfer cargo to ships experienced with the archipelago and the Seto Inland Sea, and then return swiftly to Korea.  Furthermore, this system gave Yamato and Japan forewarning, particularly of incoming diplomatic missions.  No chance mistaking ships for an invasion or pirates of some kind, as word could be sent ahead and everything could be arranged in preparation for the incoming mission.  These are details that are often frustratingly left out of many of the early accounts, but there must have been some logistics to take care of things like this. Whether or not Bairinji's history actually goes back to 538, it does have claim to some rather ancient artifacts, including a 9th century Buddha image from the Unified, or Later, Silla period as well as 579 chapters of the Dai Hannya Haramitta Kyo, or the Greater Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, from a 14th century copy.  These were actually stolen from the temple in 2014, but later recovered.  Other statues were stolen two years previously from other temples on Tsushima, which speaks to some of the tensions that still exist between Korea and Japan.  Claims were made that the statues had originally been stolen by Japanese pirates, or wakou, from Korea and brought to Japan, so the modern-day thieves were simply righting an old wrong.  However, Korean courts eventually found that the items should be returned to Japan, though there were those who disagreed with the ruling.  This is an example of the ongoing tensions that can sometimes make study of inter-strait history a bit complex. More concrete than the possible location of a theoretical early worship structure are the earthworks of Kaneda fortress.  This is a mid-7th century fort, created by Yamato to defend itself from a presumed continental invasion.  We even have mention of it in the Nihon Shoki.  It appears to have been repaired in the late 7th century, and then continued to be used until some time in the 8th century, when it was abandoned, seeing as how the invasion had never materialized, and no doubt maintaining the defenses on top of a mountain all the way out on Tsushima would have been a costly endeavor. Over time the name “Kaneda” was forgotten, though the stone and earthworks on the mountain gave the site the name “Shiroyama”, or Castle Mountain, at least by the 15th century.  In the Edo period, scholars set out trying to find the Kaneda fortress mentioned in the Nihon Shoki, and at one point identified this with an area known as Kanedahara, or Kaneda Fields, in the modern Sasu district, on the southwest coast of Tsushima.  However, a scholar named Suyama Don'ou identified the current mountaintop site, which has generally been accepted as accurate.  The earthworks do appear to show the kind of Baekje-style fortifications that Yamato built at this time, which took advantage of the natural features of the terrain.  These fortresses, or castles, were more like fortified positions—long walls that could give troops a secure place to entrench themselves.  They would not have had the impressive donjon, or tenshukaku, that is the most notable feature of of later Japanese and even European castles. Most of the Baekje style castles in Japan are primarily earthworks—for example the Demon's castle in modern Okayama.  Kaneda is unique, though, with about 2.8 kilometers of stone walls, most of which are reportedly in quite good condition.  There were three main gates and remains of various buildings have been determined from post-holes uncovered on the site.  There is a name for the top of the mountain, Houtateguma, suggesting that there may have once been some kind of beacon tower placed there with a light that could presumably be used to signal to others, but no remains have been found. The defensive nature of the position is also attested to in modern times.  During the early 20th century, the Japanese military placed batteries on the fortress, and an auxiliary fort nearby.  These constructions damaged some of the ancient walls, but this still demonstrates Tsushima's place at the edge of Japan and the continent, even into modern times. For all that it is impressive, I have to say that we regrettably did not make it to the fortress, as it is a hike to see everything, and our time was limited.  If you do go, be prepared for some trekking, as this really is a fortress on a mountain, and you need to park and take the Kaneda fortress trail up.   Moving on from the 8th century, we have evidence of Tsushima in written records throughout the next several centuries, but there isn't a lot clearly remaining on the island from that period—at least not extant buildings.  In the records we can see that there were clearly things going on, and quite often it wasn't great for the island.  For instance, there was the Toi Invasion in the 11th century, when pirates—possibly Tungusic speaking Jurchen from the area of Manchuria—invaded without warning, killing and taking people away as slaves.  It was horrific, but relatively short-lived, as it seems that the invaders weren't intent on staying. Perhaps a more lasting impression was made by the invasions of the Mongols in the 13th century.  This is an event that has been hugely impactful on Japan and Japanese history.  The first invasion in 1274, the Mongols used their vassal state of Goryeo to build a fleet of ships and attempted to cross the strait to invade Japan.  The typical narrative talks about how they came ashore at Hakata Bay, in modern Fukuoka, and the Kamakura government called up soldiers from across the country to their defense.  Not only that, but monks and priests prayed for divine intervention to protect Japan.  According to the most common narrative, a kamikaze, or divine wind, arose in the form of a typhoon that blew into Hakata Bay and sank much of the Mongol fleet. That event would have ripple effects throughout Japanese society.  On the one hand, the Mongols brought new weapons in the form of explosives, and we see changes in the arms of the samurai as their swords got noticeably beefier, presumably to do better against similarly armored foes.  The government also fortified Hakata Bay, which saw another attack in 1281, which similarly failed. Though neither attempted invasion succeeded, both were extremely costly.  Samurai who fought for their country expected to get rewarded afterwards, and not just with high praise.  Typically when samurai fought they would be richly rewarded by their lord with gifts taken from the losing side, to include land and property.  In the case of the Mongols, however, there was no land or property to give out.  This left the Kamakura government in a bit of a pickle, and the discontent fomented by lack of payment is often cited as one of the key contributors to bringing down the Kamakura government and leading to the start of the Muromachi period in the 14th century. The invasions didn't just appear at Hakata though.  In 1274,  after the Mongol fleet first left Goryeo on the Korean Peninsula, they landed first at Tsushima and then Iki, following the traditional trade routes and killing and pillaging as they went.  In Tsushima, the Mongol armies arrived in the south, landing at Komoda beach near Sasuura.  Lookouts saw them coming and the So clan hastily gathered up a defense, but it was no use.  The Mongol army established a beachhead and proceeded to spend the next week securing the island. From there they moved on to Iki, the next island in the chain, and on our journey.  Countless men and women were killed or taken prisoner, and when the Mongols retreated after the storm, they brought numerous prisoners back with them.  Although the Mongols had been defeated, they were not finished with their plans to annex Japan into their growing empire.  They launched another invasion in 1281, this time with reinforcements drawn from the area of the Yangtze river, where they had defeated the ethnic Han Song dynasty two years prior.  Again, they landed at Tsushima, but met fierce resistance—the government had been preparing for this fight ever since the last one.  Unfortunately, Tsushima again fell under Mongol control, but not without putting up a fight.  When the Mongols were again defeated, they left the island once again, this time never to return. If you want to read up more on the events of the Mongol Invasion, I would recommend Dr. Thomas Conlan's book, “No Need for Divine Intervention”.  It goes into much more detail than I can here. These traumatic events have been seared into the memories of Tsushima and the nearby island of Iki. Even though both islands have long since rebuilt, memories of the invasion are embedded in the landscape of both islands, and it is easy to find associated historical sites or even take a dedicated tour.   In 2020, the events of the invasion of Tsushima were fictionalized into a game that you may have heard of called Ghost of Tsushima.  I won't get into a review of the game—I haven't played it myself—but many of the locations in the game were drawn on actual locations in Tsushima.  Most, like Kaneda Castle, are fictionalized to a large extent, but it did bring awareness to the island, and attracted a large fan base.  Indeed, when we picked up our rental car, the helpful staff offered us a map with Ghost of Tsushima game locations in case we wanted to see them for ourselves. As I noted, many of the places mentioned in the game are highly fictionalized, as are many of the individuals and groups—after all, the goal is to play through and actually defeat the enemies, and just getting slaughtered by Mongols and waiting for them to leave wouldn't exactly make for great gameplay.  Shrines offer “charms” to the user and so finding and visiting all of the shrines in the in-game world becomes a player goal. And so when fans of the game learned that the torii gate of Watatsumi Shrine, one of the real-life iconic shrines in Tsushima, was destroyed by a typhoon in September of 2020, about a month after the game was released, they came to its aid and raised over 27 million yen to help restore the torii gates.  A tremendous outpouring from the community. And while you cannot visit all of the locations in the game, you can visit Watazumi Shrine, with its restored torii gates that extend into the water. Watatsumi Shrine itself has some interesting, if somewhat confusing, history.  It is one of two shrines on Tsushima that claim to be the shrine listed in the 10th-century Engi Shiki as “Watatsumi Shrine”.  This is believed to have been the shrine to the God of the Sea, whose palace Hiko Hoho-demi traveled down to in order to find his brother's fishhook—a story noted in the Nihon Shoki and which we covered in episode 23.  Notwithstanding that most of that story claims it was happening on the eastern side of Kyushu, there is a local belief that Tsushima is actually the place where that story originated. The popular shrine that had its torii repaired is popularly known as Watatsumi Shrine, today.  The other one is known as Kaijin  Shrine, literally translating to the Shrine of the Sea God, and it is also known as Tsushima no kuni no Ichinomiya; That is to say the first, or primary, shrine of Tsushima.  Some of the confusion may come as it appears that Kaijin shrine was, indeed, the more important of the two for some time.  It was known as the main Hachiman shrine in Tsushima, and may have been connected with a local temple as well.  It carries important historical records that help to chart some of the powerful families of Tsushima, and also claims ownership of an ancient Buddhist image from Silla that was later stolen.  In the 19th century it was identified as the Watatsumi Shrine mentioned in the Engi Shiki, and made Toyotama Hime and Hikohohodemi the primary deities worshipped at the shrine, replacing the previous worship of Hachiman. Shrines and temples can be fascinating to study, but can also be somewhat tricky to understand, historically.  Given their religious nature, the founding stories of such institutions can sometimes be rather fantastical, and since they typically aren't written down until much later, it is hard to tell what part of the story is original and what part has been influenced by later stories, like those in the Nihon Shoki or the Kojiki. Another interesting example of a somewhat unclear history is that of the Buddhist temple, Kokubun-ji.  Kokubunji are provincial temples, originally set up inthe decree of 741 that had them erected across the archipelago, one in each province at the time, in an attempt to protect the country from harm,  Knowing the location of a Kokubunji can therefore often tell you something about where the Nara era provincial administration sat, as it would likely have been nearby.  In many cases, these were probably connected to the local elite, as well. This is not quite as simple with Tsushima Kokubun-ji.  While it was originally designated in the decree of 741,  a later decree in 745 stated that the expenses for these temples would come directly out of tax revenues in the provinces, and at that time Tsushima was excluded.  Moreover, the Kokubunji on nearby Iki island was funded by taxes from Hizen province.  So it isn't until 855 that we have clear evidence of an early provincial temple for Tsushima, in this case known as a Tobunji, or Island Temple, rather than a Kokubunji. The location of that early temple is unknown, and it burned down only two years later when Tsushima was attacked by forces from Kyushu.   It is unclear what happened to it in the following centures, but by the 14th or 15th century it was apparently situated in Izuhara town, near the site of what would become Kaneishi Castle.  It was later rebuilt in its current location, on the other side of Izuhara town.  It burned down in the Edo period—all except the gate, which was built in 1807.  This gate is at least locally famous for its age and history.  It was also the site of the guesthouses for the 1811 diplomatic mission from Joseon—the dynasty that followed Koryeo. Those missions are another rather famous part of the history of Tsushima, which, as we've seen, has long been a gateway between the archipelago and the peninsula.  In the Edo period, there were numerous diplomatic missions from the Joseon dynasty to the Tokugawa shogunate, and these grand affairs are often touted in the history of Tsushima, with many locations specifically calling out the island's deep involvement in cross-strait relations.  Relations which, to really understand, we need to probably start with a look at the famous (or perhaps even infamous) Sou clan. The Sou clan became particularly influential in Tsushima in the 13th century.  The local officials, the Abiru clan, who had long been in charge of the island, were declared to be in rebellion against the Dazaifu, and so Koremune Shigehisa was sent to quell them.  In return, he was made Jito, or land steward, under the Shoni clan, who were the Shugo of Chikuzen and Hizen, including the island of Tsushima.  The Sou clan, descendents of the Koremune, ruled Tsushima ever since, first as vassals of the Shoni , but eventually they ran things outright. Thus, Sou Sukekuni was in charge when the Mongols invaded in 1274.  Despite having only 80 or so mounted warriors under his charge, he attempted to defend the island, dying in battle.  Nonetheless, when the Mongols retreated, the Sou family retained their position.  Later, they supported the Ashikaga in their bid to become shogun, and were eventually named the Shugo of Tsushima, a title they kept until the Meiji period. As we've mentioned, despite its size, Tsushima is not the most hospitable of locations.  It is mountainous, with many bays and inlets, making both cross-land travel and agriculture relatively difficult.  And thus the Sou clan came to rely on trade with the continent for their wealth and support.  Although, “trade” might be a bit negotiable. Remember how the early Japanese regularly raided the coast of the peninsula?  It was frequent enough that a term arose—the Wakou, the Japanese invaders, or Japanese pirates.  In fact, the term “wakou” became so synonymous with piracy that almost any pirate group could be labeled as “wakou”, whether Japanese or not.  Some of them that we know about were downright cosmopolitan, with very diverse crews from a variety of different cultures. Given its position, the rough terrain, and myriad bays that could easily hide ships and other such things, Tsushima made a great base for fishermen-slash-pirates to launch from.  Particularly in harsh times, desperate individuals from Tsushima and other islands might take their chances to go and raid the mainland.  In the early 15th century, the new Joseon dynasty had had enough.  They sent an expeditionary force to Tsushima to put an end to the wakou. The expedition came in 1419.  The year before, the head of the Sou clan, Sou Sadashige, had died.  His son, Sou Sadamori, took his place, but had not yet come of age, leaving actual power in the hands of Souda Saemontarou, leader of the Wakou pirates. Eventually the Joseon forces were defeated by the forces of Tsushima, including the wakou.  The Joseon court considered sending another punitive expedition, but it never materialized.  What did eventually happen, though, was, oddly, closer ties between the peninsula and Tsushima.  Sou Sadamori, who grew up in that tumultuous time, worked to repair relationships with the Joseon court, concluding a treaty that that allowed the Sou clan to basically monopolize trade with the Korean peninsula.  Treaty ports on the peninsula began to attract permanent settlements of Japanese merchants, and these “wakan”, or Japanese districts, came nominally under the jurisdiction of the Sou of Tsushima. The Sou clan maintained their place as the intermediaries with the Joseon state through the 16th century.  Messages sent from the Japanese court to Joseon would be sent to the Sou, who would deliver them to the Joseon court, and in turn handle all replies from the peninsula back to the Japanese mainland.  And this over time led them to develop some, shall we say, special techniques to make sure these exchanges were as fruitful as possible.  You see, the treaties with the Joseon court only allowed fifty ships a year from Tsushima to trade with the peninsula.  But since all of the documents flowed through the Sou, they had plenty of time to study the seals of both courts—those of the Joseon kingdom and those of Japan – and have fake seals created for their own ends.  In part through the use of these fake seals, the Sou clan were able to pretend their ships were coming from other people—real or fake—and thus get around the 50 ship per year limit.  They also used them in other ways to try and maintain their position between the two countries. All of this came to a head when the Taikou, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, began to dream of continental conquest.  Hideyoshi, at this point the undeniable ruler of all of Japan, had a bit of an ego—not exactly undeserved, mind you.  His letter to the Joseon king Seongjo, demanding submission, was quite inflammatory, and the Sou clan realized immediately that it would be taken as an insult.  Not only could it jeopardize relations with the continent, it could also jeopardize their own unique status.  Which is why they decided to modify it using what in modern computer hacker terms might be called a man-in-the-middle attack – which, with their fake seal game, they had plenty of experience with. The Sou were able to modify the language in each missive to make the language more acceptable to either side.  They also dragged their feet in the whole matter, delaying things for at least two years   But Hideyoshi's mind was set on conquest.  Specifically, he had ambitions of displacing the Ming dynasty itself, and he demanded that the Joseon court submit and allow the Japanese forces through to face the Ming dynasty.  The Joseon refused to grant his request, and eventually Hideyoshi had enough.  He threatened an invasion of Korea if the Joseon dynasty didn't capitulate to his requests. Throughout this process, the Sou attempted to smooth things over as best they could.  However, even they couldn't forge the words presented by a face-to-face envoy, nor could they put off Hideyoshi's anger forever.  And thus Tsushima became one of the launching off points for the Japanese invasions of Korea in 1592 and again in 1597.  Tsushima, along with nearby Iki, would have various castles built to help supply the invading forces.  One such castle was the Shimizuyama-jo, overlooking the town of Izuhara.  Some of the walls and earthworks can still be seen up on the mountain overlooking the town, and  there are trails up from the site of Kaneishi castle, down below.  Both of these invasions ultimately failed, though not without a huge loss of life and destruction on the peninsula—a loss that is still felt, even today. The second and final invasion ended in 1598.  Both sides were exhausted and the Japanese were losing ground, but the true catalyst, unbeknownst to those on the continent, was the death of Hideyoshi.  The Council of Regents, a group of five daimyo appointed to rule until Hideyoshi's son, Hideyori, came of age kept Hideyoshi's death a secret to maintain morale until they could withdraw from the continent. With the war over, the Sou clan took the lead in peace negotiations with the Joseon court, partly in an attempt to reestablish their position and their trade.  In 1607, after Tokugawa had established himself and his family as the new shogunal line, the Sou continued to fake documents to the Joseon court, and then to fake documents right back to the newly established bakufu so that their previous forgeries wouldn't be uncovered.  This got them in a tight spot.  In the early 1600s, one Yanagawa Shigeoki had a grudge to settle with Sou Yoshinari, and so he went and told the Bakufu about the diplomatic forgeries that the Sou had committed, going back years.  Yoshinari was summoned to Edo, where he was made to answer the allegations by Shigeoki.  Sure enough, it was proven that the Sou had, indeed, been forging seals and letters, but after examination, Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa Shogun, decided that they had not caused any great harm—in fact, some of their meddling had actually helped, since they knew the diplomatic situation with the Joseon court better than just about anyone else, and they clearly were incentivized to see positive relations between Japan and Korea.  As such, despite the fact that he was right, Yanagawa Shigeoki was exiled, while the Sou clan was given a slap on the wrist and allowed to continue operating as the intermediaries with the Joseon court. There was one caveat, however:  The Sou clan would no longer be unsupervised.  Educated monks from the most prestigious Zen temples in Kyoto, accredited as experts in diplomacy, would be dispatched to Tsushima to oversee the creation of diplomatic documents and other such matters, bringing the Sou clan's forgeries to a halt. Despite that, the Sou clan continued to facilitate relations with the peninsula, including some twelve diplomatic missions from Korea: the Joseon Tsuushinshi.  The first was in 1607, to Tokugawa Hidetada, and these were lavish affairs, even more elaborate than the annual daimyo pilgrimages for the sankin-kotai, or alternate attendance at Edo.  The embassies brought almost 500 people, including acrobats and other forms of entertainment.  Combined with their foreign dress and styles, it was a real event for people whenever they went. Today, these Tsuushinshi are a big draw for Korean tourists, and just about anywhere you go—though especially around Izuhara town—you will find signs in Japanese, Korean, and English about locations specifically associated with these missions. And in years past, they've even reenacted some of the processions and ceremonies. Speaking of Izuhara, this was the castle town from which the Sou administered Tsushima.  Banshoin temple was the Sou family temple, and contains the graves of many members of the Sou family.  In 1528, the Sou built a fortified residence in front of Banshoin, and eventually that grew into the castle from which they ruled Tsushima.  Today, only the garden and some of the stone walls remain.  The yagura atop the main gate has been rebuilt, but mostly it is in ruins.  The Tsushima Museum sits on the site as well.  Nearby there is also a special museum specifically dedicated to the Tsuushinshi missions. Izuhara town itself is an interesting place.  Much of what you see harkens back to the Edo period.  Much like Edo itself, the densely packed wood and paper houses were a constant fire hazard, and there were several times where the entire town burned to the ground.  As such they began to institute firebreaks in the form of stone walls which were placed around the town to help prevent fire from too quickly spreading from one house to the next.  This is something that was instituted elsewhere, including Edo, but I've never seen so many extant firewalls before, and pretty soon after you start looking for them, you will see them everywhere. The area closest to the harbor was an area mostly for merchants and similar working class people, and even today this can be seen in some of the older buildings and property layouts.  There are also a fair number of izakaya and various other establishments in the area.  Further inland you can find the old samurai district, across from the Hachiman shrine.  The houses and the gates in that area are just a little bit nicer.  While many modern buildings have gone up in the town, you can still find traces of the older buildings back from the days of the Sou clan and the Korean envoys. Today, Izuhara is perhaps the largest town on Tsushima, but that isn't saying much—the population of the entire island is around 31,000 people, only slightly larger than that of nearby Iki, which is only about one fifth the size of Tsushuma in land area.  From Izuhara, you can catch a ferry to Iki or all the way to Hakata, in Fukuoka.  You can also always take a plane as well. Before leaving Tsushima, I'd like to mention one more thing—the leopard cat of Tsushima, the Yamaneko.  This has become something of a symbol in Tsushima, but unfortunately it is critically endangered, at least on the island itself.  It is all but gone from the southern part of Tsushima—human encroachment on its habitat has been part of the issue, but so has the introduction of domesticated cats.  The yamaneko itself is about the size of a typical housecat, and might be mistaken for one, though it has a very distinctive spotted appearance.  Domesticated cats have been shown to outcompete their wild cousins, while also passing on harmful diseases, which also affect the population.  Just about everywhere you go you'll see signs and evidence of this special cat. There is also a breeding program in the north if you want to see them for yourself. Even the small Tsushima Airport is named Yamaneko Airport, and the single baggage claim features a whole diorama of little plush leopard cats wearing traditional clothing and waving hello to new arrivals. If you like rugged coastlines, fascinating scenery, and the odd bit of history thrown in, might I suggest taking a look at Tsushima, the border island between Japan and Korea. We only had a few days, but it was a truly wonderful experience.  Next up we caught the ferry to Iki island, the site of the ancient Iki-koku, possibly represented by the Yayoi era Harunotsuji site.  Of all the places I've been so far, this is second only to Yoshinogari in the work and reconstruction they've done.  They've even discovered what they believe to be an ancient dock or boat launch.  But we'll cover that next week, as we continue on our self-guided Gishiwajinden tour. Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to us at our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

An account of our recent tour of the sites mentioned in the Gishiwajinden, which is to say the Japanese portion of the Weizhi.  This episode we talk about our visit to Gimhae, site of ancient Geumgwan Gaya. For more see our podcast blog:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcasts/episode-geumgwangaya Rough Transcript   Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is Gishiwajinden Self-Guided Tour: Geumgwan Gaya. For the next several episodes we are taking a bit of a detour from the narrative of the Chronicles.  After all, with the coup of 645 that we covered a couple of episodes ago, we are about to dive into the period known as “Taika” or “Great Change”.  Prince Naka no Oe and Nakatomi no Kamako were not just assassins—they had plans that went beyond just cutting the head off the powerful Soga house.  It's an eventful time, with a lot of changes, though some of those would take time to really come to fruition and before I get into all of that there is a bit more research that I want to do to figure out the best way to lay that out for you.  And so I figured we would take a little detour for a few episodes, to share with you a special trip that Ellen and I recently took, reproducing – in a modern way – some of the earliest accounts we have about crossing over to the archipelago: the Gishiwajinden, the Japanese section of the Weizhi.  We talked about this chronicle back in episode 11: it describes all the places one would stop when leaving the continent, from kingdoms on the peninsula and across the smaller islands of the archipelago before landing in what we currently call Kyushu. And Ellen and I did just that: we sailed across the Korean straits, from the site of the ancient kingdom of Gaya in modern Gimhae, to the islands of Tsushima and Iki, then on to modern Karatsu and Fukuoka, passing through what is thought to be the ancient lands of Matsuro, Ito, and Na.  It was an incredibly rewarding journey, and includes plenty of archaeological sites spanning the Yayoi to Kofun periods—as well as other sites of historical interest.  It also gets you out to some areas of Japan and Korea that aren't always on people's list, but probably should be.  So for this first episode about our “Gishiwajinden Jido Toua” – our Gishiwajinden Self-Guided Tour – we'll talk about the historical sites in Gimhae, the site of ancient Geumgwan Gaya, but also some of the more modern considerations for visiting, especially on your own. By the way, a big thank you to one of our listeners, Chad, who helped inspire this trip.  He was living on Iki for a time and it really made me think about what's out there. This episode I'll be focusing on the first place our journey took us, Gimhae, South Korea.  Gimhae is a city on the outskirts of modern Pusan, and home to Pusan's international airport, which was quite convenient.  This is thought to be the seat of the ancient kingdom of Gaya, also known as “Kara” in the old records.  In the Weizhi we are told of a “Guyahan”, often assumed to be “Gaya Han”, which is to say the Han—one of the countries of the peninsula—known as Guya or Gaya.  This is assumed to mean Gaya, aka Kara or Garak, and at that time it wasn't so much a kingdom as it was a confederation of multiple polities that shared a similar material culture and locations around the Nakdong river.  This is the area that we believe was also referenced as “Byeonhan” in some of the earliest discussions of the Korean peninsula. By the way, while I generally believe this area was referred to as “Kara”, “Gara”, or even “Garak”, originally, the modern Korean reading of the characters used is “Gaya”, and since that is what someone will be looking for, that's what I'll go with. History of the Korean peninsula often talks about the “Three Kingdoms” period, referencing the kingdoms of Baekje, Silla, and Goguryeo.  However, that is a very simplistic view of the ancient history of the archipelago.  Numerous small polities existed without a clear, persistent overlord outside of those three larger polities, and even they were not always quite as grand as the later histories would like to make them out to be. Gaya is often referred to as the “Gaya Confederacy” by modern historians, at least for most of its existence, and refers to a number of polities including Daegaya, Ara, etc., and may also include “Nimna”, though where exactly that was is a topic of great debate, with some claiming that it was just another name for what later was known as Geumgwan Gaya, and other suggestions that it was its own polity, elsewhere on the coast.  This isn't helped by the nationalist Japanese view that “Nimna” was also the “Mimana Nihonfu”, or the Mimana controlled by Japan, noted in the Nihon Shoki, and used as the pretext for so many of the aggressions perpetrated on the continent by Japan. These all appear to have been individual polities, like small city-states, which were otherwise joined by a common culture. Although the Samguk Yusa mentions “King Suro” coming in 42 CE, for most of its history there wasn't really a single Gaya state as far as we can tell.  It is possible that towards the 5th and early 6th centuries, Geumgwan Gaya had reached a certain level of social complexity and stratification that it would classify as a “kingdom”, but these definitions are the kinds of things that social scientists would argue about endlessly. Evidence for a “Kingdom” comes in part from the way that Geumgwan Gaya is referenced in the Samguk Sagi and other histories, particularly in how its ruling elite is referred to as the royal ancestors of the Gimhae Kim clan.  Proponents also point to the elaborate graves, a large palace site (currently under excavation and renovation), the rich grave goods found in the tombs thought to be those of the royal elites, etc.  Other scholars are not so sure, however, and even if there was a nominal kingdom, it likely did not last very long before coming under the rule of Silla in the 6th century. Unlike the other kingdoms—Baekje, Silla, and Goguryeo; the “Samguk”, or three countries, of the “Samguk Sagi”—Gaya does not have its own record in the histories.  The Samguk Yusa, which is of interest but also problematic in that it was clearly more about telling the miraculous tales of Buddhism than a strictly factual history, does have a bit about Gaya.  The author of the Samguk Yusa, the monk  Ilyeon, claimed that the information there was pulled from a no longer extant record called the Gayakgukki, or Record of the Gaya Kingdom, but the actual stories are not enough to tell us everything that happened.  Most of what we know comes from members of the Gaya Confederacy popping up in the records of other nations, including Baekje, Silla, Goguryeo, and Yamato.  For example, there are references in the Gwangaetto Stele from the 5th century, as well as plenty of references in the Nihon Shoki and the records in the Samguk Sagi.  This is a little bit better than some of the other groups mentioned as being on the Korean peninsula that are often referred to only one time before being completely forgotten. For us, the importance of Gaya is its links with Yamato.  Although it would seem that Nimna, in particular, had close ties with Yamato it is noteworthy that the Japanese word for the continent and things that would come from there—including the later Tang dynasty—is “Kara”.  “Kara-fu” generally refers to something that comes from China, but only because those things originally came through the peninsula and through Kara, or Gaya.  The port on Kyushu where the goods likely arrived before continuing up to modern Fukuoka is even today known as “Karatsu”, or “Kara Port”.  This lends credence to the idea that Nimna was likely at least a member of the Gaya confederacy. There are also deep similarities in many material items found in the peninsula and in the area of the Nakdong peninsula, including pottery, armor, horse gear, etc.  At the very least this indicates a close trading relationship, and combined with the account in the Weizhi, emphasizes the idea that this was likely the jumping off point for missions to the archipelago and vice versa. Perhaps more controversial is the idea that at least some members of the Gaya Confederacy, or the Byeonhan cultural group before it, may have been speakers of some kind of proto-Japonic.  There are also some that suggest there may have been ethnic Wa on the peninsula at an early point as well.  However, I would note that the Weizhi refers to this area specifically as being part of the “Han”, and that it was the jumping off point to find the lands of the Wa and eventually the lands of Yamato (or Yamatai), so make of that what you will.  All of this is well after the introduction of rice cultivation in Japan, focusing on the 3rd century onward, roughly corresponding to what we think of as the Kofun Period in Japan, and which was also a period of ancient mound-building on the Korean peninsula as well. All that aside, it is clear that Gaya was an important part of the makeup of the early Korean peninsula, and that much of that history is on display in modern Gimhae. Gimhae is one of plenty of places on the Korean peninsula for anyone with an interest in ancient history.  Besides the various museums, like the National Museum in Seoul, there are sites like Gyeongju, the home of the tombs of the Silla kings and the ancient Silla capital, and much more. Gimhae itself is home to the Royal Gaya Tombs, as well as archaeological remnants of an ancient settlement that was probably at least one of the early Gaya polities.  As I noted, Gimhae is more accurately the site of what is known in later historical entries as Geumgwan Gaya.  The earliest record of the Weizhi just says something like “Gü-lja-han” which likely means “Gaya Han”, or Gaya of Korea, referring at the time to the three Han of Mahan, Jinhan, and Byeonhan.  That may or may not have referred to this particular place, as there are other Gaya sites along the coast and in the upper reaches of the Nakdong river.  However, given its placement on the shore, the site at Gimhae seems to have a good claim to be the point mentioned in the Wei Chronicles, which is why we also chose it as the first site on our journey. The characters for “Gimhae” translate into something like “Gold Sea”, but it seems to go back to the old name:  Geumgwan, as in Geumgwan Gaya.  It is part of the old Silla capital region.  “Geum” uses the same character as “Kim”, meaning “Gold” or “Metal”.  This is also used in the popular name “Kim”, which is used by several different lineage groups even today.  The “Sea” or “Ocean” character may refer to Gimhae's position near the ocean, though I don't know how relevant that was when the name “Gimhae” came into common usage. The museums and attractions around Gimhae largely focus on the royal tombs of the Geumgwan Gaya kingdom, which in 2023 were placed, along with seven other Gaya tomb sites, on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites.  Since they're so newly added, we did not see the kind of omnipresent UNESCO branding that we are used to seeing elsewhere, such as Nikko Toshogu or Angkor Wat, but taxi drivers certainly knew the UNESCO site and museum. For anyone interested in these tombs and in Gaya's early history, there are two museums you likely want to visit.  First off is the National Museum, which covers a wide swath of history, with tons of artifacts, well laid out to take you through the history of the Gaya Confederacy, from early pre-history times through at least the 7th century.  There is also a separate museum that specifically covers the Daeseong-dong tombs, which lay upon a prominent ridge on the western side of the city, north of a Gaya era settlement with a huge shell midden found at Bonghwang-dong, to the south, nearby an ongoing excavation of a potential palace site. These museums have some excellent displays, including pottery, metalwork, horse gear, armor, and even parts of an ancient boat.  As I noted earlier, these show a lot of similarity to items across the strait in the archipelago, though it is clear that Gaya had a lot more iron than their neighbors —in fact, they had so much that they would often line the bottom of tombs with iron ingots.  The displays emphasize that Gaya was really seen as a kind of ironworking center for the region, both the peninsula and the archipelago. The tombs, likewise, have some similarity to those in the archipelago—though not in the distinctive, keyhole shape.  Early tombs, from the 1st to 2nd century, were simply wooden coffins dug in a pit with a mound on top.  This became a wooden lined pit, where bodies and grave goods could be laid out, and then, in the 3rd century, they added subordinate pits just for the various grave goods.  In the 5th century this transitioned to stone-lined pit burial, and in the 6th century they changed to the horizontal entry style stone chamber tomb, before they finally stopped building them.  These seem to be similar to what we see in Silla, with wooden chamber tombs giving way to the horizontal entry style around the 5th and 6th centuries.  Meanwhile, Baekje and Goguryeo appear to have had horizontal style tombs for some time, and that may have been linked to Han dynasty style tombs in the area of the old Han commanderies—which I suspect might have spread with the old families of Han scribes and officials that were absorbed into various polities.  It is interesting to see both the similarities and differences between Gaya and Wa tombs in this period, particularly the transition to the horizontal entry style tombs, which I suspect indicates an outside cultural influence, like that of Silla—something that would also influence the burials in the archipelago.  At first, in the 4th to 5th centuries, we just see these style tombs starting to show up in Kyushu, particularly in the area of modern Fukuoka—one of the areas that we will hit at the end of this journey from the peninsula to the archipelago.  That may be from contact with Baekje or Goguryeo, or even from some other point, it is hard to tell.  By the 6th century, though, just as Silla and Gaya were doing, it seems that all of the archipelago was on board with this style of internal tomb structure. Another tomb style you can find in Gimhae is the dolmen.  These are megalithic—or giant rock—structures where typically a roof stone is held up by two or more other large stones.  In some cases these may have been meant as an above-ground monument, much like a structure such as Stonehenge.  On the other hand, in some cases they are the remains of a mound, where the mound itself has worn away.  Unfortunately, there was not as much information on them—it seems that dolmens were originally used before the mounded tomb period, but just what was a free-standing dolmen and what was an internal mound structure exposed by the elements I'm not sure I could say. If you visit the Daeseong-dong tombs, one of the things you may notice is the apparent lack of a tomb mound.  The attached museum explains much of this, though, in that over time the wooden pit-style tombs would often collapse in on themselves.  That, plus erosion and continued human activity in an area would often mean that, without upkeep, there would eventually be no mound left, especially if it wasn't particularly tall to start with. In an example where something like this might have happened, there is at least one tomb in the group that was clearly dug down into a previous burial chamber.  The excavators must have realized they were digging into another tomb, given that they would have pulled up numerous artifacts based on what was later found at the site, but they still carried on with the new tomb, apparently not having any concern for the previous one.  After all, there was only so much room up on the ridge for burials, at least towards the later periods.  This pair of “interlocking” tombs is housed inside a building with a viewing gallery, so you can see their layout and how the grave goods would have been arranged in period. One tomb that apparently kept a mound of some kind would appear to be that attributed to King Suro.  King Suro is the legendary founder of Geumgwan Gaya, mentioned in the 13th century Samguk Yusa, which was using an older record of the Gaya Kingdom as their source.  The area where the tomb is found is said to match up with the description in the Samguk Yusa, but I could find no definitive evidence of a previous tomb or what style it was—let alone the question of whether or not it was the tomb of King Suro of Geumgwan Gaya.  It was still a very impressive compound, though it seems most of the buildings are likely from a much more recent era. I suspect that King Suro remained an important story for the Gimhae Kim clan.  That clan, as mentioned earlier, claimed descent from the Kings of Geumgwan Gaya, of whom King Suro was supposedly the first. It is noteworthy that the Kim family of Geumgwan Gaya, known as the Gimhae Kim clan, was granted a high rank in Silla because they claimed descent from the “Kings” of Geumgwan Gaya.  As such Munmyeong, the sister of Kim Yusin, the general who helped Silla take over the peninsula, was apparently considered an appropriate consort to King Muyeol, and her son would become King Munmu.  This brought the Gimhae Kim clan into the Gyeongju Kim clan of Silla. Kim Busik, who put together the Samguk Sagi, was a member of the Gyeongju Kim clan, which claimed descent from those same kings.  He had plenty of reason to make sure that the Silla Kings looked good, and may have also had reason to prop up the leaders of Geumgwan Gaya as well, given the familial connections.  That said, there do seem to be some impressive tombs with rich grave goods, so there is that. In 1580 we are told that Governor Kim Heo-su, who counted himself a descendant of the Gimhae Kim clan, found the tomb of King Suro and repaired it, building a stone altar, a stone platform, and a tomb mound.  It is unclear from what I can find, though, just what he “found” and how it was identified with what was in the Samguk Yusa.  Even if there was something there, how had *that* been identified?  There seems to be plenty of speculation that this is not the actual resting place of the legendary king, Kim Suro, but it is certainly the place where he is worshipped.  The tomb was apparently expanded upon in later centuries, and today it is quite the facility, though much of it seems relatively recent, and hard to connect with the actual past. More important for that is probably what was found at Bonghwang-dong.  On this ridge, south of the tomb ridge, were found traces of buildings including pit style dwellings along with post-holes, indicating raised structures of some sort.  Today you can go and see interpreted reconstructions, based in part on some pottery models that had also been found from around that period.  Reconstructed buildings sit on either side of a hill, which is the main feature of a modern park.  It is a good place to get a sense of what was around that area, and you can hike to the top of the hill, which isn't that difficult a journey.  The trees do obstruct the view, somewhat, but you get a great sense for what a community there might have been like.  As I mentioned before, there is also a large excavation being carried out on what is believed to be some kind of royal palace structure, but unfortunately we likely won't know much more until later. Also next to the settlement is a giant shell mound.  We are talking over a football field long and several stories high of shells and bone, along with discarded pottery and other such things.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the contents of the shell mound appear to have been mixed at various stages, but it is still impressive, and they have an excellent display where you can see the mound cut away to demonstrate what a shell mound might look like. The shell mound apparently existed from the 1st to the 4th centuries.  This feels odd to me, given that I normally think of shell mounds as more connected to Jomon and similar sites, but it also makes sense that a community—particularly one with easy access to the sea—would have a lot of shells and it isn't like they had trash collectors coming to take away their garbage. Which brings me to another point:  Back in its heyday, Geumgwan Gaya was clearly on or very near the sea.  In modern times you can certainly see islands off the coast from the tops of some of these hills—and from the top of a mountain one might even make out Tsushima on a clear day.  However, today that ocean is several miles out. Back in the time of the Geumgwan Gaya, however, things were likely different.  The Nakdong river would have emptied out to the east into a large bay, with Geumgwan Gaya sitting comfortably at its head, with mountains on three sides and the ocean on the fourth.  This would have made it a great as a port town, as it not only had access to the Korean straits and the Pacific Ocean, but it also sat at the head of the river that connected many of the sites believed to be related to the ancient Gaya confederacy. Over time, however, the bay silted up, and/or sea levels dropped, and the area that would become the heart of modern Gimhae would find itself farther and farther away from the ocean, through no fault of their own.  That must have put a damper on their trade relationships, and I can't help but wonder if that was one of the reasons they eventually gave in to Silla and joined them. With its place at the head of the Nakdong river, Silla's control of Geumgwan Gaya likely made the rest of the Gaya polities' absorption much more likely, as most of the Gaya polities appear to have been laid out around the Nakdong river.  That would have been their lifeline to the ocean and maritime trade routes.  Without a cohesive state, they may not have been able to resist the more organized and coordinated armies of groups like Silla and Baekje, eventually falling under Silla's domain. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much online in English about Gimhae beyond the ancient connection to Geumgwan Gaya.  Specifically, I didn't find a lot of clear historical information about the city after coming under Silla rule.  It was apparently one of the “capitals” of the Silla region under Later or Unified Silla.  Though Silla tried to form the people of the three Han of Baekje, Goguryeo, and Silla into a unified state, its central authority would eventually break down.  Baekje and Goguryeo would be briefly reconstituted before the Later Goguryeo throne was usurped by a man who would be known as Taejo, from Gaesong.  He would lead the first fully successful unification effort, and from the 10th century until the 14th the state was known as “Goryeo”, from which we get the modern name of “Korea”.  Goryeo started in Gaesong, but also rebuilt the ancient Goguryeo capital at Pyongyang, both up in what is today North Korea.  It eventually came under the thumb of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, and when that dynasty was overthrown by the Ming, Goryeo experienced its own instability, resulting in the Joseon dynasty, which moved the capital to the area of modern Seoul.  Given modern tensions between North and South Korea, I suspect that there is a fair bit of politics still wrapped up in the historiography of these periods, especially with each modern state having as their capitals one of the ancient capital city sites. As for Gimhae, I have very little information about the city during the Goryeo period.  Towards the end of the 14th century, we do see signs of possible conflict, though: There was a fortress built on the nearby hill, called Bunsanseong, in about 1377, though some claim that an older structure was there since the time of the old Gaya kingdom, which would make sense, strategically.  This fortress was severely damaged during Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea in the late 16th century—a not uncommon theme for many historical sites on the peninsula, unfortunately—and repaired in 1871.  The walls can still be seen from the city below. Stone walls were placed around the city in 1434 and improved in 1451.  Excavations on the wall were carried out in 2006 and the north gate, which was first renovated in 1666, was restored in 2008.   You can still visit it, north of the international markets, which includes a wet market along with various restaurants offering specialties from around Northeast Asia, including places like Harbin, in China. Near the north gate there is also a Confucian school, or hyanggyo.  The first iteration was probably built during the Goryeo dynasty, but whatever was there in the 16th century was also destroyed during Hideyoshi's invasion.  It would later be rebuilt in 1688 and relocated to the east until it burned down in 1769.  The following year it was rebuilt in its current location, north of the city gate.  The school contains examples of the classrooms along with a central Confucian shrine, and there are some similarities with similar Edo period institutions in Japan, which also based themselves off of a Confucian model. For those interested in more recent history, you may want to check out the Gimhae Folk Life Museum.  This covers some of the more recent folk traditions, clothing, and tools and home goods used up until quite recent times.  It may not be as focused on the ancient history of the area, but it certainly provides some insight into the recent history of the people of Gimhae. Today, Gimhae is a bustling city.  Not quite as big and bustling as Pusan or Seoul, but still quite modern.  You can easily get there by train from Busan or Gimhae International Airport, and there are plenty of options to stay around the city such that you can walk to many of the historical sites. For those used to traveling in Japan, there are both similarities and differences.  Alongside the ubiquitous Seven Eleven chains are the CU chain, formerly known as FamilyMart, and GS25, along with a few others.  Trains are fairly easy to navigate if you know where you want to go, as well – there's a convenient metro line that connects the airport to Gimhae city proper, and has stops right by the museums.  The KTX, the Korean Train eXpress, the high-speed rail, includes a line from Seoul to Busan.  And don't worry, from our experience there are no zombies on the train to- or from- Busan. Of course, in Korea they use Hangul, the phonetic Korean alphabet.  It may look like kanji to those not familiar with the language but it is entirely phonetic.  Modern Korean rarely uses kanji—or hanja, as they call it—though you may see some signs in Japanese or Chinese that will use it here and there.  In general, though, expect things to be in Korean, and there may or may not be English signs.  However, most of the historical sites we visited had decent enough signage that we only occasionally had to pull out the phone for translation assistance, and the museums are quite modern and have translation apps readily available with QR codes you can scan to get an English interpretation. Speaking of phones, make sure that you have one that will work in Korea or consider getting a SIM card when you get in, as you will likely want it for multiple reasons.  That said, a lot of things that travelers rely on won't work in Korea unless you have the Korean version.  For instance, Google Maps will show you where things are but it can't typically navigate beyond walking and public transit directions.  For something more you'll want the Korean app, Naver.  We did okay, for the most part, on Google Maps, but Naver is specifically designed for South Korea. Likewise, hailing a cab can be a bit of a chore.  Don't expect your Uber or Lyft apps to work—you'll need to get a Korean taxi app if you want to call a taxi or you'll need to do it the old fashioned way—call someone up on the telephone or hail one on the streets, which can be a tricky business depending on where you are. On the topic of streets: In Gimhae, many of the streets we were walking on did not have sidewalks, so be prepared to walk along the side of the road.   We didn't have much trouble, but we were very conscious of the traffic. Another note in Gimhae is the food.  Korea is host to a wide variety of foods, and Gimhae can have many options, depending on what you are looking for.  Near our hotel there were traditional Korean restaurants as well as places advertising pizza, Thai, and burgers.  Up in the main market area, you can find a wide variety of food from around Asia.  Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Nepal, and many more were represented, as well as Russian and Chinese cuisines. That said, our breakfast options were not so bountiful.  Our hotel, which gave us our own private hot tub, like a private onsen, did not serve breakfast, but there were a few cafes around where you could get a drink and a light meal in the morning,  and there were some pork Gukbab places, where you would put cooked rice in a pork bone broth for a hearty and delicious morning meal.  That said, if you waited a little later, there is a Krispy Kreme for those craving donuts, and a few French-inspired Korean bakeries, such as the chain, Tous les Jours, which is always a tasty go-to spot. If you prefer a wider variety of food you can choose to stay in Busan proper, instead.  It isn't that far, and you can take the train over to Gimhae in the morning.  However, I would recommend at least two days to see most of the Gaya related sites, and maybe a third or fourth if you want to chase down everything in the city. There is also an interesting amusement park that we did not get the chance to experience but may be of interest:  the Gimhae Gaya Theme Park.  This appears to be a series of interpretations of different Gaya buildings along with a theme park for kids and adults, including rope bridges, light shows, and some cultural performances.  It looked like it might be fun, but since we had limited time we decided to give it a pass this time around. In Busan, there are many other things to do, including museums, folk villages, and an aquarium along the beach.  Busan station is also conveniently located next to the cruise port, where ships depart daily for Japan.  This includes typical cruise ships, as well as various ferries.  For instance, there is a ferry to Hakata, in Fukuoka city, as well as an overnight ferry that takes you through the Seto Inland sea all the way to Osaka.  For us, however, we had booked the jetfoil to Hitakatsu, on the northern tip of Tsushima island – a very modern version of the Gishiwajinden account of setting sail in a rickety ship. Unfortunately, as we were preparing for our journey, disaster struck—the kind of thing that no doubt befell many who would dare the crossing across the waters.  Strong winds out in the strait were making the water choppy, and it was so bad that they decided to cancel all of the ferries for that day and the next.  It made me think of the old days, when ships would wait at dock as experienced seamen kept their eye on the weather, trying to predict when it would be fair enough to safely make the crossing.  This was not always an accurate prediction, though, since on the open ocean, squalls can blow up suddenly.  In some cases people might wait months to make the crossing. Since we didn't have months, and had a lot to see in Tsushuma, we opted for another, very modern route: we booked airplane tickets and left from Gimhae airport to Fukuoka, where we transitioned to a local prop plane for Tsushima.  You might say: why not just fly to Tsushima? But Tsushima doesn't have an international airport, and only serves Japanese domestic destinations. Hence the detour to Fukuoka, where we went through Japanese immigration and had a very nice lunch while we waited for our second, short flight. Even that was almost cancelled due to the winds at Tsushima, with a disclaimer that the plane might have to turn around if the weather was too bad.  Fortunately, we were able to make it, though coming into Tsushima airport was more than a little hair-raising as the small plane came in over the water and cliffs and dodged some pretty substantial updrafts before touching down on a tiny airstrip. And with that, we made our crossing to Tsushima island.  Or perhaps it is better to call them “islands” now, since several channels have been dug separating the north and south parts of Tsushima.  It wasn't quite how we had planned to get there, but we made it – and that kind of adaptability is very much in keeping with how you had to travel in the old days! One more comment here about the Korean Peninsula and Tsushima:  while we never had a day clear enough, it seems obvious that from a high enough vantage point in Gimhae or Gaya, one could see Tsushima on a clear day.  This is something I had speculated, but as we traveled it became clear.  Tsushima is actually closer to the Korean Peninsula than to Kyushu, a fact that they point out.  And so it was likely visible enough to people who knew what they were looking for. And yet, I imagine being on a small boat, trying to make the journey, it must have been something.  You hopefully had a good navigator, because if you went off in the wrong direction you could end up in the East Sea—known in Japan as the Japan Sea—or worse.    If you kept going you would probably eventually reach the Japanese archipelago, but who knows what might have happened in the meantime.  It is little wonder that ships for the longest time decided to use Tsushima and Iki as stepping stones between the archipelago and the continent. And with that, I think we'll leave it.  From Gimhae and Pusan, we traveled across to Tsushima, which has long been the first point of entry into the archipelago from the continent, often living a kind of dual life on the border.  Tsushima has gotten famous recently for the “Ghost of Tsushima” video game, set on the island during the Mongol Invasion – we haven't played it, but we understand a lot of the landscape was reproduced pretty faithfully. From there we (and the ancient chroniclers) sailed to Iki.  While smaller than Tsushuma, Iki was likely much more hospitable to the Yayoi style of rice farming, and the Harunotsuji site is pretty remarkable. Modern Karatsu, the next stop, is literally the Kara Port, indicating that the area has deep connections to the continent.  It is also the site of some of the oldest rice paddies found on the archipelago, as well as its own fascinating place in later history.  Continuing north along the coast of Kyushu is another area with evidence of ancient Yayoi and Kofun communities in Itoshima, thought to be the ancient country of Ito.  Here you can find some burial mounds, as well as the site where archaeologists found one of the largest bronze mirrors of the ancient archipelago.  Finally, we ended up in Fukuoka, where the seal of the King of Na of Wa was found. We ended our trip in Fukuoka, but the historical trail from Na, or Fukuoka, to quote-unquote “Yamatai” then goes a bit hazy.  As we discussed in an earlier episode, there are different theories about where Yamatai actually was.  There is the Kyushu theory, which suggests that Yamatai is somewhere on Kyushu, with many trying to point to the Yayoi period site of Yoshinogari, though there are plenty of reasons why that particular site is not exactly a good candidate.  Then there are various paths taking you to Honshu, and on to Yamato.  Those are much more controversial, but the path to at least Na seems mostly agreed on, especially since that was largely the path that individuals would follow for centuries onwards, including missions to and from the Tang dynasty, the Mongols during their attempted invasion, and even the various missions from the Joseon dynasty during the Edo period.  Today, modern transportation, such as the airplane, means that most people just go directly to their destination, but there are still plenty of reasons to visit these locations.  It was a lot of fun to sail from place to place and see the next island – or kingdom – emerging on the horizon. Next episode we will talk about Tsushima and give you an idea of what that island has in store for visitors; especially those with an interest in Japanese history. Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

Nejstarším přístavem v jihokorejském Pusanu proplouvají tisíce tun zboží, příští rok ale nákladní lodě i kontejnery zmizí. Korejci chtějí, aby přístav nepatřil průmyslu, ale lidem. Jeřáby a přepravní lodě tak nahradí parky, muzea i vzdělávací centra. Přestavba je součástí korejské kandidatury na hostitelskou zemi pro EXPO 2030.Všechny díly podcastu Zápisník zahraničních zpravodajů můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

Photo: 1940 Winter War. No known restrictions on publication. @Batchelorshow TONIGHT: The show moves from the volcanic Island Republicvof Tonga to the 1940 Winter War that saw the Finns hold off the Russians, obliging Stalin to negotiate. Also stops in Seoul, Pusan and Pyongyang to mark the 70th anniversary of the armistice. . And especial attention to the vanishing of Qin Gang. 

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 872, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: college football 2000 1: In 2000 this conference had 3 teams win 10 or more games: Washington, Oregon and Oregon state. the Pac-10. 2: This school's Huskers set a college bowl record by scoring 66 points against Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl. the University of Nebraska. 3: The USA's only major undefeated team, it won the national title by beating Florida State in the Orange Bowl. Oklahoma. 4: Lou Holtz coached this school's Gamecocks to an 8-4 record after a winless season in 1999. South Carolina. 5: A sprained ankle forced this Virginia Tech QB (and Heisman hopeful) to miss 1 game and parts of 2 others during 2000. Michael Vick. Round 2. Category: let's mess with texas 1: Educated at Phillips Academy, Yale and Harvard, this part-time Crawford resident was born in Connecticut in 1946. George W. Bush. 2: Since 1935 this agency that originated in the 1820s has operated as a branch of the Texas Dept. of Public Safety. the Texas Rangers. 3: This state bird of Texas belongs to the family Mimidae. the mockingbird. 4: From 1846 to 1859 this ex-Tennessee governor was a U.S. senator from Texas. Sam Houston. 5: Born in 1921, this Mission, Tex.-born senator served with Jack Kennedy, knew Jack Kennedy and hey! you're not Jack Kennedy!. Lloyd Bentsen. Round 3. Category: pitches 1: In 1959 physicist Lyman Briggs determined that this pitch really does what its name says. Curveball. 2: It's the basic off-speed pitch, thrown at a slow speed to disrupt the batter's timing. Changeup. 3: This basic pitch is also the name of the group with the 1998 hit "The Way". Fastball. 4: The name of this ground-ball-inducing pitch is also slang for a doughnut. Sinker. 5: This pitch, which Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson called the fadeaway, is a type of '30s movie comedy. Screwball. Round 4. Category: japanese geography 1: Many of Japan's highest peaks lie in this range which shares its name with a Swiss mountain range. Alps. 2: Japan's Disneyland theme park sits right on this bay. Tokyo. 3: Japan's Tsushima Island lies just about 60 miles from Pusan, a city in this country. South Korea. 4: The city originally called Koromo was renamed this, for a local auto manufacturer. Toyota. 5: This island where the U.S. maintains military bases is part of Japan's Ryukyu Islands. Okinawa. Round 5. Category: russian rulers 1: This first leader of the Soviet Union was the son of a provincial director of elementary education. Lenin. 2: In the 1690s he recruited about 900 technicians on his tour of western Europe. Peter the Great. 3: Empress Elizabeth, who reigned 1741-1762, was an implacable enemy of this Prussian emperor. Frederick the Great. 4: In 1881 Alexander II was assassinated in this capital by bomb-throwing members of "People's Will". St. Petersburg. 5: This royal house began with the reign of Michael in 1613 and ended with Nicholas II in the revolution of 1917. the Romanov. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

Last time we spoke about about the emerging war between Big brother China and Little brother Japan. Li Hongzhang struggled to do everything he possible could to thwart the outbreak of war with Japan, but he could not stop the inevitable. The Japanese began landing troops and soon seized King Gojong trying to force Korea to take up the reforms they wanted them to. Li Hongzhang tried to keep the Qing forces at a distance, but the Japanese would not stop reinforcing their position in Korea. Eventually Li Hongzhang decided to play with what he thought was a Japanese bluff, sending further reinforcements to Asan, but the IJN intercepted the transports and disaster struck. The IJN sank the Kowshing and other Qing vessels ushering in the first shots of the First Sino-Japanese War. The Genie was out of the bottle and could not be put back in.   #50 The First Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1895 Part 2: The battles of Seonghwan and Pyongyang   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The battle of Pungdo and sinking of the Kowshing robbed the Qing of 1100 men and 12 pieces of artillery along with other war materials that were needed at Asan. It's important also to remember the major differences between Japan and China when it came to their military forces. The Qing were composed of multiple different forces, as a journalist at Le Journal des debats politiques et litteraires said “there are chinese troops: there is no Chinese army, or rather there are as many armies as there are regions”. I know for those of you listening to the series I repeat the structure of the Qing military too often, but I imagine some people listening only joined us for the First Sino-Japanese War, so welcome and here is how the Qing military works. You have the 1) 8-banners army made up of Manchu, Mongol, Muslim and Han banners, 2) the Green Standard army which can be honestly seen more as a armed police force, made mostly because the 8-banners were very outdated 3) then there is the Yong Ying militias and hired mercenaries 4) lastly we have the foreign training army which are basically private armies held by grand officials like Li Hongzhang. The Yong-Ying's were pretty much the bread and butter, serving as a kind of national guard and sent to hot spots within the empire where rebels would break out. Many of these Yong-Ying types received foreign training thus fall into that 4th category, making them like the cream of the crop. Overall Yong-Ying's and well trained troops make up 10% of the total Qing forces, the Green standards make up the vast majority. Li Hongzhang like I said had a personal army, the Huai Army, created to fight the Taiping back in the 1860's. They were the elites, but as Li aged, he lessened his oversee on them. Adding to Li's age, the Qing court was reluctant to fund such an army, led by a Han no less, who might become too powerful and unseat their Manchu ruled dynasty. I mean they had good reason to worry, Li Hongzhang's teacher Zeng Guofan got to a point he could have done this with his army, he just chose to retire instead, kind of a Sulla thing to do I always find. Now as you can see the Qing military is quite regional in nature with many warlord like figures controlling private armies and the Qing state controlling the less effective forces, it severely lacked unity. So to was the situation of the Qing navy. There were 4 autonomous squadrons: the Beiyang (northern), Nanyang (southern), Fujian and Guangdong. Only the Beiyang possessed a modern fleet based at Weihaiwei and under the control of Li Hongzhang, yes old Li had a lot of firepower. China's arsenals and naval academics were the property of their province of origin and count not be counted on to supply other provinces in the event of…oh I dunno a war. We saw during the Sino-French War of 1884-1885 how this could led to disaster, when Li's Beiyang fleet declined to help the Nanyang fleet. Well, that decision came to bite him right in the ass, as now it would be the Nanyang fleet who would ignore his calls for him. Even within the Beiyang fleet, the guns and ammunition were not standardized. Gunpowder was local and not appropriate for import guns resulting in logistical mayhem. The supply system was likewise very ad hoc and prone to flaws leading to the Beiyang squadron grossly undersupplied. Again another reason for all of this ridiculousness, was the Manchu not wanting the Han military to be strong enough to overthrow them. The Manchu deliberately prevented the creation of a unified national army, it was the basis of their strategy since they defeated the Ming dynasty. The German press would focus on the fundamental weaknesses of the Qing land forces and on the eve of the war an article stated this “the lack of a unified command. Each of the provincial armies was the personal creation of that province's governor. It is naturally in the interest of each [provincial] Viceroy to retain the fruit of his exertions for himself; in no case is he inclined to come to the assistance of a neighbour who is worse provided, and incur the danger of denuding his own province, for whose safety he is responsible with his head. The same system of individual responsibility applied down through the military ranks. It squelched initiative and promoted defensive rather than preemptive action. By this system, common action is virtually excluded." It really was a terrible system, backed by horrific punishment for failure. Punishments ranged from exile to cudgel blows to executions. If you failed to hold your position against an enemy attack you were decapitated. If you destroyed arms the Qing government gave you, you would receive a lethal number of cudgel blows. In an era of slow communications, this made things a nightmare for commanders in the field, you could not retreat because of decapitation and could not destroy your weapons to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. Basically Qing officers would be forced to go into battle as scheduled and stay there until victory or death.  In contrast the Japanese as described by the same German article as before "When three decades ago, Japan awoke out of the sleep of her isolation and attached herself to the civilisation of the West, her first care was the re-organisation of her army. The result may truly be called astonishing. The Japanese army is in reality a European force and any one of their army divisions, with the exception of the cavalry, which is small and would look badly mounted, might march through the streets of any town on the Continent, without, at first sight, being recognised as Oriental troops." Though obviously 19th century racist, it indeeds shows how Japan had what we would consider a modern army. The Times of London had this to say about them "They are brave, temperate, patient, and energetic, and though the Chinese might be made, under European officers, as fine soldiers as they are, at this moment they are about 200 years behind them; and, although the victory is not always to the strong, as found out in the Boer campaign, from every data that a soldier can judge by the Japanese should beat the Chinese in Korea with the greatest ease." Indeed the Japanese army was based on the Prussian model, with universal conscription and a standard term for service. They had Murata Type 18 Breech-loading rifles with the same type of ammunition, 75mm field guns and mountain pieces based on Krupp design. While the Qing scrambled for the right ammunition, when it could be found at all because of the rampant corruption involving embezzlement of military funds, the Japanese had excellent materials and logistical capabilities.  The Japanese navy was based on the British and French, adopting the Jeune D'école doctrine. While the Qing had some large foreign purchased battleships, the Japanese focused on arming faster cruisers to combat them. Now the Japanese military strategy for this war was to first seize control of the sea so they could transport soldiers to the mainland at will. From there the IJA would invade Korea to expel the Chinese. Once Korea was occupied, Japan would strike at Weihaiwei which would provide naval access to Peking. This could be followed up with an invasion of Zhili province, though that notably would be an enormous task. The IJA invading forces would be in two groups; the 1st IJA under Yamagata Aritomo who would invade Korea and enter Manchuria from the north and the 2nd IJA under Marshal Oyama Iwao who would invade Manchuria from the south and attack the Liaodong Peninsula, hoping to meet the 1st IJA at Weihaiwei afterwards.  For both nations the only efficient way to deploy troops to Korea was via the sea. There could be no war if Japan could not ferry her troops, and for China despite sharing landmass, the situation was arguably the same. China had the railway line between Tianjin to the cost and north to Shanhaiguan, but that was as good as it got, it did not reach the Korean border. The road system in Manchuria was terrible adding to the logistical issue. Japan's military got the Japan mail steamship company to lend her 90 steamships to transport the troops to alleviate other warships for military tasks. On the other side, the Chinese merchant fleet which was about ⅓ the size of Japans barely helped them. An article from Berlin's Neue Preussische Zeitung stating “China has 40 troop transports versus Japan's 450”. It was obvious to all, controlling the sea would win the war. The Pall Mall Gazette interviewed a long-time resident of Japan who predicted the war would be won at sea, stating "Which ever side holds the chief commercial ports of Korea...with the capital, completely controls the country. If Japan succeeds at the outset in sweeping the Chinese from those waters...she wins the key to the whole situation. It would be impossible for China to send up troops since the land route entailed an enormous distance where provisioning and feeding a large army would be unmanageable even for a well-organized European nation." Despite all of this, the Chinese leadership believed they held time on their side and that a war of attrition would see them victorious. They also had considerable assets in the Beiyang fleet, such as their two great ironclad battleships, the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan. However the Qing warships were overagged and basically obsolete. The ships were ill maintained, their crews lacked discipline. The Qing ships were much slower than the Japanese. The Qing battleships main armament was short barreled guns in twin barbettes mounted in echelon which could only fire in restricted arcs. Their short barrels meant their shells had a low muzzle velocity, poor penetration and terrible accuracy at long range. The Japanese emphasized quick firing guns, quicker ships and would outfire the Qing dramatically. There is honestly a litany of issues with the Beiyang fleet, take the signals books issued to it, they were all written in English, a language very few Beiyang officers understood. Regardless, I do not want to delve too much on the Beiyang fleet here, because that is certainly going to come about later. When the Japanese began landing forces at Chemulpo, Li Hongzhang had missed a key opportunity to destroy their transports. He made a crucial strategic error, ordering his fleet to sortie east of the Yalu-River, away from the Korean Peninsula. Basically he was trying to minimize any risk to his precious two battleships. He opted to use his fleet to deter attacks and help the Qing convoys of troops. His mindset was that of a “prevent-defeat strategy”, he sought to preserve his navy, this decision ceded the initiative to the Japanese. Now the Japanese could choose the timing and location of hostilities. Obviously Li believed time was on his side and that eventually they would overwhelm the Japanese with pure numbers. He was prolonging as much as he could, there was also a belief the winter months would hurt the Japanese, while the Manchu warriors would hold a distinct advantage.  Now as a result of Li Hongzhang trying to thwart further conflict, the Qing had deliberately encamped their forces outside Seoul. General Ye Zhichao had 3000 men stationed at Seonghwan and another 1000 at his HQ in Cheonan, just a bit northeast of Asan. He had been hunkering down awaiting the arrival of reinforcements, but the battle of Pungdo and loss of the Kowshing delivered an enormous setback to this. Major General Oshima had roughly 4000 men with him and he began to march upon Asan from Seoul. Ye Zhichao was very aware of this and had his men erected forts, dug trenches, made earthworks, and flooded surrounding rice paddies. Ze Zhichao planned a pincer attack against Seoul, by massing troops at Pyongyang in the north and Asan in the south. The Japanese divided their forces to make a night attack: a small diversionary force would engage the Qing at the front while the main bulk would march upon their rear flank. The diversionary force consisted of 4 companies of infantry with one engineer who began their attack on the night of July 28th. Meanwhile 9 companies of infantry, 1 cavalry and a battalion of artillery snuck around the Qing defensive lines by crossing the Ansong river. The Qing fought hard but were unable to hold out. The Qing forces at Seonghwan had to flee for their lives back to Asan which was 10 miles southwest, and in doing so they left a large amount of weapons and supplies. The Japanese pursued them to Asan where further disaster struck the Chinese. Despite spending over 3 weeks fortifying the area, it seems their defeat at Seonghwan had broken their morale, as the Qing forces at Asan literally fled upon seeing the Japanese approaching the city. As a result the Japanese took Asan the next day. The Chinese were estimated to have 500 casualties while serving the Japanese 34 deaths and 54 wounded. The Chinese survivors fled towards Pyongyang, which would be a brutal 26 day march as they had to detour widely to avoid being hit by Japanese forces coming out of Seoul. The victory confounded columnists who all came to a similar conclusion that “the Chinese forces fight badly and are ill equipped”. A reporter for the Yokohama based Japan Weekly Mail had this to say : "The Chinese are indeed skilled in the art of running away. As they fled they generally cast off their uniforms and donning the clothes of Koreans made the best of their way to what they considered safe places. The directions toward which they fled are unmistakably indicated by the cast-off uniforms. Even the Vice-commander of the Chinese troops appears to have been tempted to avail himself of this method, for his uniform was left behind in camp." It would be a theme played out during this war. The Qing forces would take the habit of disguising themselves as civilians to escape battles. This would unfortunately result in many Japanese troops not trusting Chinese civilians near battlefields leading to atrocities. It is plain to see why Qing troops did this, as we have already seen, retreating was met with extremely harsh punishment, you were better off trying to escape into the crowd. A commander from the Shanghai based North-China Herald had a different take on the battle of Seonghwan "The Chinese have retired from the Yashan [Asan] district after several day's heavy fighting, 10,000 Japanese against 3,500 Chinese. In the first days, the Japanese met with a sharp reverse and severe losses, the Chinese loss being unimportant. On July 29th the Chinese withdrew, leaving the camp in charge of a guard of 300 men, who were attacked and captured by an overwhelming force of Japanese before dawn. The guard was killed. The Japanese lost 500 men, found only heavy baggage in the camp, and took no prisoners, many Chinese noncombatants in the vicinity being slain." Despite such claims, the Japanese had not engaged a small guard at Asan, it was the main body of Qing forces. The Qing had been handily defeated and alongside the men lost a ton of equipment. The Qing court had no way of knowing any of this however, because of the cell like structure of their military, who would simply report back to them victories or very minor defeats. In fact on August 3rd, General Ye Zhichao was congratulated in an imperial decree for quote “killing over 2000 Woren”, he received bonus payment for himself and his troops. Later on when the Qing court figured out what really happened, General Ye would escape decapitation only because he used the bonus payments to pay off officials to speak on his behalf.  From the offset of the war the Qing government had a policy of publicizing false war bulletins, but the realities of what was actually happening on the battlefields could not be concealed from the western viewers. Every battle was reported a Chinese triumph in China and this actually was very reminiscent of our tale of the French-Sino War. A small article sprang up from a British reporter in Shanghai stating this "I read somewhere during the Franco-Chinese war [of 1884-5] the native papers of Shanghai reported the death of Admiral Courbet thirty-seven times, while the number of the killed among the French, according to these reliable (?) sheets reached 1,600,000. The amount of falsehood which these papers have poured forth since the commencement of the 'War of Pygmies and Pigtails' is simply astounding. O, that the word liar' had the same force in Chinese as in English for no other purpose than to enable one to tell a celestial, You are a liar!'" There are a wide variety of reasons the Qing government pumped up the propaganda this way. Ironically a major reason was because of their policy of decapitating defeated commanders. The Qing court officials also had barely any real knowledge of what was going on because 1) all the commanders were sending false reports back to them and 2) when defeated commanders were brought back to Beijing, they were beheaded so fast they never got to make real reports of what occurred on the battlefield. The court would only really begin to figure things out in times of war when the battles got closer to Beijing! And above all else, the Qing court could not allow the bad reports to get to the Han public out of fear they would rise up to topple their Manchu rule, something that remained their top obsession throughout the Dynasties lifetime.  After the defeat at Asan a rumor emerged that the Emperor had demoted Li Hongzhang by stripping him of the Order of the Yellow Riding Jacket. Many speculated Li was demoted because he failed to thwart war. Regardless Li Hongzhangs presumed demotion cast a shadow over his ability to perform official dealings. Li Hongzhang would tragically become a very useful Han scapegoat for the Qing dynasty.  Now while the loss at Asan meant the Qing plan to perform a pincer attack against Seoul was lost, it certainly did not mean the loss of Korea however. The bulk of Qing forces were stationed at Pyongyang, the old capital of Korea. The city sat on the right bank of the Taedong River which was large enough to provide a shipping route to the sea. Holding Pyongyang was imperative, it defended the approach to the Yalu river and behind that lay Manchuria, Qing soil. Pyongyang was surrounded by the wide river to the east and south, with cliffs along the river banks, mountains to the north and the massive city with fortified walls that could prolong a siege. The Qing seemed to hold all the major advantages, they had been massing troops and supplies and constructing fortifications at Pyongyang for almost 2 months. Altogether the Qing had 13,000 troops dispersed at 27 forts surrounded by trenches and moats. The majority of the Qing troops also arrived to Pyongyang by boat, while the Japanese all have to trek overland, via miserable Korean roadways crossing mountains and rivers. The Qing had invested a lot in Pyongyang because they were not just defending the city, they intended to recapture the rest of Korea using it as a main base, thus it was given their most modern equipment. Some Qing troops would carry American Winchester rifles, they had in total four artillery pieces, 6 machine guns and 28 mountain guns. On paper this looked wonderful for them, however there were serious problems. The reality of the situation was summed up just prior to the battle by the Pall Mall Gazette s "from more than one source agree that the Chinese army in Northern Korea is in a deplorable condition. The generals are said to be grossly incompetent, the minor officers discontented and disheartened, and the rank and file exhausted and dispirited. What roads there were a month ago have been washed away by floods. Transport through Manchuria to Korea is impossible; guns, ammunition, and food stores are blocked, and spoiling all along the long route southward. Food is becoming scarcer every day at the front.” The four Chinese commanders at Pyongyang each commanded their own army, but none adequately coordinated with the others. When the Japanese attacked, they did parcel out static defensive sectors, but this became more of a hindrance than help. Their plan was very simple: if their lines failed to hold out at Pyongyang, surely they would be able to hold out at Yalu….yes great plan. The Qing commanders in the field had no real worst-case scenario plans. Weak logistics and organization plagued the Qing forces throughout the war.  Now for the Japanese, Pyongyang held symbolic importance going all the way back to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasion during the 16th century. After the victory at Seonghwan, the Japanese held a reinforced brigade about 8000 strong within Korea led by General Oshima. Around 7000 of these troops were concentrated around Seoul and Chemulpo. The Japanese controlled southern Korea and it was time to expel the Chinese from it completely. The Japanese had 4 routes to march upon Pyongyang from; one via Chemulpo; one from Pusan; one from Wonsan and another done amphibiously, by landing on the eastern coast near the mouth of the Taedong River. The Japanese were hard pressed for time, as every day could see more Qing forces marching into Korea from Manchuria. Thus the route from Pusan was rejected and they opted for sending the bulk of their forces to march from CHemulpo on the west coast and two smaller forces from Wonsan on the east. The idea to land forces at the mouth of the Taedong river was not rejected outright, but they were going to only consider it as a last resort.  The Chemulpo force would be the 1st Army led by Marshal Yamagata Aritomo consisting of the 5th provisional Hiroshima division led by Lt General Nozu Michitsura and the 3rd provisional Nagoya division led by General Katsura Taro. Although Aritomo held overall command, he did not land at Chemulpo until September 12th, thus Lt General Nozu commanded the 1st Army against Pyongyang. His Wonson column was led by Colonel Sato Tadashi; another from Sangnyong was led by Major General Tatsumi Naobumi with the Combined Brigade led by Major General Oshima Yoshimasa. Nozu's plan was for the combined brigade to make a frontal assault from the south, while his main division attacked from the southwest and flanking maneuvers would be carried out by the two columns.  On September 15th approximately 10,000 Japanese troops made a three-pronged attack on Pyongyang. At 4:30am on the 15th, the attack began from the east with an artillery barrage on the forts along the west bank of the Taedong river to divert the Chinese attention from the main attack. The Japanese feigned an attack from the south while Nozu and Oshima performed flanking maneuvers to deliver a massive blow from the north. The Japanese army's main bulk designated to hit from the southwest would actually not end up participating in the main attack that broke through the principal Chinese fortifications. The fighting was fierce, with the Chinese launching repeated cavalry charges, igniting prearranged blazes, picture the scene from the last samurai if you saw that amazing film, by the way I did a review of it on the pacific war channel hint hint. The Japanese found themselves in blazes of fire and repeatedly being charged upon by cavalry units and while it was certainly valiant and showcased the bravery of the Qing forces, it was unbelievably stupid. The Qing had not taken advantage of the natural barrier that was the Taedong river and literally charged into the field, instead of forcing the Japanese to march through a muddy nightmare. There was no attempt to attack the Japanese columns as they crossed the river when they were extremely vulnerable. The Japanese had utterly failed to prepare the necessary equipment for crossing the Taedong river, they had no pontoon bridges so they ended up just stealing Korean river boats to ferry troops in secret. This was an enormous opportunity to smash the Japanese, but the Qing utterly failed to grab it.  The Japanese successfully deceived the Chinese as to where their main attack was coming from. The 24 hour long battle saw heavy rain, causing massive amounts of mud for the Japanese to march through. The Japanese artillery was too far back initially to be effective, leading the vanguard troops who had taken the first line of Qing defense, some earthworks to abandon them in the morning. This ironically caused the Qing to begin writing reports to the Chinese press that they had already won the battle and that the Japanese were even fleeing. In reality the Columns from Wonsan and Sangnyong had seized the major fortress at Moktan-tei, due north of Pyongyang, giving the Japanese a position to bring their artillery to bare upon the city walls. Once their artillery began raining hell from Moktan-tei the Qing's defensive position was shattered and they offered their surrender at 4:30 on the 15th.  During the night many Qing forces tried to flee for the coast and border town of Wiju along the lower reaches of the Yalu river. Japanese snipers killed large numbers of the fleeing Chinese as they did. As a result of the surrender, in the morning two Japanese columns entered the northern gate of the city unopposed, but because there was no way to communicate this with rest of the forces, the main bulk of the Japanese army continued its attack against the city's west gate. Later that day they would find it all undefended to their surprise. Later that morning the Combined brigade entered the city through the south gate. After seizing control of the city it was estimated the Qing casualties were around 2000 killed with 4000 wounded while the Japanese only reported 102 deaths and 433 wounded. 700 Chinese were taken prisoner, many escaped north fleeing for the Yalu. Many believed “the flower of the Chinese army was all but annihilated at Pyongyang”, indeed Li Hongzhang's elite Huai army with the best equipment had lost there. Though there was also rumors in China that Li Hongzhang actually held back his best troops. A reporter at the Japan Weekly Mail had this to say : "What resistance was made could not have been very great. This is the more surprising, as the Chinese took possession of the city on the 4th of August and had ample time to thoroughly entrench themselves." Commander of the British Royal Artillery at Colchester, Colonel J.F Maurice had this to say about the battle "Field Marshal Yamagata has conducted the campaign in the most brilliant manner, and his tactics would not have disgraced a Western general." One article from the North China Herald noted the ethnic loyalties that did not look too good for the Manchu “ Troops under the Moslem general Zuo Baogui had fought very well until he had perished in combat. In contrast, the Manchu troops have hitherto proved themselves utterly untrustworthy. The Jilin Manchus are far more intent on hunting for something to fill their opium pipes, than on doing anything to uphold the dynasty which has pampered them for so long a time that they seem to have concluded that the dynasty exists for their special benefit. The forces of the Jilin division remained under the separate command of a Manchu general. The Manchu forces at Pyongyang "retreated almost intact" rather than fight." Indeed the Muslim General Zuo Baogui, a Shandong citizen died in action from Japanese artillery and a memorial was constructed for him. It did not look good for the Manchu, and countless Han readers would have been ignited with bitterness about this. At Pyongyang it was reported, the Qing left behind 35 good field guns, hundreds of magazine rifles, hundreds of breechloaders, 2000 tents and 1700 horses. The magazine rifles were noted to be superior to the Japanese Murata rifles. Hallmarks of the Qing campaign for the war were present at Pyongyang; the abandonment of large quantities of war supplies; the looting and abuse of local civilian populations; the torture and mutilations of POW's and the use of civilian attire to flee the scene. up the abandoned supplies. The New York Times described the fleeing Chinese as "only too apparent. Rifles, swords, and ammunition, which they had thrown away in their haste to escape, were constantly being found. The fugitives had acted the part of bandits. Villages had been pillaged and afterwards set on fire. Farms had been destroyed and all the stored produce burned. The Korean natives who had resisted the robbers had been ruthlessly slaughtered. Many bodies were found hacked with spear thrusts. The whole line of retreat was one scene of desolation."According to a reporter at Moskovskie vedomosti, "The people fear Chinese soldiers much more than the invasion by the Japanese." The Qing troops had little choice but to plunder or starve because their military's logistics were frankly a joke. Plunder was the only solution for the Chinese soldier while the Japanese soldier had a modern logistical line keeping them going.  Western observations were notably disgusting with how the Qing treated POW's, after all many nations had signed the August 22nd 1864 Geneva convention mandating the protection of POW's. But in retrospect, the Qing could not even take care of their own forces let alone the mouths of the enemy. There was also the issue of how the Qing had an official reward system built on payment per head. However that does not explain the wide ranging atrocities committed such as disembowelment, removal of facial features, extraction of livers, cutting off of penises and so on. The Qing penal code held insurrection to be “the worst of the ten abominations” and the Chinese most likely considered the Japanese actions to be basically an insurrection against their confucian order meriting the most severe punishments. Punishments under the penal code short of execution included cangue, handcuffs, shackles, caning, ankle crushers, finger crushers, the Chinese rack and the ever favorite prolong kneeling on chains. A lot of the horror was due to the Chinese views of their own cultural supremacy and disgust for barbarians. The American secretary of state ordered his consul in Shanghai to hand over to the Qing authorities two Japanese found spying. The Qing officials promised no harm would come to them, but we are left with this account. “The tortures included kneeling on chains while their captors stood on their legs, the removal of fingernails, the crushing of tongues, the pouring of boiling water on their handcuffed wrists until the metal reached the bone, the smashing of their groins, and decapitation just before they expired from all the other abuses” The Japanese coming off the bad publicity of the Kowshing incident took the opportunity to earn recognition from the west by showcasing how their modern Japanese medical units treated the Chinese POW's with utmost care. The Japanese military transported around 600 POW's to Tokyo, 111 of whom were sick or wounded who notably received top quality care. A correspondent from The Japan Weekly Mail had this to say "What has proved a thousand times more interesting to me is the way the Chinese prisoners and wounded have been treated, and for this I hardly know how to express my admiration...I had some conversation with a captured commander. He said he could not understand the meaning of the Japanese kindness...I went from there to the hospital for wounded Chinese. They were treated exactly as if they were Japanese...I do not see how Japan can be refused the place she rightly claims among the civilized nations of the world." Again, this is from a Japanese correspondent. After the battle of Pyongyang, there would be scant to no reports about the welfare of Qing POW's. Diaries from Japanese soldiers after the war would indicate the Japanese were not interested in taking POW's since they would just burden their supply lines as they marched deeper into Manchuria. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The battles of Seonghwan and Pyongyang have caused the Qing forces to flee all the way to the last existing natural barrier before Manchuria, the Yalu River. While the Qing be able to stop the Japanese from marching upon their land?  

Last time we spoke about the imo uprising. Empress Min royally messed up when she allowed her nephew Min Gyeom-ho to be in charge of handing out the grain to the retired soldiers. His tossing of the job to a subordinate led to embezzlement and the soldiers were greatly slighted. The pissed off soldiers began a major riot threatening to kill Empress Min, her clan and those they thought had cheated them. The Japanese military advisor and other staff were attacked, some Japanese were even killed, thus bringing Japan into the mix. King Gojong panicked and allowed his father to return, only to be ousted by his own father. The Daewongun was back and immediately went to work trying to rid Korea of the Min clan. Now the Chinese and Japanese were bringing forces to bear in Korea, was war on the menu?   #40 This episode is the Gapsin Coup   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Now the Chinese had a sticky situation on their hands, the attempted coup d'etat had disposed of many officials who they had been working with and worse they had attacked Japanese nationals prompting Japan to perform military intervention. Ma Jianzhong ordered the Daewongun to meet with him and read him the riot act. Ma accused him of acting against the Qing emperor by unseating the approved King of Korea “your sin is unpardonable. Considering the fact that you are the father of the king, we will not press hard on you. Please go to Tianjin to receive whatever punishment is bestowed upon you”. The Daewongun was then forced into a palanquin, whisked aboard the warship Weiyuan and sent to Tianjin. He was then interrogated by Li Hongzhang and sent into house arrest at Baoding until October of 1885. Li Hongzhang had this to say of it all “: "Our country regarded [Korea] as part of the empire and dispatched...troops. We arrested the evil ringleader, the Taewongun [Grand Prince Hungson], and detained him at Paoting. The [Korean] masses were awed. Now the entire world knows that Korea is our dependency."” Basically Li Hongzhang was playing a grand game of power politics, he was trying to show face to the western world that China was in charge of Korea. However this major show of face was also a large loss of face particularly to Korea and Japan who saw this as quite the lenient strategy.  And thus China reasserted her suzerainty over Korea, her troops secured Seoul and the Qing officials began to aid the Korean-Japanese negotiations. The treaty of Chemuplo was signed on August 30th of 1882 to which Korea agreed to pay Japan in indemnities, sent an envoy to officially apologize and permitted a Japanese legation guardforce in Seoul. The Qing began training the Korean army and provided them with 1000 rifles, two cannons and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. The Korean military was to be trained by a Qing figure, one of the most important figures in modern Chinese history called Yuan Shikai, oh boy this guy. On my personal channel I think I have made at least 8 episodes related to him, but he will come a bit further in the story as a lead player. Korea was reduced to an official tributary state of the Qing with King Gojong unable to make many decisions without official Qing approval prior. China basically began to treat korea more like a colony. The Min clan came right back into their seats of power, albeit under Qing approval and Li Hongzhang began to perform puppetry work on the nation to make sure she served Qing interests. The Korean government then received two major advisers, Ma Jianzhong and a close confidant of Li Hongzhang, Paul von Molldendorff, formerly of the German foreign office, but now under Li Hongzhangs employment. The new Capital guard commander was Yuan Shikai. By 1883 Li Hongzhang was so pleased with his work he said this to an American minister in Beijing "I am the king of Korea, whenever I think the interests of China require me to assert the prerogative." The 1880s was a political maelstrom for Korea. As a result of the actions of the Qing and Japanese, Korea was literally being torn apart. Two major factions emerged within the Korean political scene, the first being the Gaehwa Party, known as the “enlightenment party”. They can be seen as a leftist party, progressive liberal types. Their leadership came mostly from the Yangban class, those being the traditional gentry-ruling class of the Joseon dynasty. These were the highly educated types who joined the bureaucracy and military, the quote en quote “landed guys” the aristocrats. They were much akin to the Qing officials, those who took examinations to earn their place within the government, living by the principles of confucianism. The members of this faction included Kim Ok-gyun, who spent considerable time in Japan and was mentored by Fukuzawa Yukichi. Kim Ok-gyun would emerge the leader of this faction and he alongside his colleagues pushed for a more independent Korea that took steps to perform their own version of the Meiji restoration. They also wanted to end what they saw as Qing interference with their nation. They were greatly frustrated by the limited scale and scope of Korea's modernization efforts and reforms. Most of their leadership like Kim Ok-kyun were quite young, in their late 20's and early 30's and they were headstrong to be progressive, and progress at this time, to them looked like Japan. They basically saw the Qing as an arrogant imperialist power interfering with their nation rather than a protector. The other faction was known as the Sadaedang, the right side conservatives. This included the Min clan and many high government officials who were very pro-Qing. Its not to say they were against progress, in fact they championed many causes put forward by the Enlightenment party, but they favored gradual changes based on the Qing models. After the Imo uprising, the Pro-Chinese faction was greatly bolstered, obviously because of the interventions by the Qing within their nation. The Min clan advocated going about the modernization process via dongdo seogi “adoping western technology while keeping eastern values”, it was not so different from the Meiji restoration, but they wanted to keep inline with the Chinese.  In 1882 after getting rid of the Daewongun and his rioters, the Min clan pursued a pro-chinese policy. Instead of adopting major institutional reforms akin to the Meiji restoration such as legal equality, modern education and significant industrialization, they chose to direct the pathway of the nations reforms in piecemeal. This basically meant revamping the underlying social structure of Korea rather than replacing or changing. They began to block all appointments of the progressive to any important positions, particularly that of their greatest rival Kim Ok-kyun. They signed trade agreements with China that enabled the Qing to dominate the trade with Korea at the expense of other nations, specifically that of Japan. King Gojong basically looked like he was abandoning all the progressive policies that had begun before the Imo uprising. The Japanese were livid over all of this as they had planned to dominate Korea with their influence to soon import Korean grain and export products back, but now China dominated her. Then a major event occurred that drew conflict between Japan and China over Korea yet again. In 1880, Kim Ok-kyun had managed to secure a position in the high government office serving as a councilor in the foreign office and even became acquainted with King Gojong. He was the bulwark trying to get Korea to take the Meiji restoration path and in December of 1881 he went off to Japan and would be in Japan when the Imo uprising occurred. Since he was there, he was made the official Korean representative in 1882 to apologize for the ordeal and he would remain in Japan until 1884. While in Japan he was influenced heavily by Fukuzawa Yukichi. Through this Kim Ok-kyun became convinced Korea needed to severe its Qing domination by overthrowing the Min clan so they could commence a Meiji restoration program with Japan's help. "Korea is a country in which misgovemment and extortion have flourished luxuriantly for centuries, but under the recent MING [Min] administration a serious change for the worse has taken place." Now in 1884 hostilities broke out between the Qing and French over a conflict in Annam, this became the Sino-French War of 1884-1885, which will be its own episode. Needless to say, the Qing forces within Korea were moved to deal with the French and this represented a major opportunity for the progressives in Korea. Despite the name progressive, the pro-Japanese faction decided to fall back on quote “the old Korean method of political transformation by murder”. Yes they were going to attempt a coup d'etat, with help from the Japanese. The Gaehwapa leadership, on December 4th staged their coup under the guise of a grand banquette being hosted by Hong Yeong-sik, the director of the Ujeong Chongguk, the postal administration. It was an inaugural banquet to celebrate the opening of a new national post office. The guests were to be King Gojong, commanders of the Seoul garrison, several foreign diplomats and high ranking officials, obviously many of which were members of the Sadaedang faction. They had help from the Japanese minister Takezoe Shinichiro who promised he would mobilize the Japanese legation guards to provide assistance. The plan was quite simple, get everyone to come and kill the commanders and officials; then hijack King Gojong to use him like a puppet to legitimize their pro-japanese reform program. They had a 14-point proposal which held conditions such as these; to end Korea's tributary relationship to the Qing dynasty; to abolish the Yangbang privileges and establish equal rights for all; to reorganize the governmental structure as a constitutional monarchy; to change the land tax laws; cancel the grain loan system; unify the internal fiscal administrations; promote free commerce and trade; create a modern police system, who would in turn severely punish corrupt officials in government, ie the Min clan. Now Kim Ok-kyun was obviously encouraged by Fukuzawa Yukichi, alongside other Japanese intellectuals and officials to seek a Meiji style reform in Korea. But the Japanese leaders did not support his plans for a coup. Count Iwakura, the same who led the Iwakura Mission and the foreign minister Inoue Kaoru both refused to support the coup as they still wanted to retain goodwill with China. Shibusawa Eiichi, the most prominent Japanese business leader in promoting Japanese business in other parts of Asia also refused to support the coup. Kim Ok-kyun had presented many in Japan his plans, but with 3000 Chinese troops in Korea he knew the coup had no chance, that was until the Sino-French war broke. So despite not having any real support from Japan, he went ahead with the coup thinking it was an opportunity too great to pass up. They began the banquet and Kim Ok-kyun sent some of his supporters to set fire to a nearby building causing some noise and confusion. While that occurred they seized King Gojong and brought him to his palace. Then they began to summon various Korean garrison commanders they believed might mobilize the military against them to the palace. Each commander came one-by-one only to be murdered by the Gaehwapa. So basically the coup amounted to the decapitation of 6 Korean ministers, the murder of military officials and other administrators, while occupying the royal police backed up by the Japanese legation force of around 170 men. The father of the murdered postmaster general, who had been duped into hosting the event was so applied by it and the stain upon his families honor, he invited all 18 members of his family to a dinner and killed them along with himself via poisoning, whoa.  Now things did not go according to plan for the Gaehwapa. The Japanese minister, Takezoe, went back on his promise to provide military assistance as soon as word came that the Qing were sending forces into the city. Kim Ok-kyun seemed to believe with just under 200 Japanese troops he was going to somehow maintain power keeping the king hostage, but 1500 Qing troops was not going to let that happen. When the coup was found out, Queen Min secretly sent word to the Qing asking for help and they sent General Yuan Shikai. It took Yuan Shikai and his men all but 3 days to retake the palace, rout the Japanese troops and rescue King Gojong. During the fighting around 180 people were killed, including 38 Japanese troops and 10 Chinese. The officials who had been appointed by Kim Ok-kyun were all dismissed. Japanese citizens living in Seoul were viewed by the locals as exploiters, thus they became targets of attack, many of their homes were looted and burned. Kim ok-kyun and 8 of his followers managed to escape to Japan using a Japanese ship. Just  prior to the failed coup, Kim Ok-kyun had met with King Gojong about some reform ideas and the king was in support of many of them. After the coup the king made a full 180 and publicly label Kim ok-kyun as a villain. King Gojong voided all the reform measures done by the coup leaders and sent an envoy to Japan to protest their involvement in the coup demanding repatriation of the conspirators. On December 6th, King Gojong telegraphed Li Hongzhang asking for reinforcements. Meanwhile Yuan Shikai who wanted to dethrone the king because he deemed King Gojong to be “ a dim-witted monarch” who he believed was actually complicit in the coup but was overruled by the conspirators. A sticky political situation thus emerged between the 3 nations. As I mentioned, King Gojong demanded Japan repatriate the conspirators. The Japanese responded by demanding Korea pay them indemnity for the loss of life and property, to make formal apology and promise to punish the guilty. In a show of force the Japanese sent 7 warships and 2 battalions to Korea. On January the 9th of 1885, within the presence of 600 IJA and under threat of war if they did not cooperate Korea signed the “Seoul Protocol” also known as the Treaty of Hanseong. The Koreans officially apologized and paid Japan reparations in the sum of 100,000 yen for damages done to the Japanese legation, go figure that. This treaty however was really gimmicky, because the real trouble going on was not between Japan and Korea, but instead Japan and China.  Ito Hirobumi and Li Hongzhang met in Tianjin in April of 1885 to discuss the matter. Tensions were very high between the nations and both men tried to defuse that tension. They called for bilateral troop withdrawal from Korea, a proscription against sending further military instructors and prior notification to another of any future troop deployments in Korea. King Gojong would be advised to hire military instructors from a third nation to train up the Joseon army, America the most likely candidate. Japan and China signed off on this and it became known as the Tianjin convention or “Li-Ito convention”. It was a diplomatic victory for Japan in the end . Japanese minister Takezoe Shinichiro avoided punishment for his complicity in the coup which essentially was done to subvert Korea's tributary status with the Qing. China lost her exclusive claim to armed intervention in Korea, since Japan and her now we're even on that front. The treaty represented yet again another curtailment of Qing suzerainty over Korea. Now despite all of that, Japan also lost significant influence over Korea while China's influence only increased. Japan looked like the bad guy to the Korean populace. Also Li Hongzhang appointed Yuan Shikai as the “director General Resident in Korea of diplomatic and commercial relations”. Basically Yuan Shikai was to look after Qing interests in Korea, but in a civilian capacity. Officially this was in line with the Tianjin convention, as Yuan Shikai was no longer a military leader, but both China and Japan knew at a hares notice he could called upon Qing forces whenever he wanted. Li Hongzhang instructed Yuan Shikai to prevent Japanese commercial dominance over Korea and promote Chinese commercial dominance which he did very well.  After both the Chinese and Japanese withdrew their forces from Korea as per the Tianjin convention, China chose to garrison most of its forces along the Korean border. Likewise the the vast majority of telegraph lines in Korea were Chinese controlled while Japan had one going to Pusan, but when they requested it extend to Seoul this was rejected. Thus the Japanese could only communicate with Seoul using a Chinese controlled telegraph system. Yuan Shikai, despite being in his early 20s, exercised strong leadership and for all intensive purposes Japanese influence was simply drained. Now while many Koreans were happy to be rid of Kim Ok-kyun and his Japanese friends, many also complained about Yuan Shikai who was seen to be very overbearing and quite arrogant towards the Korean government. In June of 1885 China signed the final peace protocol with France and thus for the first time since the Russian conflict in Xinjiang, China was free of threat from war from Russia and France. This gave the Qing government the opportunity to be more aggressive in Korea. Yuan Shikai operated as if he was above the law. He replaced progressive officials with pro-chinese members of the Min Clan. He also began interposing in foreign matters, taking the place of Korean diplomats or envoys. He stopped all attempts at military reform and the development of modern industry. As for his personal reputation that was quite bad as well, he acquired a reputation for as one source puts it “kidnapping young korean women and making them his concubines, something akin to 19th century comfort women”. The Qing and Min clan were using the two failed coup d'etats to virtually wipe out any and all political opposition. Yuan Shikai's tenure over Korea which lasted for a decade has been considered by some historians as “a dark age” for Korea's development. Japan had learnt its lesson after 1884 bitterly and they would not eschew in Korea for some time, but this did not mean forever. No, the lesson they learnt was not to leave korea alone, it was to make sure next time they would have a stronger position than China. King Gojong also learnt a lesson, that Korea was vulnerable and needed a protector, but who? Well King Gojong secretly began gravitating towards Russia. You know the Russian Empire was a coy player when it came to Asia and China in particular. The Qing had greatly miscalculated when it came to Russia in the 19th century. The Qing intelligence indicated to them that the Russians had crushed Britain and France during the Crimean War so when the Second opium war was raging on, China was wary of Russia. This had a large effect on the Qing as they basically gave up parts of Siberia to Russia assuming they had large forces at the ready when in fact their far eastern forces were scattered horribly. Had the QIng showed a stronger arm against Russia they could have retained more territory which would have helped them pay their large indemnities to the west after the Opium wars. From the Russian point of view they took full advantage of a golden situation. Honestly, imagine Britain and France fight a war against this grand Qing empire in the late 1850's and Russia just barges in making demands alongside them. With the treaty of Aigun, setting a new boundary on the AMur River, Russia gained 185,000 square miles of territory, that is the size of California and was the only livable part of eastern siberia. Russia followed this up with the treaty of Peking grabbing 130,00 square miles of territory, then again on October 7th of 1864 where she signed the treaty of Tarbagati grabbing another 350,000 square miles. That was like adding two Italies. The Qing at the time did not have proper knowledge of the territory they were handing away and when they figured it out later it was a national humiliation. Russia acquired all of this through a bluff, with some bravado and a brilliant stroke of diplomacy. As I will talk more about in the “great game” episode, Russia and China were in conflict for a long time because of Xinjiang. They remained on the verge of full scale war until 1881 when they signed a treaty, but until that point China had felt hamstrung when it came to Korea and the Russians. As the Korean situation went further and further to shit, the Russians eagerly watched, salivating as you can imagine. Russia's strategy for quite a long time at this point was to surround its empire with weak neighbors, to destabilize those who threatened to become strong. This was a very logical strategy for a large continental power, thus Russia wanted to do everything possible from a third power swallowing up and revitalizing Korea. They sent Karl Ivanovich Weber as consul to Korea and he carefully cultivated ties to King Gojong. Weber made it clear to the Korean officials Russia intended to support them in the event Korean territorial integrity or independence became threatened. A secret deal was made between Korea and Russia, to obtain military instructors in return for a lease at Yonghunghang, a port in Wonsan. When the British found out about this they were quite livid and they immediately occupied Komundo island near the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. Its not important just yet, but Britain and Russia being aggressive towards another with holdings in east asia would reek its ugly head in 1904.  When Yuan Shikai found out about King Gojong's plans to secure Russian military assistance he was not too happy and tried to intimidate him. Yuan Shikai ended up quashing the Russian military adviser plan by leaking it to the diplomatic community which caused a large uproar. Yuan Shikai's influence over Korea was beginning to boomerang, as now the Korean sought out Russia aid even more so seeing Qing suzerainty even more overbearing. King Gojong approached Weber again in 1886 requesting to establish a Russian protectorship. This was leaked to Yuan Shikai, who began plans to depose the King, but Li Hongzhang overruled him. Russia would make two fateful decisions, the first in 1888 when they would try to facilitate Japan's attempts to undermine the Qing influence over Korea. Russia did this in order to weaken the Anglo-Chinese relations, but Russia had also greatly underestimated Japanese power and overestimated Chinese power. The second decision I have spoken about multiple times, the building of the trans-siberian railway. This decision altered the balance of power in the far east as Russia would be able to deploy troops at basically a whims notice to the CHinese and Korean borders. But Russia also needed something else vitally important, a warm water port. Russia had acquired vladivostok, a cold water port that freezes up for a few months of they and back then without icebreakers one could not keep their fleet at port year round. Russia eyed Korea or a Chinese warm water port in the Yellow sea as a future prize they must claim. Now I don't want to side track too much about Russia as that will come about much later in 1904.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Gapsin coup was yet again another mess that almost led China and Japan to war over their proxy fight over Korea. Things were heating up more and more, how long could the diplomats and politicians hold it all off?  

Last time we spoke about the modernization efforts of Big Brother and Little Brother, aka China and Japan. Both nations went about the process of modernization in vastly different ways. Japan began its Meiji restoration, an incredible hyper modernization process done  to thwart colonization by western powers. Yet China was hampered by hardline conservatives like Empress Dowager Cixi who sought instead  to restore the Qing Dynasty's symbolic grandeur over technological innovations such as railways. China's greatest leaders like Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang did all they could to usher in some form of modernization.  Li Hongzhang emerged as the champion of modernization efforts for China, but he kept butting heads with stubborn conservatives wishing instead to reclaim the Qing's former symbolic glory.. It would not only be the conservatives in China he would have to face, for the Empire of the Rising Sun was growing, and forcing China into the shade. #37 This episode is China & Japan & the Hermit Kingdom    Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. In the early 1860's, before Emperor Meiji took to the throne, the Japanese sought to establish diplomatic relations with China. The Japanese regarded China as an enormous nation that could provide markets for their merchants, but more importantly, China could cooperate with Japan in the face of Western challenges. Who better to help thwart off the west, than Big Brother? In October of 1870, the Japanese official Date Munenari went to Tianjin to meet Li Hongzhang to see if they could open formal diplomatic relations. Li Hongzhang believed in the value of establishing relations with Japan and the importance for China to modernize and self-strengthen. Li Hongzhang admired Japan for preventing westerners from invading their nation and limiting the activities of westerners within her borders. The meeting was a cordial one, both sides saw common interest in working together to resist the west. In 1871 on September 13th, Li Hongzhang and Date Munenari signed the Friendship and Trade Treaty, the first diplomatic document between China and Japan in modern history. Li Hongzhang agreed that the two nations would not launch aggression against another and that if either nation were involved in a conflict with an outside power the other would come to their assistance. It sounded a lot like Pan-Asia unity was atleast on its way, but before the treaty could be ratified the Japanese tried to eliminate the clause to provide assistance and added a new clause, that Japan would be given most favored nation, thus giving Japan the same rights that the western nations had forced upon China, yes it was an unequal treaty clause. As you can imagine Li Hongzhang was greatly annoyed by this and delayed the ratification to try and get the Japanese to back down. By May of 1873 the Japanese yielded, accepting the mutual assistance clause and abandoned the most favored nation clause. Leaders of China and Japan than expressed that their nations shared common culture and were a common race “Tongwen, Tongzu - Dobun, Doshu” and thus they shared an interest in working together to respond to the threat of the west. When this treaty was signed, the Iwakura mission had not yet returned to Japan, but Emperor Meiji had assigned Japans foreign minister, Soejima Taneoimi to go to China to learn about her position on the issue of the Ryukyus and Taiwan. Japan had interests in them and knew this would lead to conflict with the Qing. Soejima was an expert on the Chinese classics and skilled at Chinese poetry. Thus when he went over and the Chinese hosts began to make it clear Japan was in a supplicant relationship with China because she held the Chinese emperor, Soejima used his knowledge to wedge Japan into a special position. He came to Tianjin and met with Li Hongzhang. Famously when they met, Li Hongzhang was in traditional clothing, while Soejima was in western attire and Li criticized him for this. Soejima then went to Beijing and waited several days trying to get an audience with high level Qing officials. The Qing were greatly angered by Japanese attempt to get most favored nation status in the treaty. Thus they were really trying to hammer in that Japan was the supplicant to China. Soejima was upset at the condescension with which he was treated. He quoted the Duke of Zhou stating to the Qing “If you treat [foreigners] as barbarians, they will be just that, but if you treat them as true gentlemen, they will indeed become true gentlemen.” Soejima was the first Japanese person in modern times to meet the Qing emperor. Prince Gong greeted him and told Soejima he would not have to kowtow before the emperor. The kowtow issue had actually been resolved because Western diplomats had made too many problems of it, by proxy Japan would not have to either. The Qing made an effort to show respect to Soejima by seeing him before other foreign diplomats and allowed him to bow just 3 times. Soejima was wine and dined by Li Hongzhang in Tianjin later, it was extremely cordial and there was goodwill between the men. Soejima's experience in China had him returning to Japan confident that China would not stop Japan from expanding her trading activities in the Ryukyus and China. Japan then prepared a legation staff to China and established a formal diplomatic office in Beijing with Mori Arinori as the ambassador. Li Hongzhang advocated that Beijing should establish a legation in Japan, arguing that if China had had a legation there they could have prevented Japan from attacking Taiwan in 1874. China's legation staff would arrive in Tokyo in december of 1877, again slow to the mark. Li Hongzhang was cautious about Japanese intentions now and in 1876 met with Mori Arinori. They shared concerns over Russian advances and Li Hongzhang suggested to Mori Arinori that their nations should cooperate on matters in Korea.  Japan was focusing efforts to strengthen its northern island against possible Russian threats. They viewed Sakhalin, Manchuria and Korea to be regions of national security concern. While Japan worried about Russia encroaching on Hokkaido from the sea, China worried about Russia encroaching on its northeast region. Although the trans-siberian railway only began construction in 1891 their efforts to settle people across Siberia in preparation for its construction began much earlier. The Qing had not allowed non Manchu people to reside in their homeland of Manchuria since conquering the Ming dynasty centuries before. To strengthen resistance against Russia, in 1878 the Qing changed their immigration policy to allow and even encourage non-Manchu to come to Manchuria. Within a few years many migrants came from various parts of China to settle in Manchuria. Japan likewise was sending settlers to develop Hokkaido, but unlike Japan, the Qing had no real development plans to modernize manchuria.  Soon after Hokkaido began being developed the Japanese next move was to gain control over the Ryukyu islands south of Japan's 4 main islands. This would be the first real tension between Japan and China. From 1862 to the mid 1870s Japan had concentrated on defense and thus things revolved around her 4 main islands. After the mid 1870s however, Japan gained in strength and began to expand their defensive perimeter. The Ryukyu, in Chinese “the Liuqui Kingdom” was led by indigenous peoples who oversaw the small islands stretching between Kyushu and Taiwan. The Ryukyu kingdom tried to fight for its independence by showing good will to both China and Japan and this brought Qing and Tokugawa presence. The Ryukyu kingdom maintained Chinese and Japanese emissaries who came regularly, but never at the same time. The Ryukyu kingdom paid tribute to China and traded with her, thus was influenced heavily by her. However culturally the Ryukyu were closer to Japan and Satsuma domain in particular had a large influence on her.  From 1871 to 1874, Japan used a shipwreck incident involving some Ryukyu fisherman off the coast of Taiwan to strengthen her rights to govern the Ryukyu islands. In 1871 Ryukyu fisherman in 4 small boats got stuck in a typhoon sinking 1, shipwrecking 2 and 1 remained afloat. The survivors made their way ashore on Taiwan where 44 of them were killed by Taiwanese aboriginals. 12 fisherman survived and escaped aboard their last boat back to the Ryukyus. At this time Taiwan was under the control of Fujian province and the Japanese government demanded China compensate the fisherman. This inherently was also the Japanese government claiming the Ryukyu islands to belong to them. For two years the issue went unresolved and in 1874 Japan launched a punitive expedition led by Saigo Tsugumichi, the brother to the famous last Samurai Saigo Takamori. If you are interested in the story of Saigo by the way over at the Pacific War channel I have an episode dedicated to the Satsuma Rebellion, what inspired the film the Last Samurai, though that movie is sort of a mix between the Boshin War and the Satsuma rebellion, still good movie just not historically accurate. Well the Qing officials explained to the Japanese that the Taiwanese were not technically under Qing control and that the Ryukyu islands were actually under Qing jurisdiction. The Japanese expeditionary forces remained on Taiwan, intentionally to intimidate China.  Soejima and the official Okubo Toshimichi went to China to discuss the issue and under pressure the Qing officials agreed to pay compensation to Japan for the Ryukyu sailors, but later stated they were unaware the payment would also provide Japan with support for her claim over the Ryukyu islands. Li Hongzhang was livid over this betrayal and stated that while the Europeans were at least honest in their negotiations, the Japanese were duplicitous. By the mid 1870's the Japanese and Chinese militaries both increased their presence in the Ryukyus. Then in 1879 during the process of abolishing the old feudal domains to replace them with prefectures, Japan officially recognized the Ryukyu islands as the prefecture we know today as Okinawa. Japan followed this up by ordering Okinawa to stop sending tribute to China. Now Li Hongzhang had supported relations with Japan, even with their incursions in Taiwan in 1874 and their swindle of treaty deals, but in 1880 China refused Japan's official proposal concerning the Ryukyus. China however did not follow this up militarily. The problems between China and Japan would only worsen and it would be Korea stuck in the middle. Japan's interests in Korea were both for security and economic. Of all the territories near Japan, Korea was the most significant strategic area. She was in the vortex of Russia, China and Japan. Korea had also been the crux of two military clashes between Japan and China in 661-663 and 1592-1598. Alongside that Korea had been the staging area for the failed Mongol invasions of Japan in 1274-1281. The German military adviser to Japan, Major Jacob Meckle stated that Korea was “a dagger thrust at the heart of Japan” and this had a profound effect on Japanese strategists. Japan was concerned other nations, like Russia, would use Korea as a base from which to attack Japan. Yet if Japan could establish a military presence on the peninsula, well that would prevent this from ever occurring.  Historically Japan had dealt with Korea, better called the Joseon dynasty through the Tsushima islands and Pusan island. Both Korea and Japan took up isolationist policies and much like Nagisaki acted as Japan's open port for so long, Korea kept Pusan as its open port. During the Sakoku period, Japan gave the Tsushima domain the responsibility of dealing with Korea. There had always been limited trade between the two nations, but things certainly changed after Japan kicked off its Meiji restoration. Japan had looked to nations like Britain as an example of how to build a strong economy. This led Japanese officials to seek a relationship like Britain had when it came to economic activity. To manufacture products, sell it to its colonies and build up its own economy. Their idea for this was to import soybeans and wheat from Korea and sell Korea industrial products. Initially Japan's only major export was raw silk, so they decided to try exporting silk textiles. In late 1869 a Japanese representative from Tsushima was sent to Pusan to announce Japan was to have a new emperor, standard stuff. What was not standard however was in the letter sent to the Koreans the term for the Japanese emperor used the Ko character rather than Taikun. The Ko character was used to refer to the Qing emperor, implying the Joseon Dynasty's emperor was inferior. By using the Ko character for the Japanese emperor, Japan was trying to establish the same relationship. And so the Korean officials refused to receive the new representative and his mission as a result. The Koreans wanted to remain in the sinocentric world as tributaries to the Qing. This fiasco led to the legendary Seikanron debates, in which Saigo Takamori argued Japan should perform a punitive expedition against Korea, again if you want to hear more about that hilarious tale check out my Satsuma Rebellion episode on the Pacific War channel. Long story short, the Japanese leadership knew they were not yet strong enough to embark on such a venture so they blocked Saigo's motion. Now Japan did not simply give up on the Korean situation, they kept trying to send envoys to force Korea to recognize the equality between Japan and China. In the meantime in 1875, the steam gunboat Un'yo under the command of Inoue Yoshika was dispatched to survey the Korean coastal water. On the morning of September the 20th, Inoue put ashore a party on the island of Ganghwa to request water and provisions and here came a major conflict. Ganghwa had quite recently been the place of two major conflicts, a French expedition against Korea occurred in 1871 and an American expedition the same year. Thus the men manning the fortifications at Ganghwa were trigger happy with fresh memories of what foreign ships could do to them. When the Japanese came ashore, the Korean shore batteries fired upon the Un'yo.  The Japanese as you might imagine were really pissed off and they quickly dispatched 32 men, 10 marines, 19 sailors and 3 officers to attack Yeongjong fort. The men landed near the eastern gate of the fortress and immediately white coated Joseon defenders began firing their antiquated matchlocks and some arrows down upon the Japanese. A Japanese sailor was wounded by a matchlock ball and another was hit in the groin by an arrow. The Japanese pressed their attack climbing over a wall to open the gates as their marines rushed into the fort. The Un'yo fired its 6.3 in and 5.5 in deck guns to support the assault. The Koreans tried to flee through their western gate only to run into 6 Japanese sailors who ambushed them. Kawamura Kwanshu, a Japanese officer present had this to say "they clambered down the steep bank on the south-eastern side, and in hopes of escaping to the opposite island … they stripped off their clothes and plunged into the sea. Unfortunately, the tide was high and too deep to wade across. Many of them hesitated and  we fired on them without mercy ― 24 Koreans were killed on the rocks and many more drowned trying to swim to safety. Only six or seven were seen making it safely ashore on the distant island.” The commander of the fort, Yi Min-dok managed to escape as the Japanese plundered the fort which Kawamura tells us " We took 36 bronze cannons and a drum nearly 6 feet in diameter. In addition to this there were four drums three feet in diameter. Their trumpets were very like toy trumpets used by children in Japan. Their bows also were very like the Japanese. Their arrows were exactly like those in Japan. The swords were numerous, but they must have been bought in Japan. The guns were all matchlocks. Among the booty was a French book on gunnery translated into Chinese." Many Koreans were captured and they were forced to carry the plunder to the Un'yo as the Rising Sun flag was raised over the fort. The Japanese held the island awaiting a challenge from Korea, but none came. The next day the Un'yo returned to Japan leaving Yeongjong in ruins. The entire ordeal turned into an implicit threat to Korea, if they refused to recognize Japan's claim and open up relations Japan would use its military might.  Within Japan, the Korea incidents had gone hand in hand with the Satsuma rebellion of 1877 to push the Japanese public to support military action in Korea. The Meiji leadership were under pressure, but they hoped to avoid conflict by resolving such problems through diplomacy. Li Hongzhang perceived that if Japan were to invade Korea, this might provoke Russia to respond and thus China also wanted to resolve such issues through diplomacy. The Qing dynasty officially held suzerainty over the Joseon Dynasty, thus they held the right to approve Korea's foreign policy decisions but not to interfere with her domestic affairs. For centuries China held this right, but did not exercise it. Then in 1875, Mori Arinori was sent to Beijing seeking Qing support to open trade between Japan and Korea. Mori Arinori met with the Qing office for general management of affairs concerning the various countries, what a mouthful, known as the Zongli Yamen. The Zongli Yamen officials stated while Korea was a Chinese dependency, China still could not interfere with her domestic affairs and thus could not demand she open up trade with Japan. So the next year Mori Arinori met with Li Hongzhang over the issue and both men sought a peaceful agreement. Mori Arinori advocated for Korea to be treated under international law as a sovereign state. Now Ito Hirobumi the rising political leader of Japan during this time believed progress could not be made opening Korea up by working with the Qing. He urged his colleagues that Japan should work with Korea directly instead. Korea at this time was going through some major changes as well. The young Emperor Gojong turned 21 years old in 1873 and replaced his father Yi Ha-eung who was the Heungseon Daewongun, basically a regent ruling the dynasty. His father was a conservative with a very simple foreign policy it went like this according to the American Historian Bruce Cummings “no treaties, no trade, no catholics, no west and no Japan”. Yes the Daewongun liked his isolationist policy and he was not wrong about doing so. By keeping Korea as bottled up as possible he was able to keep the western powers arguably out for quite some time. However the problem with this was while keeping the west out you were also hindering chances at modernization and an industrial revolution. Korea was known as the Hermit Kingdom and while she tried her best to keep the world out, the world eventually would come crashing in.  When Gojong came into power in 1873, unlike his father he was much more willing to consider opening up and working with the Japanese. Now alongside Gojong was his wife, the famous Empress Myeongseong, also called Empress Min. She was born to the Yeoheung Min Clan in 1851. They were a noble clan who historically held high positions in the Joseon dynasty. She lost her father at age 7 and was raised by her mother and other Min relatives. When Gojong turned 15, his father sought a wife for him. He wanted someone with no close relatives so she could not harbor much political ambitions, but came from a noble lineage. He rejected many, until he found the orphaned Min who was beautiful and of ordinary level of education. She was married to Gojong and after Daewongun realized the empress had political ambitions. Daewongun had this to say of her “she was a woman of great determination and poise”, despite this he paid little mind to her and things moved on. Empress Min would quickly ruffle feathers so to speak. She showed herself to be very assertive and ambitious. She did not toss lavish parties for the nobles nor participated in the normal extravagant lifestyle, you know wine and dining, tea parties with the princes and princesses all that jazz you see in the Crown. No instead she spent a lot of her time self educating, reading books reserved for men. She studied history, science, politics, the works.  By the age of 20 she began trying to play an active role in politics in spite of the Daewongun and other officials trying to stop her. She then bore child prematurely who died 4 days after birth. This prompted the Daewongun to state publicly that she was unable to bear a healthy male child, which became quite a public scandal. Queen Min even suspected her father in law had slipped her ginseng to cause her pregnancy issues. Daewongun proceeded to push his son to conceive a child through a concubine called Yi Gwi-in and she soon gave birth to Prince Wanhwa. Daewongun quickly tossed the title of crown prince upon the child and it looked like the jig was up for Empress Min. However Empress Min secretly began to form a powerful faction against the Daewongun. The faction included high officials, scholars, members of the Min Clan and they made a move to remove the Daewongun from power. Empress Min's adoptive older brother, Min Seung-Ho along with the Joseon court scholar Choe Ik-Hyeon formally impeached the Daewongun arguing that Gojong, then age 22 should rule in his own right. The royal council agreed to this and Daewongun was forced to retire. The second he was out of the picture, Empress Min banished Yi Gwi-in and her child to a village outside the capital and stripped them of royal titles. The child also died on january 12th of 1880. Now Empress Min had control over the Joseon court and quickly appointed trusted family members in high court positions to assert her dominant role as Queen consort. So yeah she was a firebrand of a woman, a very interesting character, I do apologize my knowledge of Korean history is limited, but I do recommend if you are into Korean tv series there are quite a few on her like Empress Myeongseong from 2001. Now just a few months after the Un'yo incident, Japan sent an emissary to Korea to push a treaty. It was the exact same type of situation Japan faced when Commodore Matthew Perry's blackships, gunboat diplomacy. King Gojong signed what became known as the Ganghwa Treaty: this opened up 3 Korean ports to Japan, one at Pusan right away, one Wonsan in 1880 and another at Inchon and 1883. The treaty was an unequal treaty, very much in the same light as the ones forced upon Japan by western nations. The treaty had ended the Joseon dynasties tributary status under the Qing dynasty now she was an independent state. The Chinese were now suspecting Japan sought a presence on the peninsula and Li Hongzhang openly expressed fears that Japan might develop territorial ambitions on the mainland. The Chinese and Japanese continued talks about cooperation against the West, especially Russia, but they were also now quite wary of another. Now Korea was not idle during all of this and her officials sought a way to secure her. King Gojong sent a mission to Japan headed by Kim Hong-jip. Kim Hong-jip was presented a plan by a Chinese diplomat named Huang Zunxian there called “a strategy for Korea”. It warned that if Korea was threatened by an empire like Russia, Korea should maintain friendly relations with Japan, China and seek an alliance with the United States to counterweight Russia. Kim reported this to King Gojong who was impressed with the plan. Then in 1880 following the Chinese advice King Gojong established diplomatic ties with the US. Negotiations began between all the nations in Tianjin and the Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce and navigation was signed by Korea and the US. However during the negotiations, issues rose up. The Chinese insisted that Korea was not independent and still a dependency of China. America firmly opposed such a thing, stating the new treaty should build upon the Treaty of Ganghwa which stipulated Korea as an independent state. A compromise was made between China and the US stipulating that Korea held a special status as a tributary state of China. Now as of 1879, China had given Li Hongzhang responsibility for relations with Korea. Li Hongzhang urged Korean officials to adopt China's self-strengthening program to do the same for their nation in response to foreign threats. Korea after all had just opened herself to the world and now would pursue modernization under a doctrine known as tongdo sogi “eastern wars and western machines”. To modernize Korea would incorporate western technology while trying to preserve her culture, it was much alike to the Meiji restoration. In 1881 Korea established the T'ongni kimu amun “office for extraordinary affairs” modeled on the Qing administrative structures. That same year a mission was sent to Japan to see their modernized factories, military, and education system. Korea then hired a Japanese military attache, Lt Horimoto Reizo to help create a modern army for Korea. This led to the Pyolgigun “special skills force”, where around 100 men of Korea's aristocracy were given Japanese military training.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Trouble was brewing between the Qing dynasty and the Empire of the Rising Sun. It seemed the Hermit Kingdom of Korea was a continuous source of conflict for the two empires, and perhaps might drag them into a war that would change the balance of power in Asia forever

Join us today as we discuss how the Korean War began and the defense of Pusan. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Link to full transcript at https://www.fluentfiction.org/... Fluent Fiction - Koreanwww.FluentFiction.org/Korean Pusan: A Life-Changing Journey Story Transcript: Ko: 항상 어머니의 고향을 방문하고 싶었던 소은이는 이제 대한민국 부산의 심장부인 이곳에 왔습니다. En: So-eun had always wanted to visit her mother's hometown and now here she was: in the heart of Pusan, South Korea. Ko: 소은은 드디어 부산에 왔다는 사실이 믿기지 않았다. En: So-eun couldn't believe she was finally in Pusan. Ko: 그녀는 수년 동안 이 여행을 꿈꿔왔고 지금 여기에 있습니다. En: She had been dreaming of this trip for years and now here she was. Ko: 그리고 그녀는 처음으로 어머니의 가족을 만나려고 했습니다. En: And she was about to meet her mother's family for the very first time. Ko: 소은은 한국 앞바다에 있는 섬 제주에서 태어나고 자랐다. En: So-eun was born and raised in Jeju, an island off the coast of South Korea. Ko: 그녀는 몇 년 동안 집을 떠나 있었지만 그녀와 그녀의 어머니는 긴밀한 연락을 유지했습니다. En: Although she'd been away from home for years, she and her mother had kept in close contact. Ko: 소은은 엄마에게 기회가 되면 부산에 가겠다고 약속했었다. En: So-eun had promised her mother that she would visit Pusan when she had the chance. Ko: 지금 그녀는 외가집 앞에 서 있었다. En: Now, here she was, standing in front of her mother's family's home. Ko: 그녀는 긴장했지만 흥분했습니다. En: She was nervous but excited. Ko: 그녀는 그들이 두 팔 벌려 그녀를 환영할 것이라는 것을 알았습니다. En: She knew they would welcome her with open arms. Ko: 소은이 안으로 들어서자 어머니 가족의 따뜻함과 환대에 압도당했다. En: When So-eun stepped inside, she was overwhelmed by the warmth and hospitality of her mother's family. Ko: 그들은 두 팔을 벌려 그녀를 환영했고 그녀가 그들 중 하나인 것처럼 대했습니다. En: They welcomed her with open arms and treated her like she was one of their own. Ko: 그런 다음 가족은 소은을 초대하여 전통 음식을 준비했습니다. En: The family then invited So-eun to help prepare a traditional meal. Ko: 소은이는 어머니의 문화와 전에 맛보지 못한 전통 조리법을 배울 수 있는 기회를 갖게 되어 감격했습니다. En: So-eun was thrilled to have the opportunity to learn about her mother's culture and the traditional recipes that she had not tasted before. Ko: 그녀는 그녀가 할 수 있는 한 많은 것을 돕고 배우기를 간절히 원했습니다. En: She was eager to help and learn as much as she could. Ko: 소은이는 외가 식구들과 함께 식사를 준비했다. En: So-eun and her mother's family worked together to prepare the meal. Ko: 모두가 완료해야 할 작업이 있었기 때문에 사랑의 노동이었습니다. En: It was a labor of love as everyone had their own tasks to complete. Ko: 소은은 잘게 썰고, 섞고, 볶고, 볶으면서도 요리 과정의 모든 세부 사항을 흡수합니다. En: So-eun chopped, mixed, stirred, and sautéed while also absorbing every detail of the cooking process. Ko: 식사가 준비되자 온 가족이 모여 멋진 축제를 즐겼습니다. En: Once the meal was ready, the family gathered together to enjoy a wonderful celebration. Ko: 모두가 소은의 요리 실력과 그녀가 도와준 맛있는 음식에 감탄했습니다. En: Everyone was impressed by So-eun's cooking abilities and the delicious food she had helped create. Ko: 식사를 마친 소은은 외가 식구들의 환대에 감사 인사를 전했다. En: At the end of the meal, So-eun thanked her mother's family for their hospitality. Ko: 그녀는 그들에게 자신이 집에 온 것을 환영하고 어머니의 문화에 대해 배울 수 있는 기회를 갖게 되어 얼마나 감사한지 말했습니다. En: She told them how grateful she was to have been welcomed into their home and to have had the opportunity to learn about her mother's culture. Ko: 소은은 작별인사를 하면서 외가와의 끈끈한 유대감을 느꼈다. En: As So-eun said her goodbyes, she felt a strong connection to her mother's family. Ko: 그녀는 자신이 겪은 경험에 대해 기쁨과 감사로 가득 찼습니다. En: She was filled with joy and appreciation for the experience she had had. Ko: 그녀는 자신이 부산에서 만든 추억을 영원히 간직할 것임을 알고 있었습니다. En: She knew that she would always cherish the memories she had made in Pusan. Ko: 부산에 있는 외가를 방문한 경험은 소은에게 인생을 바꾸는 경험이었다. En: The experience of visiting her mother's family in Pusan was a life-changing one for So-eun. Ko: 그녀는 전에 맛보지 못한 어머니의 문화와 전통 조리법에 대해 많은 것을 배웠습니다. En: She had learned so much about her mother's culture and the traditional recipes that she had not tasted before. Ko: 그녀는 또한 어머니의 가족과 강한 유대 관계를 맺었으며 어머니와 더 깊은 유대 관계를 형성했습니다. En: She had also made a strong connection with her mother's family and had formed a deeper bond with her mother. Ko: 한동안 제주를 떠나 있던 소은이는 어머니의 문화에 대한 새로운 감사와 이해를 안고 집으로 돌아가고 있었다. En: So-eun had been away from Jeju for a while, but now she was returning home with a newfound appreciation and understanding of her mother's culture. Ko: 그녀는 부산에서의 경험에 영원히 감사할 것입니다. En: She would forever be grateful for the experience she had in Pusan. Vocabulary Words: 소은 : So-eun 부산 : Pusan 제주 : Jeju 방문 : visit 심장부 : heart 어머니 : mother 고향 : hometown 꿈꿔 : dreaming 가족 : family 자랐 : raised 긴밀한 : close 연락 : contact 약속했 : promised 압도당 : overwhelmed 따뜻함 : warmth 환대 : hospitality 중 하나인 : own 초대 : invited 전통 : traditional 조리법 : recipe 준비 : prepare 흡수 : absorbing 노동 : labor 사랑 : love 작업 : tasks 썰 : chop 섞 : mix 볶 : stir 볶 : sauté 감탄 : impressed 감사 : grateful 감사 : appreciation 유대감 : connection

Rolf Potts is a Travel Writer, Essayist, Adventurer and Teacher best known for promoting the ethic of independent travel. This American author has been through adventures on all six continents. Things like traversing Israel on foot, bicycling across Burma and driving a Land Rover across South America are on his list, but there's so much more to it. He's gathered teachings from all over the place and written amazing books about it. His bestselling debut book, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel, has been through thirty-five printings and translated into several languages worldwide. Potts has, over the years, felt somewhat at home in places like Bangkok, Cairo, Pusan, New Orleans, New York, and Paris, where he runs a series of creative writing classes each summer. He is based in north-central Kansas, where he keeps a small farmhouse on 30 acres with his wife, Kansas-born actress Kristen Bush.

Long Intro   China is one of the world's four ancient civilizations, alongside Mesopotamia, the Indus valley and Egypt. It has a written history dating as far back as the Shang Dynasty, that's around 1600 BC, over 3000 years ago! Now as you can also imagine  you are not getting the full rundown of the entire history of China, it's simply too immense for the overall story we are getting into. The story I want to tell has been termed by scholars, “the century of humiliation” dating 1839 until 1949. During this period China or better called the Qing Dynasty and later Republic of China faced terrible and humiliating subjugation by Western powers and the Empire of Japan.The story we are going to begin today is one of pain and hardship, but it is also a tale of endurance and resilience that created the China we see today.    This is the Fall and Rise of China Podcast I am going to let you in on a little secret, I myself am quite new to the vast history of China. As some of you listeners might already know, I am the writer and narrator of the Pacific War Podcast week by week. I specialize in the Pacific War and Japanese history and I ventured into a journey to explain everything that is the Pacific War of 1937-1945 when I began my personal Channel called the Pacific War Channel on Youtube. Yet when I sat down to begin writing about the history of Tokugawa Japan and how Japan would find itself on a path towards virtual oblivion, I thought to myself, well what about China? This is when I fell down a rabbit hole that is 19th century China. I immediately fell in love with it. I am a westerner, a Canadian, this was knowledge not usually told on my side of the world. So I thought, what are the most important events that made the China we see emerging during the Pacific War, or to be more accurate the Second Sino-Japanese War? I fell upon the first opium war, by the time I read a few books on that, it was the second opium war, then the Taiping Rebellion, the Nian Rebellion, the Boxer rebellion, the list goes on and on. 19th Century China is one of the most fascinating albeit traumatic episodes of human history and has everything to do with the formation of the China we see today. The term a century of humiliation or 100 years of humiliation is how many Chinese historians describe the time period between the First Opium War and the end of the Chinese Civil War. I do not speak the language nor have a full understanding of the culture, I am a lifelong learner and continue to educate myself on the history of one of the most ancient peoples of our world. This will be a long and honestly difficult story to tell, but I welcome you to join me on this journey.   Stating all that I want to begin our journey explaining how the Ming Dynasty fell and the Qing Dynasty rose up.  This episode is the rise of Nurhaci Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.   The Ming-Qing transition is a story filled with drama and corruption, heroes and villains, traitors and martyrs. Peasant rebellions, corrupt politicians and terrifying invaders would eventually collapse what was the Ming dynasty.   The Ming Dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China between 1368 and 1644. It would be the last dynasty to be ruled by Han Chinese. They had overthrown the Mongol led Yuan dynasty of 1271-1368 which fell for a plethora of reasons such as class conflict caused by heavy taxation and ethnic conflicts. During the entire history of China, there is always room for rebellions, and quite a number of Han revolts would occur such as the Red Turban rebellion beginning in 1351. Now amongst these many rebellions taking place there was Zhu Yuanzhang a man born into a impoverished peasant family in Zhongli county, present day Fengyang of Anhui Province. He had 7 older siblings, of which several were sold off by his parents because there was not enough food to go around. When he was 16, a severe drought ruined his family's harvest and this was accompanied by a plague that took the lives of both his parents and all his siblings, save for one brother.  Around this time the Yellow River dykes had flooded causing a widespread famine. More than 7 million people would starve as a result of the drought and famine in central and northern China. The now orphan Zhu would then dedicate his life to become a buddhist monk at the Huangjue Monastery near Fenyang to avoid starvation, which was a common practice of the poor. Then the monastery where he lived was destroyed by an army suppressing a rebellion. I would say enough had been enough for Zhu because this prompted him in 1352 to join a local rebel group associated with the White Lotus Society against the Yuan Dynasty. So he began to live a life as a bandit, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor as it's said. The leader of the rebel group was a man named Guo Zixing who led an attack to capture Haozhou. Zuo became his second in command and took on the name Zhu Yuanzhang. Guo quickly began to see the rising star that was Zhu as a rival, but would eventually die in 1355, leaving Zhu to take leadership of the rebel army. Zhu attacked and captured towns and cities in eastern China and as Zhu did this he also found scholars who could educate him. This allowed Zhu to learn the principles of good governance and soon his abilities were beginning to show. This local rebel group in turn eventually joined the larger Red Turban Army rebels against the Yuan Dynasty. Eventually young Zhu rose through the ranks and would emerge the leader of the rebellion. Zhu early on ordered the scholars in his ranks to portray him as a national leader against the Mongols rathan that just a popular rebel.  In 1356 Zhu's forces captured the strategic city of Nanjing which would become the future capital of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu would then emerge as the national leader against the Mongols, though he had rivals such as Chen Youliang based in Wuchang and Zhang Shicheng based in Pingjiang. Both rivals declared themselves leaders of new dynasties, Chen as emperor of the Han dynasty, Zhang as a prince of the Zhou dynasty. Zhu managed to defeat Chen's naval forces at Lake Poyang in 1363 and Chen would die with the destruction of that fleet. With the conquest of Chen's holdings at Wuhang, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi, Zhu soon proclaimed himself a Prince of Wu. Then Zhu was able to capture Zhang Shicheng who committed suicide, after this many rebel groups fell into submission. After continuing the fight against the Yuan and other warlords until 1368 when he then proclaimed himself emperor of the Ming Dynasty adopting the name Hongwu meaning “vastly martial”, though he is more correctly referred to as the Taizu emperor.    Emperor Hongwu sent out his armies to conquer the north while provinces in China submitted to his rule. The northwest was first to fall, followed by the southwest and by 1382 unification would be complete. Under his rule, the Mongol bureaucracy that had dominated the Yuan dynasty were replaced with Han Chinese officials. He re-instituted the imperial Examination, something that had roots going as far back as the Three Kingdoms period. He began major projects such as a long city wall around Nanjing. Now Hongwu was a very paranoid, cruel and even irrational ruler and this would increase as he aged. Upon taking power he immediately transformed the palace guards into a quasi secret police force and began a massive campaign to root out anyone who might threaten his authority. Hongwu set his secret police to work which resulted in a 14 year campaign of terror. In 1380, the prime minister Hu Weiyong was found to be plotting a coup to take the throne, he would be executed alongside 30,000 or so officials. Hongwu would abolish the prime minister and chancellor roles in government. Yet this did not satisfy him and 2 subsequent campaigns would occur resulting in the killing of 70,000 other people ranging from government officials all the way down to servants, your typical new emperor stuff.    Emperor Hongwu began a process of stationing members of his royal family all across the empire. He did after all have 26 sons, wow, and those who survived long enough became princes and were assigned a territory and military to rule. This system he built up would have some dire consequences down the road. Now just because Hongwu had overthrown the Mongol led Yuan dynasty and drove them up north, but this did not mean they were gone. Zhu envisioned early into his reign a border policy where mobile armies along the northern frontier would guard against the Mongol threat. Adding to this he wanted 8 outer garrisons near the steppe and a system of forts and other defensive structures. The inner line of this defense would end up being the  Ming Great Wall, part of the Great Wall of China. Manchuria and parts of outer mongolia remained under the control of Mongols and they held what is called the Northern Yuan dynasty. They too would be conquered by Hongwu's forces and after the emperor's death would be “complacent”, though they would claim to still be the legitimate heirs to the throne. Speaking of heirs to the throne, Hongwu would eventually die and he was succeeded by his 15 year old grandson Zhu Yunwen who would take up the title Jianwen Emperor in 1398.    Now Hongwu had chosen Zhu Yunwen to succeed him, but as is common throughout history, there would be someone else who would vie for the position. Now following somewhat in his grandfather's footsteps, the Jianwen Emperor began his emperorship by trying to limit the power of those who could threaten him, IE: his family. One of the first edicts he would make was for his uncles to remain in their respective territories, while he simultaneously began to effectively reduce their military capabilities. The first uncle he threw proposals at held the largest territory and most powerful military, he was Zhu Di the Prince of Yan and he simply refused the proposals. Then Jianwen arrested one uncle on treason charges, stripped his family of their royal status and exiled them. Jianwen followed this up by doing the same thing to 4 more uncles. Well as you can imagine a rift began to emerge between the families being targeted and that of Jianwen, so the Prince of Yan, Zhu Di who was the eldest surviving uncle and had the most formidable military assumed leadership amongst the targeted families. This prompted Jianwan to appoint several officials to go to current day Beijing where Zhu Di was stationed to stop his uncle from allegedly planning a coup. Zhu Di feinted being ill to illude the officials, but they reported back to the Emperor they thought a coup was about to occur. Thus the emperor gave the order to arrest his uncle at court, but a official at court leaked this information to Zhu Di.   Zhu Di soon began a rebellion against his nephew which led to a 3 year civil war (also known as the Jingnan Rebellion). This all cultivated in the end with Zhu Di personally leading his forces to take the imperial palace in Nanjing. Allegedly, Emperor Jianwen set the imperial palace on fire in his own despair. His body was never located and it is alleged he may have made an escape and went into exile. Zhu Di regardless held a imperial funeral for his nephew and was crowned the new Yongle Emperor which means “perpetual happiness”.    The Reign of Yongle is considered a second founding of the Ming Dynasty because of the enormous amount of achievements made. Nanjing was demoted to a secondary capital and now Beijing was made the main one. Yongle began the construction of the Imperial City and Forbidden City employing hundreds of thousands of workers. He decided to build a treasure fleet in 1403 and from 1405 to 1433 there were 7 maritime expeditions undertaken by the Ming treasure fleet. The ambitious project resulted in the construction of upto almost 3000 ships and expanded the Chinese tributary system to other countries as far as India, the Persian Gulf and east coast of Africa. An entire podcast could be dedicated to the Ming treasure voyages alone.   Yongle would stage 5 giant campaigns against the Mongols and Oirats north of the Great Wall which in turn would lead to more building up of the Great Wall of China throughout the 15th to 16th century. Indeed Emperor Yongle's efforts allowed the empire to be stable and prosperous for a century before it began to weaken. After Yongle the 6th & 8th Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Zhengtong and yes you heard that right 6th and 8th allow me to explain. Emperor Zhengtong was encouraged by an influential court eunuch named Wang Zhen to lead a force personally to face off against the Oirats of the Northern Yuan dynasty leaving his half-brother Zhu Qiyu in charge temporarily. The Oirats had begun a 3 pronged invasion of the Ming dynasty At the age of 21, Emperor Zhengtong personally led the battle of Tumu Fortress against the Oirat leader, Esen Taishi. He lost one of the most humiliating battles in Chinese history, some rather ridiculous sources state half a million Ming forces fell to a Oirat cavalry force of just 20,000. Zhengtong was captured by Esen Taishi and held for ransom leading to what is called the Tumu Crisis. In the meantime his brother took the throne as the Jingtai Emperor. Zhengtong would eventually be released in the year of 1450 and return home, only to be put under immediate house arrest by the Jingtai Emperor for 7 years. Jingtai would be succeeded by Zhengtons son as the Chenghua Emperor, but Jingtai stripped him of his royal title and installed his own son as heir. That son died and the Jingtai Emperor would follow soon as the former Zhengtong Emperor led a palace coup against him. The Zhengtong emperor seized the throne and changed his regnal name to Tianshun meaning “obedience to Heaven”, then he demoted Jingtai to the status of a Prince and ruled for around 7 years. So yeah that's how you become Emperor twice apparently.    The Ming Dynasty was a very impressive empire and would be one of the most stable and longest ruling periods in Chinese history. Many enormous achievements were made by the Ming, as I mentioned they built up a large part of the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City and led 7 massive voyages with the treasure fleet, but there was much much more. They created woodblock color printing and China's first metal movable type printing created by the Ming scholar Hua Sui in 1490. The first book printed using the technique was Zhu Chen Zou Yi. Alongside that the most comprehensible medical book ever written by Li Shizhen in 1578 about traditional Chinese Medicine, Compendium of Materia Medica (Bencao Gangmu). Another book was published during the Ming period and was called “Journey to the West” in 1592 by Wu Cheng'en and is considered one of the 4 great classical novels of Chinese literature. It built upon the accounts of the pilgrimage of the Tang Dynasty's Buddhist monk Xuanzang who traveled to Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent searching for sutras.   The economy of the Ming Dynasty was the largest in the world, following in the steps of the Han and Song periods to become known as one of China's 3 golden ages. With a massive agricultural surplus, porcelain goods and silk led to silver pouring into China. Speaking of porcelain it was one of the most loved exports of the Ming as they had perfected the technique built up during the Tang Dynasty. The blue and white porcelain became extremely popular in Europe. Speaking of Europe, while the Ming made such incredible achievements, one department they did less well in seems to be in terms of scientific discovery. The Ming Dynasty was characterized to be generally conservative and very inward looking, hard to blame them though when they were basically one of if not the pillars of the world. The west and east were not as isolated as one would think and the Ming by no means opened any relatively new relations with the west. For example there is evidence to support that Roman merchants during the reign of Marcus Aurelius had ventured as far as the Han capital city of Luoyang. Yet it would only be much later in history when one particular group made some waves in Ming China and that would be the Portuguese in the 16th century. The first to land on Lintin Island in May of 1513 was the Portuguese explorer Jorge Alvares which was the first time Europeans made contact with China via the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope. Then in 1516, the cousin of the famous Christopher Columbus, Rafael Perestrello became the first known European explorer to land by sea and trade in Guangzhou. The Portuguese would follow this up by attempting an inland delegation in the name of Manuel 1st of Portugal to the court of the Zhengde Emperor. Unfortunately for them the Zhengde Emperor would die in 1521 as they awaited an audience and they ended up being quasi blamed for the Emperor's death and would all be imprisoned for life. Rather hilariously one Simao de Andrade, the brother to the ambassador sent as a delegation, began to rile up the Chinese belief that the Portuguese were trying to kidnap Chinese children, allegedly to cook and eat them. There has been speculations this was all based on the idea Simao was purchasing and or kidnapping chinese children to take them as slaves. Well one thing led to another and the Ming Dynasty found itself enveloped in a small naval battle with the Portuguese naval force of Diogo Calvoin 1521. The Naval battle of Tunmen was the result of the Portuguese sailing up the river to Guangzhou without permission. Allegedly the Portuguese gave a cannon salute when they reached Guangzhou and this friendly gesture was quite alarming to the locals. Well while things were pretty cool for a bit, but then the delegation situation had gone sour at roughly and an edict was made to evict the Portuguese too which the Portuguese refused to comply with. The Portuguese cannons had superior range, but they were easily surrounded by a hoard of ships and the 5 Caravels were forced to use some bad weather to their advantage to flee the scene. By the way the slave purchasing / child kidnapper Simao continued for decades to do business in Xiamen and Ningbo. Eventually he ran into some trouble when he did what he did best, steal children and the locals banded together to slaughter him and those working with him.   Despite this, let's call it minor setback, the Portuguese continued to do limited trade along the Fujian coastline with the help of some rather corrupt local Ming merchants. By 1529 the Portuguese were sending annual trade missions to Shangchuan Island and by the 1550's the Portuguese established firmer feat in Macau where they established a trade colony. The Portuguese even began to help the Chinese fight off the hundreds of pirate ships running havok in the area. They then followed this up by fighting off the Dutch later in the 17th century. This of course would not stop the great Dutch maritime empire from eventually taking over, though the Portuguese found a very lucrative business in becoming middle men when the Japanese were banned from trade with China. The Portuguese would take Chinese silk, hock it for Japanese silver and presto, quite a good hussle.    Things were looking good for the Ming dynasty, but troubles loomed around every corner. One of those corners we hinted to just a bit, that being the Japanese. Japan had stopped sending tribute missions to China in 838 when it was the Tang Dynasty. 6 centuries later, between 1403-1547 the Ming Dynasty was quite powerful and the Japanese shogunate was relatively weak. The founder of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang demanded Japan resume its tributary relationship with China if Japan wanted to trade with China. Japan agreed to recommence the tributary relationship with China believing that the trade would be beneficial and that China's recognition of the shogun as a partner would help to strengthen the shogunate. Thus the tributary relationship continued as of 1403 and it would be almost a century until Japan abandoned it again.   Speaking of Japan, by 1590, Japan's Warring states struggles came to an end when Toyotomi Hideoyosih emerged victorious and unified the nation. Yet soon the ailing leader of Japan, for a platitude of reasons decided to try and invade the Ming Dynasty, but to do so he would need to go through Korea. Historians argue one of the main reasons for the invasion of Korea was so Hideyoshi could keep his troops occupied as he may have feared them returning home would result in another domestic conflict. Hideyoshi did not study his enemy nor the territory his forces would be fighting upon. It really seemed Hideyoshi was in afit of egomania after unifying Japan and became convinced he would be able to conquer China. Now I cannot go into what is collectively known as the Imjin War of 1592-1598, but if you are interested you can check out King's and Generals over at Youtube where they have a few episodes on the event including: Imjin War: Beginning of the Japanese invasion of Korea / Imjin War: Rise of admiral Yi Sun-sin / Noryang Straits 1598.    What you need to know is that Hideyoshi asked, or rather ordered the Joseon Dynasty to allow his forces safe passage to go and invade their allies and protector, the Ming Dynasty. The Koreans gave a prompt no and did not stop Hideyoshi from transporting around 160,000 warriors to Pusan with the intention of marching them through Korea, then Manchuria and straight towards Beijing. This all would see Japan invading and fighting against the Joseon and Ming forces in 2 separate campaigns. Now initially the war went quite well for the Japanese, the Koreans were not prepared and the few thousand Chinese troops dispatched to help them, got stomped around the Yalu river. Well the Ming Emperor Wanli, surprised by the failure of his forces, decided to toss a much larger number of men, very much to the shock of the Japanese. The combined forces of the Ming and Joseon dynasty managed to push the Japanese out of the Korean peninsula. A cool fact of this war by the way was how the Koreans designed these armored warships known as turtle ships which held a ton of firepower. The turtle ships under the command of Admiral Yi Sun-sin out maneuvered the Japanese ships and decimated them, thus thwarting the Japanese from sending anymore troopships over to Korea. In the end the Ming Dynasty had quelled the Japanese challenge at their status as the supreme military power in East Asia and also affirmed that the Ming were willing to protect their tributary states like the Joseon Dynasty.  The Japanese by some estimates lost ⅓ their troops during the first year of the war. The cost of the war came at a steep price, it is estimated around 250-300 thousand died, perhaps 100,000 Japanese, 185,000 Koreans and 29,000 Chinese. And while that is truly horrible, the monetary costs were also quite steep, estimates put it in the range of up to 26,000,000 ounces of silver for the Ming Dynasty. Overall the war was a lose-lose situation for Japan, China and Korea. Yet it seems this war had a side effect that would prove to be one of the many nails that would be smashed into what was to become the Ming Dynasty's coffin. For while this venture played out down south in Korea, its effects rippled back all the way up to the Ming Dynasty's northern realm.   During this time period there were 3 major Jurchen tribes, the Wild Jurchens who lived in the most northern part of Manchuria. The Haixi Jurchens, who lived along the Haixi river and the Jianzhou Jurchen, who lives along the Mudan River in the region of Changbaishan. Jerchen by the way is something like a collective name for these people, their ancestors went by another name, the Manchu. They were semi-nomadic people and  heavily influenced by their neighboring Mongols. A Jianzhou Jurchen named Nurhaci had lost both his father Taksi and grandfather Giocangga, when a rival Jurchen chieftain named Nikan Wailan attacked them at Gure in 1582. Nurhaci demanded that the Ming hand over Nikan Wailan to him for execution, but they refused and went as far as considering to declare Nikan Wailan as new Khan of all the Jurchens, believing this would keep them all divided. It goes without saying Nikan Wailan forces were supported by the Ming. The Ming were utilizing the same strategy that had been done since the ancient times to deal with the peoples of the steppe, foster rivalries amongst the tribes and keep them disunified.    It is said that Nurhaci was a gifted mounted archer from youth, could speak multiple languages, and loved to read Chinese literature such as Shuihu Zhuan “water margin” and Sanguo Yanyi “romance of the 3 kingdoms”.  At the age of 25 Nurhaci avenged his father and grandfather's deaths by defeating Nikan Wailan in battle in 1587 sending him fleeing to the Ming for protection. The Ming would eventually execute him years later, but this would not satisfy Nurhaci. In 1589 the Ming Dynasty appointed Nurhaci as the Paramount Chieftain of the Yalu Region. It seems the Ming Dynasty believed that Nurhaci's tribe was too weak to unify the other tribes and become a threat to them, thus fulfilling their strategy of keeping them disunified.  Then Nurhaci managed to defeat a coalition of over 9 rival tribes, one of which was the Yehe tribe during the battle of Gure. In 1591, Nurhaci had consolidated a large swathe of territory stretching from Fushun to the Yalu River and this provoked the Yehe tribes who sent a force of over 30,000 against him. Nurhaci's men were able to turn back the Yehe menace and while Nurhaci continued to rally tribes under his command,  the Imjin War began.   As the Japanese were invading Korea, the rising Jurchen leader had some limited engagements against the Japanese along the border of Korea and Manchuria. This led Nurhaci to offer assistance to the Ming and Joseon dynasties for the Imjin War effort. But both the Ming and Joseon dynasty's would refuse his offer however, especially the Joseon who stated “to accept such assistance from northern barbarians would be disgraceful”. Now the Imjin War indirectly weakened the Ming Dynasty's position in Manchuria and gave the now rather insulted Jurchen leader Nurhaci an opportunity to expand his influence and territory. Nurhaci began to conquer and consolidate the unrelated tribes surrounding Manchuria. In 1599 Nurhaci had his trusted scholar Erdeni create a system of writing using the traditional Mongolian alphabet that laid out the foundation of what would become the Manchu alphabet. The Manchu as a people by the way are hard to really define and have been referred to as simply Jurchens, Tatars given who is speaking about them and what time period it is. In reality the Manchu is a rather broad umbrella for a few different groups of people in the large area of Manchuria and the term Manchu was chosen specially to create a sort of legitimate ancestry by those who eventually would bear its name.   In 1601 Nurhaci began to develop the Manchu military which became the banner system later on seen in the Qing dynasty. The banners derived from the niru “arrow” , a designation for a small Jurchen hunting band. This led to the organization of cavalry and infantry companies of around 300 men with subdivisions of 75. These units eventually evolved into differing banners, yellow, white, red and blue at first, then this increased to a total of 8 later on. If you have never seen the 8 banner army uniforms from the late Qing Dynasty, I highly recommend googling it. Absolutely awesome to see, unique colors for the armor and everything. Now the banner system was not purely military, it also became the established social hierarchy of what was to be a new state. Its important to note during his unifying efforts, Nurhaci also acquired a vast amount of Han Chinese defectors and with them Ming knowledge and technology such as firearms. A lot of these Han Chinese  would be married to Manchu women to form marriage alliances.The idea behind it was to take the tribe system and use it as building blocks for a military bureaucracy. This in turn also acted as a method of creating an administrative structure of the future Manchu people. Nurhaci built up his new empire's economy via mining and trade and managed to accumulate a lot of silver from tributary missions to the Ming Dynasty.    In 1607 Nurhaci declared himself the Kundulun Khan over what he proclaimed to be the Jin State, named after the former Jurchen led Great Jin Dynasty. Now this was also done to assert divine lineage to the Jin Dynasty of the 12th century and in some ways was an implied challenge towards the Ming Dynasty. Indeed, Nurhaci even began to publicly refer to the Ming Dynasty as merely the “Southern Dynasty”, implying equality with his new state. So it seems the Ming Dynasty had greatly miscalculated Nurhaci and now they had quite a threat bearing down upon them. In 1610 Nurhaci broke relations with the Ming imperial court and in 1618 he demanded they pay him tribute and sent them what is legendary known as the “seven grievances”. This was a list of 7 terrible acts the Ming Dynasty had performed against Nurhaci personally and that of the Manchu people, basically a highlight reel of everything they did to try and stop the tribes from unifying. Smack dab as number 1 by the way was supporting the man who killed Nurhaci's father and grandfather. The seven grievances also acted as a formal declaration of war against the Ming Dynasty. To think one day your financing the murder of some small tribal leaders, next thing you know their offspring has raised a new national peoples to take you out?    A confederacy of Jurchen tribes referred to as the Hulun tribes gradually began to recognize Nurhaci's authority, but some took more convincing so to say. The Jurchen tribes of the Hada, Hoifa, Ula were all defeated and assimilated by 1613, but then there remained one last Jurchen tribe that would not submit and it was one of the most formidable, the Yehe. In 1618 the Yehe leader Gintaisi united with the Ming Dynasty to combat the newly emerged threat that was Nurhaci.    As it would turn out, the flashpoint for the conflict that would ultimately lead to the downfall of the Ming Dynasty would occur at a frontier town in the northeast. The town held one of the 18 key fortresses established by the founder of the Ming, Emperor Hongwu. The first official battle with the Ming Dynasty would occur in Fushun. Fushun was located on the Hun River just east of Shenyang. Nurhaci sent a letter to the Yehe at Fushun stating “If there is a battle then the arrows shot by our soldiers will strike all in sight. If you are hit, you will surely die. Your strength cannot withstand. Even though you die in battle, there is no profit. If you come out and surrender, our soldiers will not enter the city. The soldiers attached to you will be given complete protection. But suppose our soldiers do attack and enter. The old and young inside the city will surely be in jeopardy, your official salaries will be taken away and your ranks will soon be reduced [for losing the battle]... If you submit without fighting I will not change your great doro (guiding principles; Ch., li yi) at all. I will let you live just as you did before. I will promote not only the people with great knowledge and foresight but also many other people, give them daughters in marriage and care for them. I will give you a higher position than you have and treat you like one of my officials of the first degree”.    In addition to being the first official military challenge to the Ming Authority, Fushun was connected to Nurhaci's strategy of assimilating the remaining rival Jurchen tribes such as the Haixi. Fushun also happened to be quite isolated and not as well-protected as the other great fortress cities. Commanding the defenses of Fushun was Li Yong Fang who had around 1200 men under him. Nurhaci would throw 20,000 at the city, but before he did this he sent around 50 men disguised as horse traders into the city. These 50 infiltrators opened the gates to Nurhaci's men who soon poured in. Li Yongfangs was horrified by the scene as several of his subordinates rushed to give their lives facing the invaders. Li Yongfang was captured and brought before Nurhaci who said to him “I know you are a man of many talents and have had many experiences and my state is in search of talent, as we are lacking in capable officials and are looking to employ capable generals. What purpose will your death serve? But if you surrender, you and all you soldiers will be safe”. Li Yong fang agreed to surrender if the people would be spared. Nurhaci honored this promise, in the end around 590 Ming soldiers died during the attack. Li Yongfang soon became a general under Nurhaci and even married one of his granddaughters. Li Yongfang became the first prominent Ming commander to defect and this would set a precedent for many many more. A large reason Ming officials like Li Yongfang defected was because they were not going to be forced to give up their own culture and customs.   After capturing the Fortress of Fushun, Nurhaci left 4000 men to guard it and now turned his attention to another fortress in Qinghecheng or known simply as Qinghe. The outraged Ming Court did not waste any time sending a counter attack to take back Fushun. The Ming dispatched commander Zhang Chengyin with 10,000 men to recapture the city. Zhang led the men and besieged the city, digging trenches and raining hell upon its walls using cannon and firearms. Nurhaci's sons Hung Taiji and Daisan took the force of 4000 men outside the city and to the shock of the besiegers charged directly upon them. It is estimated only 20% of the Ming force survived this devastating attack, and the rest fled or were captured.   The Ming Court was stunned by the loss of Fushun and knew it was not the only Fortress that would be attacked. Thus they dispatched an expeditionary force of 5000 men with 2 commanders, Li Rubai, the commander of Liaodong and Yang Hao the Military affairs commissioner to support the region, beginning with Qinghe. Both men were personally liked by Emperor Wanli, but both also had undergone scandals during the Imjin War when they messed up during a siege battle. With the new reinforcements brought over by the 2 commanders, Qinghe now had a garrison 6400 strong. Before leaving to help other areas, Yang Hao advised the commander of the Qinghe fortress, Zou Chuxian that he should lay an ambush out for the invaders, perhaps in the mountain pass nearby where they could take advantage of Ming firearms. Zou did not heed this and opted instead to remain within the fortress.   The reinforcing of the Qinghe fortress would prove to be fruitless. The defenders fired their cannons, hurled large boulders and logs and tossed hot oil all inflicting heavy casualties upon Nurhaci's men, but despite all of this the besiegers were able to take a corner wall as the defenders were busy loading their cannons. The siege quickly turned into bloody street to street fighting and with it the complete slaughter of the city's forces. Zou and his subordinates perished alongside most within the city. This prompted the Ming court to place a price over Nurhaci's head, 10,000 taels of silver. It is apparent, the Ming were not prepared to face the challenge pressed upon them by someone like Nurhaci. They had failed to anticipate Nurhaci's state-building efforts and now the fruits of his work were bearing witness.   With the fall of Qinghe and the surrounding towns, the Ming Court now dispatched a large force of 100,000 men to attack Nurhaci's forces. Yang Hao formulated the strategy for the grand operation, they would divide into 4 groups of around 30,000 men each and approach Nurhaci's stronghold of Hetu Ala from 4 different directions and surround it. Ma Lin would lead the northern group coming from Kaiyuan. Du Song from the west coming from Fushun. Li Rubo would come from southwest through the Yau Pass. Last, Liu Ting (also known as Big Sword Liu) would come from the Southeast from Kuandian supported by a 13,000 strong Joseon Dynasty Expeditionary force commanded by Gang Hong-rip. Despite all the planning, Yang Hao did not believe their forces had adequate training nor the supplies for the venture.    It is estimated that Nurhaci had around 60,000 men at this time. Nurhaci also had amazing scouts that provided him with great intelligence of the Ming plans and he decided the best course of action was to concentrate all of his forces together and pick off each Ming group one by one. Thus he sent small detachments of around 500 men each to intercept Liu Tin, Ma Lin and Li Rubo to misdirect them, while he would take the main force and smash Du Song, whom he deemed the greatest threat out of the 4 groups. To beat Du Song, Nurhaci snuck 15,000 of his men in the forested mountains near Sarhu for an ambush.   Du Song's force of around 30,000 set forth from Fushun which they had recently recaptured with ease as it was left undefended. Du Song was frustrated by this and wanted to face the enemy and finally found them when he came across the Hun River and saw a Jin force on the other side.    Du Song took 10,000 of his men to cross the river and attack, so that a beachhead could be formed and thus providing adequate room for a safe transfer of the rest of his forces and equipment. So he left behind the other 20,000 men with the war equipment who would follow them once the Jin force were pushed back. When Du Song's men were halfway across the river, Nurhaci sprung a trap. It turns out Nurhaci had ordered his forces to prepare the breaking of dams, and at the moment Du Song's 10,000 men got half way in, well they broke them. The Ming forces in disarray had to flee back from the raging water, abandoning a ton of their equipment. Now Du Song's force had to go from offense to defense, erecting 2 camps on the opposite side of the river frantically.  Those troops Nurhaci snuck in the forested mountains then came down upon the camp that held Du Song  and Nurhaci himself personally led 6 banners to attack the camp as well.   Nurhaci's forces much like that of Ghenghis Khan's, came in with horse backed archers to pelt the defenders. The Ming Musketeers divided themselves into 2-3 rows, taking turns to fire their guns and reload, known as “repeated fire”, basically a more rustic version of what you see during something like the revolutionary wars of America. Some of theses guns by the way are known as Zhuifeng Qiang “windchasing” guns. They are around 5 feet long and shoot fairly large lead bullets. With one of these you can probably hit something within 40 feet away effectively. So you must be thinking, well the Ming Musketeers must have shot the Jin cavalry up like a turkey shoot, but you would be wrong. Interesting little side note here, the bow and arrow historically has trumped firearms honestly until the invention of the repeating rifle and revolver. If you know something about the Aboriginal wars in the America's, it was this innovation that finally allowed militaries to defeat peoples like the Comanche. Until those were invented, horseback archers would be able to get off far too many shots by the time people using firearms could shoot and reload. And thats basically what happened, Nurhaci's horseback archers pelted the Ming Musketeers and began flanking them, until they began to break formation and soon fled. After this Nurhaci besieged the other camp at Jilin Cliff. Soon the Jin's had surrounded the force there and Du Song alongside 2 other generals were killed during the slaughter. It was said that “corpses piled up like a mountain and the fields were drenched in blood”.   Upon hearing that Nurhaci had annihilated the force under Du Song, the inbound force led by Ma Lin coming from a northern position chose to be much more cautious. Ma Lin's 30,000 men soon found the fleeing remnants of Du Song's force and quickly incorporated them into his own force. He then formed 3 camps at Xiangjiayan and fortified them with trenches and cannons. Nurhaci's sent a 1000 men to prod the defenses of the main camp that held Ma Lin's command and also to draw its attention. The 1000 men dismounted and moved forward cautiously, drawing the Ming gunfire their way.   Once Nurhaci had a good idea of the layout of their defenses, he sent in a joint infantry-cavalry assault to make a swift attack upon a weakest point on Ma Lin's camp. The Ming Musketeers could barely get off more than a single volley before the Jin horse riding warriors descended upon them. The front lines were being cut to pieces and soon the entire army's morale broke and several men were routed. Commander Ma Lin barely escaped with his life and many of his officers died in a nearby river turning it quote “crimson with their blood”.  The other 2 camps fell in a similar fashion. Thus Nurhaci had just annihilated 2 out of the 4 incoming armies and took some 4000 of his forces to Hetu Ala to recuperate their strength.    Yang Hao saw the absolute mayhem occurring and ordered the remaining forces to retreat and regroup, but the force coming in from the east led by Big Sword Liu Ting never got the orders. Now unlike his colleagues, Liu Ting was actually having some success against some Jin expeditionary parties. The 13,000 Joseon Expeditionary force was with Liu Ting consisting of 10,000 Musketeers and 3000 archers were proving themselves very capable warriors. He managed to capture a few fortresses, killed 2 Jin generals and inflicted a few thousand casualties. Nurhaci then decided to do something rather cunning: he slipped some saboteurs into Liu Ting's army. These saboteurs pretended to be messengers from Du Song, stating his force was already besieging Hetu Ala and desperately needed assistance for the final victory. Liu Ting proceeded to respond by increasing his army's speed to rush to Hetu Ala. Because of the increased speed they were going, Liu Ting's force became very stretched out and now there were practically 2 divided groups. Around 18 miles from Hetu Ala, Liu Ting's frontal force was ambushed in the Abudali Pass. This allowed 2 of Nurhaci's son's Daisan and Hong Taiji to both make cavalry charges one after the other into the front of Liu Ting's force. These back to back charges inflicted heavy casualties, and they soon managed to surround the Ming force, exacting an estimated 10,000 casualties upon them. It also claimed the life of Liu Ting who was said to go down killing several Jin with him, must have been waving around a pretty big sword. By the way I tried quite hard to find out how the nickname came about and failed to find anything concrete, if anyone knows let me know perhaps by commenting on one of my Youtube episodes!   The Korean Musketeers performed quite well, but the archers, it is alleged, fired without arrowheads, because the Joseon Dynasty intended to keep a neutrality with the newly emerged Jin people. The Joseon Musketeers were eventually overwhelmed by the Jin cavalry, because they lacked spearmen in their formations to thwart off the charges, something they would improve upon later down the road.  Gang Hong-rip ended up surrendering the remaining 4500 of his forces. Those who survived later captivity were eventually allowed to return to their homeland. Gang Hong-rip was proficient in the Jurchen language and was held hostage. Interestingly, once the battle was won and done, Nurhaci went back to Hetu Ala to celebrate and one of the first things he did afterwards was send a message to the King of the Joseon Dynasty asking why they sent an expeditionary force to aid the Mings. The king tried to play it cool and sent a letter of congratulations for the victory, but made sure not to write anything that recognized the Jin state. It seemed the Joseon dynasty was now stuck between the Ming-Jin conflict and this would hold dire consequences later.    Li Rubo had received the message to retreat from Yang Hao, so he was able to avoid disaster, losing around 1000 troops before getting out to safety. Overall it is estimated that the Ming lost some 45,000 troops, 28,000 horses and a ton of war equipment. The Jin claimed to have only lost 200 men, but better estimations put them at losing around 5000. The Ming Court was rocked by this loss and ordered the arrest of Yang Hao, sending the Embroidered Uniform Guard after him; those are essentially the Emperor's secret police. Li Rubo was impeached, because there were rumors he had only survived because he had a personal relationship with Nurhaci. Li Rubo would commit suicide before his trial and Yang Hao would rot in prison for almost a decade before being executed.   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me.  Nurhaci did not stop after defeating the 4 armies, he continued to raise hell by capturing Kaiyuan, Tieling and Xicheng without breaking much of a sweat. Hell Nurhaci was said to have braved a hail of arrows when he personally led the assault on the east wall of Xicheng. Over in Chahar, some of Nurhaci's subjects were defeated at Guangning and this would lead to ongoing troubles between the Jin and Chahar mongols for 15 years. Now Xicheng was the last bastion of Nurhaci's Yehe Jurchen rivals, so now he looked towards more empire building activities. Alongside his advisors they began to plan the conquest of Shenyang and perhaps to establish a new Jin Capital in its place. 

Korean War Veteran-Rudy Do you know much about the Korean War? We didn't until we started conducting research for this episode. There's a reason it's called The Forgotten War. You can learn more by listening to this survivor story of Rudy, a Korean War Vet who served in the 1st Marine Division of the U.S. X Corps. He fought in the Chosin Reservoir near Yudam-ni and the battle on the line in Pusan between North Korea and South Korea. Listen now! If you want to get freaked out, watch the Ted Bundy Tapes and ](https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/451303229390723056/6194631900734182423)[John Wayne Gacy Tapes. If you want to learn more about the Cyndi White case listen now. Sources: History.com Koreanwarlegacy.org, here you can watch videos of a lot of different vets talking about the war. Brittanica.com Cold WarDocumentary on YouTube Unforgettable: The Korean War documentary on YouTube stillherepodcast1@gmail.com stillherepodcastblog.blogspot.com https://www.facebook.com/stillhere.podcast.21/ https://www.instagram.com/stillhere_podcast/ Support #StillHere: A Survivor Podcast by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stillhere Find out more at https://stillhere.pinecast.co Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/stillhere/91daf18c-c184-42bc-8944-d8f053bb0620 This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

North Korea tried to unify the peninsula by invading South Korea in June 1950.  Initially the North Koreans had great success.  They quickly advanced south while the United States tried to get forces onto the peninsula to stop them.  This soon became a United Nations' mission, and the North Koreans were stopped right around the southern port of Pusan.  Then the United States landed in the rear of the North Koreans at the port of Inchon next to Seoul on South Korea's west coast.  The North Koreans started to collapse and the United Nations force pushed back up the Korean peninsula.  They pushed north of the 38th parallel into North Korea and headed towards the Chinese border on the Yalu river.  As the U.S. advanced during late October and November they got higher into the mountains and the weather got much colder.  While this was going on there was the question of what, if anything, the Chinese Communists were planning to do.  Would the Chinese go to war to keep U.S. forces away from their border? The U.S. commander General MacArthur didn't think so.  He was wrong.  The cold, desolate hillsides were crawling with over three hundred thousand tough and committed soldiers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.  David Halberstam's “The Coldest Winter” tells the story of what happened when the Chinese sprung their trap.

In this second review episode, Jonathan Levy shares his exclusive interviews with world-leading authorities on climate change and the impact of greenhouse gases which continue to increase: World Meteorological Organization Secretary General Petteri Taalas; One of the authors of the latest climate change report from the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) June-Yi Lee, IBC Centre for Climate Physics, Associate Professor at the University of Pusan, South Korea; Dr Robert Mulvaney, Science Programme Coordinator at the British Antarctic Survey - leader of the Ice Dynamics and Palaeoclimate Team. Global temperatures continue to rise to record levels and the melting of ice at the poles and glaciers elsewhere is impacting on Sea Level Rise. At current levels, global warming could be almost double the target of 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2050. Sea level rise by the end of the century could be well above initial projections. This podcast opens with comments from UN Secretary General António Guterres at the WMO press conference at COP26

Vi får ett smakprov på Stockholms Jazzfestival. Antisemitismen på sociala medier har ökat under pandemin enligt en ny rapport. Och behöver Stockholm en ny operabyggnad? Jazzvokalisten Bo Sundström från Bo Kaspers orkester och jazzsångaren Ida Sand gästar studion iför Stockholms Jazzfestival. Vad vet vi, kanske de bryter ut i gemensam sång? Antisemitismen på sociala medier har ökat under pandemin enligt en ny rapport som presenteras under förintelsekonferensen i Malmö. En av medförfattarna av studien Morgan Finnsiö, researcher och utbildare på stiftelsen Expo kommer till oss. Programmet gästas även världens hetaste opera-arkitekt Kjetil Trädal Thorsten, från arkitektbyrån Snöhetta. Han har bland annat ritat operahusen i Pusan, Shanghai och Oslo. Vi undrar vad han anser om en ny operabyggnad i Stockholm? I går kväll var Thomas på en fullsatt Nationalarena och såg Alexander Isak besegra Grekland. Programledare: Thomas Nordegren Bisittare: Louise Epstein Producent: Amanda Rydman

What is the Korean Pentecost? Is Korea under divine judgment? And what does any of this have to do with Insider movements in the Islamic world? We tackle some massive topics with missionary and author James T. Cha of the Crescent Project, author of Fear Not. Rev. James Cha was born in Pusan, Korea, and immigrated to the US in the early 1970s with his family. While studying electrical engineering at Cornell University, he surrendered his life to the call of God to be His ambassador to the world, especially to the Muslims. In 1991, he married his BFF, Faith, and after studies at Columbia Biblical Seminary (SC), they took their little children to Central Asia to serve the Lord as church planting missionaries. By God's grace, over 120 Muslims came to faith in Jesus during their ten years of ministry. Since 2000, they have been back in the US, reaching out to the nations living in their community. They are on staff with Crescent Project, a ministry that equips the local churches to reach out to the Muslims in the community. James and Faith are also founders of i43, a ministry committed to fulfilling the Great Commission to the ends of the earth. They have three grown children: Joniel, Josiah and Karis. Want to ask a question or suggest a topic? Email alex@missionspodcast.com. The Missions Podcast is sponsored by ABWE. Subscribe: linktr.ee/MissionsPodcast.

Rolf Potts has reported from more than sixty countries for the likes of National Geographic Traveler, The New Yorker, Slate.com, Outside, the New York Times Magazine, The Believer, The Guardian, Sports Illustrated, NPR, and the Travel Channel. His adventures have taken him across six continents, and include piloting a fishing boat 900 miles down the Laotian Mekong hitchhiking across Eastern Europe, traversing Israel on foot, bicycling across Burma, driving a Land Rover across South America, and traveling around the world for six weeks with no luggage or bags of any kind. Potts is perhaps best known for promoting the ethic of independent travel, and his book on the subject, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel has been through thirty-two printings and translated into several foreign languages. His collection of literary travel essays, Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations From One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer, won a 2009 Lowell Thomas Award from the Society of American Travel Writers, and became the first American-authored book to win Italy's prestigious Chatwin Prize for travel writing. His newest book, Souvenir, was published by Bloomsbury in March of 2018. Rolf's stories have appeared in numerous literary anthologies over the years, and more than twenty of his essays have been selected as “Notable Mention” in The Best American Essays, The Best American Non-Required Reading, and The Best American Travel Writing. His writing for National Geographic Traveler, Slate.com, Lonely Planet, Outside and Travelers' Tales garnered him five Lowell Thomas Awards. He has lectured at venues around the world, including New York University, the University of Lugano, the University of Melbourne, Authors@Google, and the World Affairs Council. He has taught semester-long nonfiction writing courses at Penn and Yale. Though he rarely stays in one place for long, Potts has, over the years, felt somewhat at home in places like Bangkok, Cairo, Pusan, New Orleans, New York, and Paris, where he runs a series of creative writing classes each summer. He is based in north-central Kansas, where he keeps a small farmhouse on 30 acres with his wife, Kansas-born actress Kristen Bush.

From 1950 to 1953 America went to war in what has often been called "The Forgotten War" in Korea. It was one of the first real tests of the Cold War between the United States and the Communist World and it happened due to an oversight. When Secretary of State Dean Acheson forgot to include the Korean Peninsula in his a speech about American Policy in Asia, and who we would and would not protect in the region. It led to an enormous miscalculation from Kin IIl Sung and the powers that be in the Communist World.  They tried to take over South Korea.  They waged an aggressive campaign that pushed the United Nations troops back to a small corner of South Korea to the port of Pusan. It was then that General Douglas MacArthur came up with a strategy that is arguably the boldest move ever in the history of Warfare. He "hit' em where they ain't" an ran an amphibious assault on the Port of Inchon 150 miles behind enemy lines and then routed them back to the Yalu River on the Chinese border. In this first episode we look at all his success before the Chinese entered the war and set the stage for the clash with President Truman about who really is in charge of foreign policy during war time, the General in the field or the President of the United States. 

They sit, feet flat, bended knee, body crouched, hands busy Old women working on the pier Turquoise rubber gloves, pink silk head wraps, yellowed straw bill They laugh and gossip, hawking their wares for passersby Wind restless, sun bright as they come A lovely day, a lovely day The old women of Pusan Generations of wisdom Generations of laughter I look at them in awe as if they are a mirage a memory of another era I wonder about their families I wonder what inside jokes they tell I am in wonder with the colors before me The dark blues, the prime greens, the neon yellows The vibrancy of my motherland The vibrancy of country Pusan Pusan Pusan

Xin chào các bạn, chúc các bạn có một ngày tuyệt vời, hôm nay là 15 tháng 4 và hôm nay có gì đặc biệt. Sinh 1452 – Leonardo da Vinci, họa sĩ Ý (m. năm 1519), Ông là tác giả của những bức hoạ nổi tiếng như bức Mona Lisa, bức Bữa ăn tối cuối cùng. 1896 – Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, nhà hóa học Nga, giải Nobel hoá học (m. năm 1986) 1990 – Emma Watson, nữ diễn viên Anh Mất 69 – Otho, Hoàng đế La Mã (s. vào 32) 1865 – Abraham Lincoln (s. 12 tháng 2 năm 1809), Tổng thống Mỹ thứ 16, người có công bãi bỏ chế độ nô lệ) 1998 – Pol Pot, lãnh tụ của Khmer Đỏ (s. vào 1925). SỰ KIỆN 1865 – Andrew Johnson trở thành Tổng thống Mỹ thứ 17. 1865 – Gia Định báo được xuất bản lần đầu tại Sài Gòn, đây là tờ báo tiếng Việt đầu tiên viết bằng chữ Quốc ngữ. 1912 – Tàu khách RMS Titanic chìm vào khoảng 2 giờ 40 phút sau khi đụng vào một tảng băng trôi, khiến hơn 1.500 người thiệt mạng. 1923 – Insulin bắt đầu được bán cho người bệnh tiểu đường. 1955 – Tiệm ăn McDonald's đầu tiên mở ở Des Plains, Illinois. 1983 – Disneyland Tokyo mở cửa. 2002 – Máy bay Boeing 767-200 của Air China rơi xuống sườn núi trong lúc mưa nhiều và sương mù dày dặc gần Pusan, Hàn Quốc, làm chết 122 người. 2019–Nhà thờ Đức Bà Paris bị thiệt hại nặng nề trong một vụ cháy lớn khiến 2 cảnh sát và 1 lính cứu hoả bị thương nhẹ và mất 8 tiếng để dập tắt đám cháy #aweektv #homnaylangaygi --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/aweek-tv/message

I vårt mest försenade avsnitt hittills så ger vi oss i kast med Koreakriget – ett krig som Per (till skillnad från hela populärkulturen och de som utkämpade det) säger sig ”älska”. I detta avsnitt får du höra om när den kanske trattigaste amerikanska armén någonsin fick pisk av vad som i praktiken var två tungt beväpnade bondeuppbåd! Mattis tar orimligt mycket plats med tanke på att Per är den av de tu som faktiskt kan någonting om kriget samtidigt som Per kallar en av de mest medaljerad generaler i USAs historia för ”ett mongo” och ”helt jävla dum i huvudet”. Vi tar oss från krigsutbrottet, till Pusan via Inchon och Yalu ner till 38:e parallelgraden igen. Kort och gott tar vi de intressanta delarna av ett krig som människor vid tiden oroade sig för kunde urarta till ett kärnvapenkrig.Stötta oss på Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/krigshistoriepodden Stötta oss på Patreon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our crew today: Hosts Dr. Steph, Miami Rick, Captains Nick and Jeff, Producer/Director Liz. Join us for the latest in aviation news, your feedback, and this week's Plane Tale: "101 Seconds." Photo Credit: Nick Anderson [00:02:52] NEWS [00:03:10] Accident: Sanga DHC6 at Wobagen on Dec 1st 2020, Runway Excursion During Rejected Takeoff [00:08:03] Report: Shanghai B738 at Pusan on Sep 7th 2019, Landed on Wrong Runway [00:22:45] Report: Winair DHC6 at Saint Barthelemy on Jan 24th 2014, Aircraft on Final Approach Struck Pedestrian on Road [00:29:43] Dallas Flights Grounded as Air Traffic Facility with 3 Positive Covid tests in a Week is Sanitized [00:34:46] Revolutionary Process Converts CO2 into Jet Fuel [00:40:50] Nepali Airline Buddha Air Flies Passengers To The Wrong Airport [00:44:26] Incident: Avianca A319 at Bogota on Dec 31st 2020, Hot Air Balloon Entangled with Aircraft [00:48:20] GETTING TO KNOW US [01:07:18] COFFEE FUND [01:09:01] FEEDBACK [01:09:10] Liz - Israeli Mother Drone [01:14:22] Nick - Swirl-in Airlift: Irregular Antonov Flights Deliver Relief to Phoenix Laxative Factory [01:21:53] Dana - My 737 OE and More [01:34:38] Ray - Language vs Situational Awareness [01:46:57] Mohammed - Trainee Iraqi Aerodrome Air Traffic Controller..Request ATC Advice [01:53:45] Joe - Qantas 747 Flying Short U.S. Routes? [01:57:46] Plane Tales - 101 Seconds [02:26:41] Mike - Davis Monthan AFB Beautiful Aircraft from Yesteryear [02:31:39] Greg Peterson - Pitch Angles in the Pattern? [02:47:41] Gustav - Feedback re Cessna Citation and the Atlantic Ocean VIDEO Don't see the video? Click this to watch it on YouTube! Looking for the older episodes? You can find them by going here: All APG Episodes Feed ABOUT RADIO ROGER “Radio Roger” Stern has been a TV and Radio reporter since he was a teenager. He’s won an Emmy award for his coverage in the New York City Market. Currently you can hear his reporting in New York on radio station 1010 WINS, the number one all-news station in the nation. Nationally you can hear him anchor newscasts on the Fox News Radio Network and on Fox’s Headlines 24-7 service on Sirius XM Radio. In addition Roger is a proud member of and contributor to the APG community. Audible.com Trial Membership Offer - Get your free audio book today! Give us your review in iTunes! I'm "airlinepilotguy" on Facebook, and "airlinepilotguy" on Twitter. feedback@airlinepilotguy.com airlinepilotguy.com "Appify" the Airline Pilot Guy website (http://airlinepilotguy.com) on your phone or tablet! ATC audio from http://LiveATC.net Intro/outro Music, Coffee Fund theme music by Geoff Smith thegeoffsmith.com Dr. Steph's intro music by Nevil Bounds Capt Nick's intro music by Kevin from Norway (aka Kevski) Doh De Oh by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100255 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ Copyright © AirlinePilotGuy 2021, All Rights Reserved Airline Pilot Guy Show by Jeff Nielsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

September was an eventful month in Korea. Not only were US Marines going ashore in Inchon, both the KPA and UN forces undertook massive offensives to break the Pusan Perimeter. Only one could be successful, though. There is a reason this episode is called Break-out, and not Break-in.

Douglas MacArthur knew he needed to make a splash to relieve the pressure on his men around Pusan. UN forces had faced disaster after disaster in the first two months of the war, and it appeared that there was an anchor around their necks. Would an ambitious amphibious strike at the heart of Korea, just 20 miles from Seoul but 200 miles from Pusan, keep Mr. MacArthur’s illustrious career from sinking?

August 1950 was a month of stalemate, as United Nations forces on the Korean Peninsula, still entirely American and South Korean, were pushed to the brink. The battle line known as the Pusan Perimeter was the site of brutal combat, with the North Koreans trying to push their enemy off the peninsula and the South Koreans fighting for the fate of their country.

On this episode of Battles & Banter, Avery, Codie & Tony pick up where they left off with the first part of the Pusan Perimeter analysis and dive into the second and final installment. The guys discuss the second phase of the fighting that took place around the Pusan Perimeter defenses in September of 1950 during the Korean War. Keeping up with the 70th Anniversary of the first year of the conflict, the guys discuss some of the pivotal actions that resulted in the first major United Nations victory of the war that was hard fought and paid for in the blood of young soldiers. Also, Codie delivers quality podcasting content with another amazing song. Enjoy!

04SEPT1950: Taking place in the critical Battle of the Pusan Perimeter, PFC Melvin Brown moved with his team to take Hill 755 where they prepared for an enemy counterattack. Leading with heavy machine gun fire, the counterattack quickly materialized with Brown and his men doing their best to hold on. Brown moved atop a wall where he could identify enemy soldiers moving to attack. From there, he laid down deadly fire and began lobbing grenades into the advancing foe. As he was in the most forward position, Brown's fellow Soldiers began bringing grenades close to his position as a resupply. Out of ammunition and having just thrown his last grenade, PFC Brown picked up his entrenching tool and waited. As the next 10+ enemy Soldiers attempted to scale the wall at his position, Brown killed each in deadly hand to hand combat. His valiant effort so inspired his men that they held the line, starting what would eventually turn the tide of the war. In the deadly close quarters combat of these few days, PFC Melvin Brown was declared missing and later, killed in action during the battle. In recognition of his brave sacrifice, PFC Melvin Brown, killed at the age of 19, would be awarded posthumously, the Medal of Honor.

On this episode of Battles and Banter, Avery is joined by Codie & Tony for the next installment in the Korean War 70th Anniversary Series to cover the first large scale battle of the Korean War: the Battles around the Pusan Perimeter. In August 1950, the United Nations Forces comprising of American, South Korean and British soldiers held off multiple attacks by North Korean forces in the rectangular defensive position around the port city of Pusan in southeast South Korea. The guys talk about the engagements that made up the first phase of the battle and how important the tactical successes of the U.N. forces were in the larger scope of the conflict. Codie also has another phenomenal song for you all so don't miss out! Enjoy!

On this episode of Battles & Banter, Avery once again is solo for his third installment of the Korean War series. Currently in its 70th Anniversary, the Korean War was only a few weeks old by this point in July of 1950. Things were not going well for United Nations forces on the ground who were fighting against the North Korean People's Army. For the American units arriving on the Korean Peninsula, they were unprepared, poorly trained and ill-equipped for what awaited them. As August loomed closer, the American & South Korean forces had to fight more delaying actions to buy time for a massive defensive line to be set up in the valleys and mountains around the southeastern port city of Pusan (present-day Busan). Avery briefly describes the events that led to the climactic battle at the Pusan Perimeter, and points out some of the more overlooked aspects of that dark summer month of July 1950. Enjoy!

On another solo episode of Battles & Banter, Avery continues the story that followed Task Force Smith's stand at Osan, the first battle between American & North Korean forces in the Korean War. Avery charts the fights that followed and what inevitably led to the last stand of the U.S. 24th Infantry Division at the city of Taejon (modern day Daejeon), located 100 miles south of Seoul and 124 miles northwest of Pusan (modern day Busan). The Korean War is currently in it's 70th Commemoration and Avery wants to cover as much as possible to help bring attention and awareness to one of the most overlooked and bats**t crazy military conflicts in U.S. history. This episode is released as the Battle of Taejon began 70 years ago today. Enjoy!

En 1947, Estados Unidos lanzó el Plan Marshall para permitir la reconstrucción de los países europeos. Mientras las tropas francesas continúan siendo enviadas a Indochina, Stalin impone un bloqueo a Berlín mientras el telón soviético sigue progresando ... En Corea, se declara la guerra entre los comunistas del norte y un desvalido ejército surcoreano. El presidente Truman envía a sus hombres ... les espera una debacle. Los estadounidenses, rodeados por el enemigo, están atrincherados en el sur de Corea, en Pusan.

En 1947, Estados Unidos lanzó el Plan Marshall para permitir la reconstrucción de los países europeos. Mientras las tropas francesas continúan siendo enviadas a Indochina, Stalin impone un bloqueo a Berlín mientras el telón soviético sigue progresando ... En Corea, se declara la guerra entre los comunistas del norte y un desvalido ejército surcoreano. El presidente Truman envía a sus hombres ... les espera una debacle. Los estadounidenses, rodeados por el enemigo, están atrincherados en el sur de Corea, en Pusan.

Après plusieurs décennies de croissance à deux chiffres, l’économie chinoise va quasiment stagner cette année en raison de la crise du coronavirus. Mais ce résultat, enviable pour beaucoup d’autres pays, vues les circonstances, met à jour les limites du développement chinois. C'est là que tout a commencé, à Wuhan, en Chine, à la fin de l'année 2019 pour autant qu'on le sache. Début janvier 2020, les médias internationaux se font l'écho d'un mystérieux virus, une dizaine de morts recensés. La suite, vous la connaissez. Les 11 millions d'habitants de Wuhan confinés chez eux, la ville paralysée, le virus qui se propage dans le monde entier, neuf millions de personnes contaminées, près de 500 000 morts selon l'OMS et un cataclysme économique et social qui affecte toutes les économies, à commencer par l'économie américaine. Mais là où tout a démarré, en Chine, où en est l'économie ? La croissance des dernières décennies reprendra-t-elle son cours ? Ou l'épidémie a-t-elle donné un coup fatal à l'essor économique chinois ? La Chine va-t-elle devoir corriger les modalités de sa course en avant ? Telles sont quelques-unes des questions examinées avec les trois spécialistes de l’économie chinoise réunis pour cette émission : - Mary-Françoise Renard est professeur d'Économie à l'Université Clermont-Auvergne et responsable de l'Institut de Recherche sur la Chine au CERDI. Dernière publication "L'économie de la Chine" dans la collection Repères aux éditions La Découverte.  - Jean-François Dufour est directeur du cabinet de conseil DCA Chine Analyse et éditeur de la newsletter The China Industrial Monitor. Il est l’auteur de "China Corp 2025, dans les coulisses du capitalisme à la chinoise", publié aux Éditions Maxima.  - Éric Girardin est professeur d'Économie à l'Université Aix-Marseille. Il mène ses recherches sur l’économie chinoise au sein de l'École d'Économie Aix-Marseille. Avec Zhenya Liu, il a publié un livre consacré aux marchés boursiers chinois. Le tître "Demystifiying China's stock market" aux éditions Palgarve Macmillan.   Le pouvoir chinois va-t-il parvenir à enrayer la progression du chômage ? Officiellement, il a atteint 5,9% en mai dernier. Mais, ce taux pourrait en réalité être bien plus élevé : jusqu’à 20%, a estimé une étude, car les chiffres officiels ne prennent pas en compte les travailleurs indépendants, ni les travailleurs migrants, les petites mains de la croissance chinoise. Et ils seraient nombreux dans le pays,290 millions au total. Des hommes et des femmes qui avaient quitté la campagne pour trouver du travail dans les grandes villes, mais depuis l’épidémie les opportunités d’emploi manquent. Un reportage d'Angélique Forget et Charlie Wang   Deuxième ville de Corée, Busan (ou Pusan) est aussi un énorme port, le quatrième au monde pour les flux de conteneurs. Le principal partenaire, c’est bien sûr la Chine et la reprise de l’activité économique chez le grand voisin a provoqué un redémarrage de la navigation commerciale. Au mois de mai, le trafic des énormes porte-conteneurs entre Busan et les ports chinois a augmenté de près de 10%. Un reportage de Stéphane Lagarde

Pociąg jadący z Seula do Pusan roi się od nieumarłych. Jak w tej sytuacji zachowają się pasażerowie? W "Po Co Ja To Oglądam?" rozmawiamy o "Zombie Express". "Zombie Express" to historia pasażerów pociągu odciętych od świata, który mierzy się z epidamią zombie. Nie oznacza to jednak, że znajdujący się w ekspresie do Pusan są bezpieczni - sami również muszą zmierzyć się z hordami nieumarłych, które przekształcają się błyskawicznie i są znakomitymi sprinterami! Film o którym mówimy w 3. odcinku serii "Katastrofy" to niezwykłe połączenie horroru z dramatem rodzinnym. Nasi bohaterowie muszą mierzyć się nie tylko z potworami, ale także w problemami osobistymi. W stawce aktorów mam kilka znanych twarzy: Woo-sik Chor zagrał w "Parasite", a Dong-seok Ma wcieli się w Gilgamesha w nadchodzącym filmie Marvela, "Eternals". Produkcja Sang-ho Yeona, która doczeka się sequela to najlepszy obraz, jaki omawialiśmy w podcaście. Nie oznacza to jednak, że pozbawiona jest ona wad! Chcecie przekonać się co myślimy o "Zombie Express" i jakie błędy mu zarzucamy? Zapraszamy do słuchania (i oglądania).

**Topics discussed:** 1. What it's like to serve in Korea 2. How he learned patience serving in Korea **Links mentioned in this episode:** * https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2010/04/continue-in-patience?lang=eng *... Topics discussed: What it's like to serve in Korea How he learned patience serving in Korea Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2010/04/continue-in-patience?lang=eng Join a class- icl.churchofjesuschrist.org Questions What do you learn from Kevin and Elder Uchtdorf about patience? What are areas in your life that you need to show more patience? This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

The stories are from WWI to Present DayWWIIn 1917 the first two women of the US military killed in the line of duty. Army nurses Edith Ayres and Helen Wood were killed on May 20, 1917. They were with Base Hospital #12 aboard the USS Mongolia in route to France. The ship’s crew fired the deck guns during a practice drill and one of the guns exploded spewing shell fragments across the deck killing both women. WWIIEvelyn Genevieve “Sharpie” Sharp (October 1, 1919 – April 3, 1944)Sharpie was one of the 38 women of the Women Air Force Service Pilots that gave their lives in service to the US Army Air Corps. You can hear more about their story and their fight to be recognized in my interview with the granddaughter of Elaine Harmond a WASP, Erin Miller in Episode 49.Second Lieutenant Ruth M Gardiner (May 20, 1914 – July 27, 1943)She was a nurse in the US Army Nurse Corps and was the first American nurse to lose her life in the line of duty during World War II.KoreaGenevieve Marion Smith (April 25, 1905 – July 27, 1950) Although the former World War II Army nurse was due to retire in January 1951 after 22 years of military service, she accepted the position and sealed her destiny on a fatal air flight to Korea. On July 27, 1950, a three-man aircrew, twenty-two male passengers and one female--Genevieve Smith, left Haneda, Japan for a flight to Pusan, Korea in a C-47D.  They crashed and were lost at sea, there was only one survivor.Lieutenant Wilma Ledbetter (April 27, 1912 – August 25, 1950)Wilma Ledbetter was one of 15 women aboard the USS Benevolence. She died in when the USS Benevolence was rammed by the SS Mary Luckenbach and capsized.VietnamFirst Lieutenant Sharon Ann Lane (July 7, 1943 – June 8, 1969) Though one of eight American military nurses who died while serving in Vietnam, Sharon Lane was the only American nurse killed as a direct result of hostile fire.Gulf WarSpecialist Christine Mayers (1978? - February 25, 1991) and Specialist Bevery Clark (1980? - February 25, 1991)Specialist Christine Mayers and Specialist Bevery Clark were the first two woman to die in the support of Operation Desert Shield. They both died in an Iraqi Scud missile attack on their barracks in Saudi Arabia on Feb 25, 1991. 28 Americans died in the attack and 89 were wounded. Global War on TerrorismAfghanistanSergeant Jeanette L. Winters (May 4, 1976 – Jan 9, 2002)The first woman to die in the War on Terror was Jeanette Winters. She was a radio operator in the Marine Corps who was usually far from combat, but the KC-130 crashed on approach killing her and her crew.Senior Airman Ashton LM Goodman (June 14, 1987 – May 26, 2009)Ashton died in an IED attack outside Bagram Air Base with her commander Lt Col Mark E. Stratton II. She was part of the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team.First Lieutenant Ashley White (Sept 3, 1987 – October 22, 2011)Ashley was assigned to a Cultural Support Team attached to a Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan. Because of the word attached women were able to be assigned to special operation teams. You can read more about Ashley’s story and all the women who served on Cultural Support Teams in the book Ashley’s War (affiliate link).IraqSpecialist Lori Piestewa (December 14, 1979 - March 23, 2003)She is believed to be the first Native American woman to be killed in combat in a foreign war and was the first woman to die during the Iraq War and was a single mother of two young boys.Corporal Jennifer Parcell (June 27, 1986 - February 7, 2007)She was part of the Lioness Program, a program that uses female Marines from different military occupation specialties to search Iraqi women at check points.Operation Inherent ResolveSyriaShannon Kent (1983 – January 16, 2019)Shannon was a Navy cryptologist and mother of two. She was in Manbij, Syria responsible for finding ISIS cells and their leaders.Mentioned in this episode:Women in the military: Making waves since WWIWomen Airforce Service PilotsDo You Know the Story of the Original Military Women Pilots? – Episode 49Korean War ResourcesClimbing the Ranks to Brigade General - Episode 65Do You Know the Story of the Gulf War? Episode 57Provincial Reconstruction TeamAshley’s WarThis episode is in memory of Luc Gruenther

आप https://veergatha.com परजाकरवीरगाथाकेबारेमेंअधिकजानसकतेहैं।संगीतशीर्षक -The Glamour In The Gloom   अब आप ऐपल पॉडकास्ट (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/veergatha-hindi-%E0%A4%B5-%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%97-%E0%A4%A5-%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%B9-%E0%A4%A6-%E0%A4%B0-%E0%A4%95-%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%A5-%E0%A4%8F/id1478129852?ign-mpt=uo%3D4) , Google पॉडकास्ट (https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ5MDUwODAucnNz) , स्पॉटिफ़ाई (https://open.spotify.com/show/5rZlo9wqzWJ5JkdVFT097e) , जीयो सावन, कास्टबॉक्स (https://castbox.fm/channel/id2281175) , रेडीओ पब्लिक (https://radiopublic.com/veergatha-hindi-GKzvzB) , और कई अन्य वेबसाइटों और ऐप्स पर आप वीरगाथा हिंदी पॉडकास्ट सुनते हैं।    Stories for this episode were obtained from public domain sources. Narrated by Sheerali Biju for gaatha story. You can learn more about Veergatha by visiting https://veergatha.com (https://veergatha.com/) . Music: Title: Archive of Sad Days from the Album Glimmer In The Gloom. You can listen to Veergatha Podcast on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/veergatha-a-tribute-to-the-brave/id1478128220?uo=4) , Google Podcasts (https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzUwMDI3NjAucnNz) , Spotify, (https://open.spotify.com/show/5sKdlo0yJQcNKjSvRXmwuA) Jio Saavn, Radio Public (https://radiopublic.com/veergatha-tales-of-valour-G27Q7p) , Castbox (https://castbox.fm/channel/id2276608) Deezer (http://www.deezer.com/show/476032) and other fine sites and apps where you listen to your favourite shows.

Helen Leake is one of Australia's most accomplished creative producers. Her feature credits include HEAVEN'S BURNING with Russell Crowe, BLACK AND WHITE starring Robert Carlyle, SWERVE with Jason Clarke, and WOLF CREEK 2. Her films have been selected for over 30 international Film Festivals, including Venice, Toronto (twice), London (twice), Karlovy Vary and Pusan. Helen develops intellectual property into world-class screen stories for the big screen, streaming services or networks depending on the content and style. Helen is working again with writer Louis Nowra after a successful collaboration on BLACK AND WHITE, a period drama which opened the Sydney Film Festival. Justice Michael Kirby said “every person in the country should watch this film”, critic Andrew Urban “(it is) the sort of film Australia should be making” and The Times London said “… a challenging film that dares to trust our intelligence”. Louis agreed to take on the commission of MONASH and the script has attracted one of Australia's most talented and accomplished directors, Bruce Beresford. This film will be an important contribution to Australia's culture, and tells the story of one of Australia's greatest heroes. www.duoart.com.au www.dancingroad.com Producers Helen Leake and Gena Ashwell and director Bruce Beresford aim to start shooting Monash, a biopic of Sir John Monash, hailed by many as the foremost Allied military commander in World War 1, in Europe in the northern spring. The screenplay is by Louis Nowra, who started collaborating with Leake in 2012. Beresford joined the project in the middle of last year. Leake and her Dancing Road Productions partner Ashwell have secured investment from the UK and France and are confident of raising the rest of the budget in Australia, including the Producer Offset. They plan to start shooting in France and England next May/June with a high-profile ensemble cast of Aussies and Brits. Screen Australia has provided story development funding. Explaining the rationale for the film, Leake tells IF: “Monash was a winner, a hero, unlike the Gallipoli story which was about loss. As Bruce said, ‘We have to make this film because there is a whole generation who know nothing about him or WW1 generally.'”

You can listen to Veergatha Podcast on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/veergatha-a-tribute-to-the-brave/id1478128220?uo=4) , Google Podcasts (https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzUwMDI3NjAucnNz) , Spotify, (https://open.spotify.com/show/5sKdlo0yJQcNKjSvRXmwuA) Jio Saavn, Radio Public (https://radiopublic.com/veergatha-tales-of-valour-G27Q7p) , Castbox (https://castbox.fm/channel/id2276608)   Deezer (http://www.deezer.com/show/476032) and other fine sites and apps where you listen to your favourite shows. This story is narrated by Ankita Ravi for gaathastory

Ali Shami is Ed's very special guest today. Ali is Founder and CEO at FTD Global, Retired Boeing Sr. Manager This information is from Ali's Linkdin profile: Highly effective leader with a combination of technical and leadership attributes. Highlights: - Numerous awards from airline customers and team members - Extensive experience in working with international customers and leading initiatives - Boeing Field Service Representative in Luton, England during the summer of 2000 providing on-site assistance to easyJet, Monarch and Britannia airlines. - Boeing Field Service Representative in Rome and Milan, Italy during the summer of 1997 providing on-site assistance to Alitalia, Air Europe Italy, and Lauda Air. - Boeing Field Service Representative in Pusan, South Korea during the summer of 1996 providing on-site assistance to Korean Airlines. - Among the top 100 Boeing managers who scored the highest on the 2009 employee survey results - Received a cash award by the Option Management Team in Customer Engineering for displaying remarkable level of achievements and leadership attributes - Recognized for team building and customer service skills - Offered numerous cultural awareness seminars to Boeing organizations - 2003 Diversity Excellence Award winner - 2004 Global Diversity Change Agent Award - Sponsor of a Customer Engineering Team -2010 Change Diversity Agent Award - Chairperson of a Business Development Support Group Sales Team - 2011 Diversity Change Agent Award Specialties: Public Speaking, Leadership Training, Technical Research Background, Dynamics Loads, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Customer Service, Operations, Customer Engineering, and Sales and Marketing. -Produced the first audio material that introduces the Lebanese dialect which is spoken in the streets of Beirut. The Volume 1, 2, and 3 contained CDs and booklets and were sold in all continents. "A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle." ~Khalil Gibran

Passionné de cinéma depuis son plus jeune âge, Park Chan-wook crée lors de ses études à l'Université de Sogang le club Movie Gang. Son diplôme de philosophie en poche, il en profite pour publier plusieurs essais critiques sur le cinéma avant de signer son premier long métrage en 1992 : Moon is the sun's dream, un film de gangsters se déroulant à Pusan, l'une des plus grandes villes de Corée du Sud. Il enchaîne en 1997 avec The trio, un portrait comique de trois personnages hors-la-loi.  N'oubliez pas de vous abonner ! 

Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! La Guerra de Corea o Guerra de Liberación para los norcoeranos fue un conflicto que aun no esta cerrado, que comenzó el 25 de junio de 1950, y que destacó por una primera invasión del Norte hacia el Sur hasta llevar al ejército de Corea del Sur a encerrarse en el pequeño Perímetro de Pusan mientras esperaban a la prometida ayuda de la ONU. Pronto el peso de los aliados del Sur dieron la vuelta a la situación, llegando a invadir la propia Corea del Norte y alcanzando el Río Yalu, frontera entre este país y China, cuando en el invierno más frío que se recuerda, cientos de miles de chinos vinieron a aoyar a sus aliados norcoreanos, y empujando a las fuerzas de la ONU hasta la antigua frontera, donde se mantendrán hasta la firma del armisticio el 27 de julio de 1953). En dicho conflicto, la utilización de los tanques jugó un papel destacado en los primeros compases de la guerra, destrozando primero el ejército sur coreano las brigadas de T-34/85, y posteriormente cuando los norteamericanos aparecieron con sus poderosos Pershing. Pero cuando la guerra se estancó, el tanque pasó a realizar tareas de apoyo acciones y mantenimiento de puntos fuertes. Veamos a los más poderosos tanques que combatieron en la Segunda Guerra Mundial volver a encontrarse pero esta vez en bandos enfrentados: T-34/85 y SU-76, frente a Sherman, Pershing, Cromwell, y el poderoso Patton. Nos lo cuenta Esaú Rodríguez Para participar en el sorteo de matrixgames.com : War in the West CMANO - Command Air Naval Operations Sanctus Reach Gladius: Relics of War Strategic Command: World at War Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Field of Glory II The Operational Art of War IV Afghanistan 11 Utilizar #wargames10matrixgames @casusbellipod @MatrixGames_SPA **EJEMPLO DE TWIT PARA SORTEO** Mi juego preferido ed Battlestar Galactica Deadlock #wargames10matrixgames @casusbellipod @MatrixGames_SPA Plazo máximo 20 de Enero de 2019 Búscanos en casusbelli.top Y también en: Facebook, nuestra página es @casusbellipodcast https://www.facebook.com/CasusBelliPodcast Telegram, nuestro canal es @casusbellipodcast https://t.me/casusbellipodcast Nuestro chat de aviones es https://t.me/aviones10 Twitter, como @casusbellipod @CasusBelliPod Pinterest, como @casusbellipod, https://es.pinterest.com/casusbellipod ¿Queréis contarnos algo? También puedes escribirnos a casus.belli.pod@gmail.com Si te ha gustado, y crees que nos lo merecemos, nos sirve mucho que nos des un like, que es el corazoncito que sale en el episodio en el móvil arriba a la derecha, si nos escuchas desde la app de ivoox, sea android o IOS.

Check out the Sound Education Podcast Conference at Harvard University, where you can meet yours truly and listen to some brilliant minds in podcasting over 2-3 November 2018!Episode 33: Chinese Chequers continues where we left off last time, as the implications of the American approach to Korea and Taiwan are heavily felt in Beijing. Mao now had reason to believe that the war could be turned to his advantage, and that a Chinese orientated Korean satellite on the sensitive border region was worth fighting for. It would also demonstrate the Chinese strength, and give Mao a chance to pose as a defender of communism, which was important for his reputation and self-image both at home and abroad. First, we examine a different but revealing new development in the United Nations, as India takes the lead in proposing a ceasefire arrangement. Predictably, this proposal failed, but it anticipated India’s later activism in the name of a Korean peace deal, and to some American figures, Chinese willingness to discuss the measure signified that communism was not universal in its foreign policy. Far from following the same policy, China and the Soviets would pursue their own interests, and in early July Mao, unlike Stalin, was still willing to talk about peace, especially if such a deal enabled Chinese Communist representatives to sit in the UN General Assembly for the first time.In the meantime, Mao prepared for the worst, but it wasn’t until mid-August that the American intention to unify the peninsula was announced. This carefully timed announcement, coming as it did when the allied perimeter at Pusan was judged secure, forced Mao to dispense with peace talks and compelled him to advance his plans for an invasion of the North in support of Kim Il-sung. Now that the American-led UN coalition would be seeking the expulsion of Kim’s regime, Mao knew he could not allow the allies to succeed, for it would be disastrous to Chinese security and prestige. At the same time though, the Truman administration continued to send Mao mixed signals, as the countdown towards the Inchon landings began.******Music used:“Go To Work You Jerk”, by Benny Bell released in 1948, available: https://archive.org/details/BennyBell SPONSORS1) Use the code WDF15 to get 15% off your stylish new pair of headphones/earphones/listening things2) To access some fascinating books, nerd out with like minded enthusiasts, further your knowledge of some classical works, get 25% off your first three months AND help the show, head on over to onlinegreatbooks.com!Remember to BEFIT!B is for blogE is for email wdfpodcast@hotmail.comF is for Facebook, the Page and the GroupI is for iTunes, please rate, review and subscribeT is for TELL ANYONE!1) Pre-order our book on the Thirty Years War 2) Are you TeamFerdinand or

Episode 31: Laying Down The Gauntlet looks at the other side of the coin and how the Americans reacted to the developing war in the late summer of 1950. MacArthur attempted to follow War Plan SL-17, which stipulated that a landing at Inchon should take place in response to a Northern surge down the peninsula, but problems existed in this plan, and MacArthur faced a conundrum throughout July 1950 as he tried to adapt to the curious nature of the communist advance. Pusan, it was clear, would be the holding action, and the test of allied mettle before reinforcements arrived. What was also clear in the Truman administration was that the time was right to present its first of many appeals to the public and to Congress. The policy aim of NSC 68 and the requirements within the defence budget necessitated that the President acted fast and did not hesitate to request, in consideration of the urgent state of affairs in Korea, some emergency funding increases. In addition, the apparently contradictory policy of appeasement towards the Chinese was adopted. This, as we’ll see, was pursued only because of the momentary vulnerability of the defenders at Pusan – if the Chinese intervened now, in late July-early August, all would surely be lost. Far better it would be to see the Chinese involve themselves AFTER the reinforcements had arrived and triumphs had been achieved. This, indeed, was the outcome eventually reaches. Little did Mao Zedong know, while he cautiously welcomed the allied approaches and watched the conflict unfold on the peninsula somewhat nervously, that all was proceeding according to the plans of everyone but his own.********Music used: “While They Were Dancing Around”, by Eddie Morton released in 1914. Available: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Eddie_Morton/Antique_Phonograph_Music_Program_04282015/While_They_Were_Dancing_Around_-_Eddie_Morton SPONSORS1) Use the code WDF15 to get 15% off your stylish new pair of headphones/earphones/listening things2) To access some fascinating books, nerd out with like minded enthusiasts, further your knowledge of some classical works, get 25% off your first three months AND help the show, head on over to onlinegreatbooks.com!Remember to BEFIT!B is for blogE is for email wdfpodcast@hotmail.comF is for Facebook, the Page and the GroupI is for iTunes, please rate, review and subscribeT is for TELL ANYONE!1) Pre-order our book on the Thirty Years War 2) Are you TeamFerdinand or TeamFrederick ? It's time to pick a side, and a t-shirt! 3) Don't forget of course to support WDF on Patreon to access ad-free episodes with the scripts... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

To wrap up my series on the Korean War, I've got a shorter episode featuring just me talking about the games I played. I never get to as many as I'd like--my geeklists are aspirational and for reference rather than predictive!--and the same is true of movies. Nonetheless, my exploration of this subject has been a satisfying one. I went into it not knowing much about the conflict that inaugurated the Cold War, and the defining historical event of my father's generation. Between games, books, movies, magazines, and other podcasts, I now understand considerably more. What I enjoy most of all is that I feel like I "get" the overall narrative arc of this piece of history. There's the war itself, with its milestone events (invasion, retreat, Pusan perimeter defense, amphibious invasion to the rear at Inchon, reversal of the invasion, Chinese intervention, retreat from the Yalu and escape from Chosin...). There's also the political machinations going on from the end of WW2 to this episode. Once again, I'm struck by how much I enjoy the old/traditional style of wargaming, with its hexmaps, ZOCs, OOBs, and reinforcement schedules. Even plain, old IGO-UGO rules systems. I recognize those systems have their limitations, but they really help me learn more about a subject. In a related way, I confirmed for myself that I don't really care for tactical systems. When they include the things that are necessary at that scale (LOS, opportunity fire, etc.), I just find that the game rules get in the way of my appreciation of the game and its depictions.      [         -Mark   Remember to follow along & chime in on my geeklist/discussion) for all of my Korean War explorations. If you're a wargamer on social media, follow me on Twitter (@WargamesToGo). Feedback is always welcome. And if you want to anticipate my next podcast series on D-Day, check out its own geeklist.

Koreapodden berättar om AKA-films produktion av dokumentären om de svenska Koreaveteranerna. Koreaveteranerna tjänstgjorde på det svenska Röda korssjukhuset i Pusan under - och en tid efter - Koreakriget, som pågick från 1950 till 1953. I det här första avsnittet intervjuar militärhistoriker Per Iko filmens initiativtagare, Lars Frisk, samt filmens producent, Peter Nordström.

Danska poeten Ursula Andkjær Olsen använder flytande polyfoni och flerstämmighet. Författare Peter Tai Christensen skrev boken Schlagerbög. Schlager styrkte hans identitet när han kom ut som bög. Danska poeten Ursula Andkjær Olsen nominerades 2009 till Nordiska rådets Litteraturpris för sitt överväldigande diktkoncept Havet är en scen. Med flytande polyfoni, flerstämmighet, vill hon visa att världen inte är enkel, att motsatta stämmor spelar dynamiskt tillsammans. Så som det gör i ett verk av Bach eller hos Pelle Gudmundsen Holmgreen. - Ingen har någonsin tänkt på örat som själens spegel trots att örat är helt stilla och därför skulle var mer i överensstämmelse med begreppet spegel än ögat, säger Ursula Andkjær Olsen som även är musikvetare och startade som klassisk pianist.    Tidigt misstrodde hon språket och kunde varken uttrycka sig själv eller lyssna på andra genom orden, säger hon. Genom skönlitteratur upptäckte hon att det skrivna språket hade en helt annan rymd så hon utbildade sig vid Författarskolan i Köpenhamn. Ursula Andkjær Olsen debuterade 2000 med Lulus sånger och tal, som är översatt till svenska. Därefter gav hon ut Syndfloder, Atlas över hål i världen, Äktenskapet mellan vägen och utvägen, Skönheten hänger på träden och 2008 kom diktsamlingen Havet är en scen.   Vi möter också Peter Tai Christensen som skrev boken Schlagerbög. Huvudpersonen lånar den kvinnliga divans röst för att uttrycka sina egna känslor. Divorna får gärna vara från Kroatien. - Spektrat för kvinnor i schlagervärlden är större än i popvärlden, hävdar Peter Tai Christensen. I Eurovision Song Contest tillåts kvinnor vara subjekt. De är starka, desperata, svaga eller lyckliga. Peter föddes i den sydkoreanska hamnstaden Pusan och adopterades, tre månader gammal, av danska föräldrar och växte upp i Aalborg. I Stockholm läste han genusvetenskap och socialantropologi och han har ingått partnerskap med en svensk man. Peter Tai arbetar som utredare inom området likabehandling vid Unionen. Tidigare var han utredare hos Jämställdhetsombudsmannen och Diskrimineringsombudsmannen. - Schlager spelade stor roll för mig i min egen kommaut-process som bög. Den stärkte min identitet, berättar Peter Tai Christensen.   Spellista:   SIGNATUR Wintergarden Maja S.K. Ratkje Maja S.K. Ratkje River Mouth Echoes TZADIK   Virujen u te Dorde Novkovic, c. Ante Mutra Tulija, a. Severina Vukovi Pogled ispod obrva Croatia Records 5699057   Vuggesang Peter Bruun Helena Gjerris, mezzosopran. Ensemble Figura Miki Alone - Seven Songs For A Mad Woman FIGURA 01   Mätthaus-Passion J S Bach Karl Richter, dir. Tenor [Evangelist, Arias]: Peter Schreier; Baritone [Jesus]: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; Soprano [Arias, First Maid, Pilate's Wife]: Edith Mathis; Contralto [Arias, Second Maid]: Janet Baker; Bass [Arias, Judas, Peter, Pilate, High Pries J.S. Bach: Mätthaus-Passion Archiv Produktion 1979   String Quartet No. 9, "Last Ground" Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen Kronos Quartet HOLMGREEN: Kronos Plays Holmgreen SACD DACAPO 6.220548   Symphony-Antiphony Antiphony Pelle Gudmunsen-Holmgreen Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Leif Segerstam, conductor Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen Symphony-Antiphony Dacapo DCCD 9010   1.1      KVARTETT FÖR PIANO, VIOLIN, VIOLA & VIOLONCELL NR 1 G-MOLL OP 25 (ARR)  /1861-67, ORKESTRERAD 1937/ 2) SATS 2, INTERMEZZO: ALLEGRO NON TROPPO BRAHMS, JOHANNES (C) SCHÖNBERG, ARNOLD /ORKESTRERING/ (ARR) RAISKIN, DANIEL (DIR) RHEINISCHE PHILHARMONIE (KOBLENZ) /STAATSORCHESTER RHEINISCHE PHILHARMONIE/ (ORK) SYST: YMJA Inspelad: TYSKLAND  2006   Cage: Sonatas & Interludes For Prepared Piano: Sonata XIII John Cage Maro Ajemian, piano Gay American Composers Vol 2 Composers Recording CRI CD 750   If I Told Him A COMPLETE PORTRAIT OF PICASSO  /UR: THE MAKING OF AMERICANS, 1925/ STEIN, GERTRUDE /1874-1946/ (A) STEIN, GERTRUDE /UPPLÄSNING/ (TAL)                                   Kort SIGNATUR Maja S.K. Ratkje Maja S.K. Ratkje River Mouth Echoes TZADIK   Cvet z juga Andrej Babic Alenka Gotar, sång. Slovenien, 2007. Eurovision Song Contest Helsinki 2007 CMC Entertainment A/S 5 708 758 67 1095   Neka mi ne svane Petar Graso Danijela Martinovic, sång. Kroatien 1998 Nabolje Godine Croatia Records 3 850125 397557   Oro Zeljko Joksimovic, c. Dejan Ivanovic, a. Jelena Tomasevic, sång. Serbien, 2008 CMC Entertainment A/S 7 332421 031169   Virujen u te Dorde Novkovic, c. Ante Mutra Tulija, a. Severina Vukovi Pogled ispod obrva Croatia Records 5699057

社交英语微信课 咨询报名：abcjust9微信授课 随时随地学习精品小班 逐一纠音场景对话 轻松联想 朗朗上口投资自己 提升竞争实力世界交友 交流无忧学习语言需要坚持，相信坚持的力量Tim: Were are you from California, Jessica?Jessica: Well, my family is in California now, but we'refrom Korea originally.Tim: Oh, my mother is Korean from Seoul! Are you  fromSeoul?Jessica: No, we're not from Seoul. We're from Pusan. Tim: So is your first language Korean?Jessica: Yes, it is.关注微信公众号：江山国际英语，发现更多有趣、有用的知识。

Eva Chaewon Yoo from Technode joined us in a conversation to discuss the South Korea technology startup ecosystem. She offered a comprehensive overview in how one can navigate the startup ecosystem from Seoul to Pusan, the five booming startup verticals, the key investors from angel investors to venture capital and the interaction with the Chaebol The post Episode 148: The South Korea technology startup ecosystem with Eva Yoo appeared first on Analyse Asia.

On September 16th the Eighth Army begins its breakout from the Pusan perimeter.  North Korean resistance begins to weaken.  The American retake the City of Taejon finding evidence of North Korean killings of civilians and prisoners of war.  The Eighth Army links up the Tenth Corp.  A biography of Lieutenant General Milburn, the commander of the First Corp.

ELT  Live Webcast'Start  of the Semester - University Edition'August 28, 2014A Group of University Instructors in Korea 'hangout' and discuss our approaches to the first week or two of classes and what projects and goals we're working on for this coming semester. ParticipantsLinks MentionedDoctopus Chrome Add-on, How-to VideoGoogle ClassroomPowtoonQuizletSocrative.comKaMALL ConferenceKakao TalkJon Bergman (Flipped Classroom Guy) in KoreaLauren's Group Work Presentation HandoutDan's Composition Class Syllabus and Course SitesBrian's Course Site and English CafeJeff's  Sites for  ENG317, LearningCALL, and Student Talk ShowsNext Show: Tuesday, September 2, 2014  8pmKST, 1100GMT Global TimesEvent Pages: Google+  Topic: Hows, Whats, and Whys (or why nots) of class websites and other online resources.  Chat Log Below  jefflebow We'll be starting soon... Stay tuned.  Gast 317   Hi to all from an Englishman in North Germany.  Sung Hee Lim   hello~~~^^ Sung Hee Lim   welcome to ELT Live, Gast 317  Gast 317   Thanks! Gast 317 = Dennis (Newson) Osnabrueck, Germany. jefflebow Dennis, can you hear the audio? Gast 317   Very clearly. Daniel Cross   I'm now following through chat, I'm a bit too distracted to keep up with the cam  Daniel Cross   Why am i undefined Robert Dickey   Rob Dickey is watching... Daniel Cross   Why am i undefined  Daniel Cross   there we go  Nina Liakos   Hello all from Maryland, USA  Daniel Cross   Hi nina  Nina Liakos   That's a lot of preps! 

Simple past regular verbs – beginners Hi and welcome to another great lesson from New English Academy. I’m your host Giles Parker and today we’re going to look at one of the few nice and predictable things in English grammar – the simple past for regular verbs. Simple past regular is so regular, even new verbs, like ‘to google’ follow the rules! Our comprehension text is about two cross-cultural problems when people from one culture visited another culture. This lesson is aimed at beginner learners of English but there is something here for everyone. Check out the website, New English Academy.com for the interactive online grammar and vocabulary learning games, comprehension tests and pronunciation practice for simple past regular verbs. And, if you like what you hear, please add a comment or a review on iTunes or Stitcher Radio or send me an email and let me know how I can improve this. First I’ll talk about the meaning of the simple past, then look at the rules for spelling for the affirmative and negative, then how to make yes/no questions and finally we’ll find out which wh questions take ‘did’ and which don’t. Phew, that seems like a lot but it is all worth it. I’ll save irregular verbs like ‘do’, ‘go’ and ‘be’ etc for another lesson. You can guess that the simple past talks about – yep! - the past, so that is things before now. But what kind of things and what kind of past does it talk about? Well, the simple past talks about things that have finished, that are complete, over with. It is used to tell stories. Also, very importantly, we usually know WHEN specifically, not just before now, because there is often a time marker like, ‘last month’ or ’10 years ago’ or ‘in March’ or ‘in 1989’, or ‘yesterday’ etc as part of the statement. If there isn’t a time marker in the statement, then we have already said the WHEN before or we know that the listener already knows what we are talking about. Simple past regular verbs are easy to form – which makes life easier for English learners. All you have to do is add ‘-d’, ‘-ed’ or ‘-ied’ to the end of the base form of the verb. They don’t change with the person. How do you know when to add ‘-d’, ‘-ed’ or ‘-ied’? Check how the verb ends AND check if the last vowel is stressed or not. Let’s start with the easy rules first. · If a verb ends with a consonant e.g. k, p, or n, etc, then just add –ed. o Last year I worked in Perugia. o I watched a fine game of rugby yesterday. Did you notice all the time markers? They are very useful and really help us. English speakers get kind of uncomfortable when they don’t know WHEN something is happening. They don’t like vague time and usually try to be very specific about WHEN, oh, and WHO. Back to the rules. · If a verb ends with an e, then just add –d. o I really like living in Italy but I also liked living in Japan. o I hope the economy improves, but I hoped that last year too. · If a verb ends in a vowel (a, e, or o) AND a y, then just add –ed to the y. o I stayed in Japan for 16 years. o I really enjoyed my time there. · If a verb ends in a consonant and y then change the y to –ied. o I tried to speak Japanese every day. o I studied at a language school for a while. · It is also important to check how the verb sounds. If a verb ends in a vowel which is stressed and one consonant, then double the consonant and add –ed. o I stopped living there over ten years ago. o I planned to move to America. · If a verb ends in two vowels and a consonant then don’t double the consonant; just add –ed. o The weather was bad last week. It rained for days. o I shouted at my daughter after she came home very late last night. · If a verb ends in two consonants, don’t double the last consonant, just add –ed. o I wanted to be an explorer when I was a kid. o The teachers never helped me do this. · Lastly, watch out for those tricky Brits. British speakers of English double the last consonant in verbs that end in l such as travel which becomes travelled, cancel – cancelled, excel – excelled. Can you think of other verbs that end in l? So, to summarize the rules so far – make sure you show WHEN something happened with a time marker. Make sure you are talking about something that is finished. Check the spelling and pronunciation of the verb. You can get more information and practice on how to pronounce the verb endings in the online lesson Now, how about making negatives? This is another of those rare moments when English is easy. Just add ‘did not’ or ‘didn’t’ to the base form of the verb. You don’t have to change the verb, you don’t have to show the number, the base form stays the same. The WHEN is in ‘didn’t. For example, · I didn’t live in New York when I lived in America. · I didn’t study at all last week. Don’t forget to emphasize the first syllable of ‘didn’t’ just to make sure people know it is negative. How about yes/no questions? Again, use ‘did’ and move the subject. Don’t change the verb. Why? Because the time is shown in ‘did’! Brilliant! Well done, English! Look at these examples. · Did you open the window? · Did you start the car OK? Do you remember how to pronounce yes/no questions? Listen to my voice – did you get it? The intonation rises up at the end. Remember, the grammar AND the intonation help you transfer your meaning to the other person. If you want to emphasize the time of your answer just repeat the ‘did’. For example; · Did you start the car OK this morning? Yes, I did thanks. · Did you open the window? No, I didn’t. What about wh questions. Well, for regular verbs, use ‘did’ UNLESS the question is WHO or WHAT and the answer is about the subject. Check out these examples. · Who arrived this morning? · When did you arrive? · Where did you live before? · What happened yesterday? · Why did you cook that? · How did you manage to do that? Did you see the differences? So, Wh questions take ‘did’ EXCEPT WHO and WHAT. Instead, just put the simple past form of the verb after WHO or WHAT. Finally I wanted to show you that these rules work well with new words too. For example, the internet services company, Google, is so good at what it does that it has become a verb. Isn’t that incredible? So when people look for something online, they often ‘google’ it. A quick test – is ‘to google’ a regular English verb? It seems to be – try it in the simple past: · I googled fishing gear yesterday and came up with a whole bunch of different websites. · Why did you google that? · I didn’t google sea-fishing things though. Try it with other tests – how do you use ‘to google’ in the future, or with modal auxiliaries? It seems to be regular – just like other regular verbs that end in e, just add –d. That is one of the nice things about English and I bet most other languages too. When you have a rule you can use it to test things you don’t know. While you are learning English, always use the rules you know to test the evidence and maybe then you can predict how the language works. It will give you more confidence and help you so much as you learn. In the end you will become more in control of your learning, which is so important. And a quick warning – watch out for some speakers of American English who sometimes use the simple past for when they mean the present perfect, e.g. ‘Did you eat yet?’ ‘Yeah, I ate already.’ These tenses have completely different meanings but some speakers will use to mean the other. Check out the online lesson on the website for more information on the present perfect. OK, enough of my rant. Now we’re going to listen to or read the comprehension text which talks about how people from one culture had a couple of small problems while they visited another culture. As always look out for examples of the grammar point. Comprehension text: We didn’t understand the other culture These two stories about people who had small problems in other cultures come from a great book called ‘Intercultural Interactions’ by Richard Brislin. North Americans ordering food in a South American restaurant A few years ago, two Americans, Candy and Ron visited their friends Juliana and Gustavo in Porto Alegre, Brazil. One evening, Juliana and Gustavo invited their guests to a nice restaurant in town. When they all arrived, the waitress showed them to their table. Then, she put just one menu in the middle of the table. The Americans were very surprised at this, but their Brazilian friends were not at all worried. Ron called the waitress back and asked her why she had put just the one menu on the table for all of them. The waitress replied that the menus were all the same so it wouldn’t be a problem and went back to the kitchen. Candy and Ron were confused by this but Juliana and Gustavo were relaxed and enjoying themselves. Everyone looked at the menu together. The North Americans tried to remember their own choices and complained to each other about how rude the waitress was. The Brazilians accepted the situation and decided what they wanted together. Why were the Americans unhappy? Why were the Brazilians comfortable? Well, Candy and Ron expected to get a menu each, like they did at home in America. They expected to choose their own dishes themselves. But, in Brazil, often people choose dishes together, in a group. The Brazilians expected to share the menu and talk about their choices together. Candy and Ron had to learn that sometimes when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Korean time in America Mr and Mrs Kim emigrated from Pusan in South Korea to America in the late 1980’s. They settled in to their new home in Colorado and slowly adapted to their new lives. They learned English and joined a local church and other organizations. They made new friends and all seemed well. But, they still noticed differences between American ways of doing things and Korean ways. And they sometimes missed the old ways. For example, in Korea, their friends often dropped in to chat. They never planned or arranged to meet, their friends just stopped by when they wanted. And they stopped by their friends’ too. But in Colorado, their American friends never stopped by or dropped in for a cup of tea and a chat. They always arranged meetings and appointments. It seemed like friendship was a type of business.  Mr Kim talked about this with an American neighbour, who immediately invited Mr and Mrs Kim to dinner at her house, next Friday, at 7:30pm. Mr Kim accepted of course, but he was disappointed and frustrated.   Why was he disappointed? Well, Mr Kim expected the neighbour to understand what he wanted. He wanted more informal, social friendships. He wanted time to be more relaxed with his new friends and neighbours. Unfortunately, his new host culture isn’t like that. Most Americans prefer formal time arrangements and are not happy with friends just dropping in or stopping by. They prefer to schedule time together. Mr and Mrs Kim just had to learn to live with the new way of doing things in their new home. What do you feel most comfortable with?

Poetry Night IIIFebruary 3, 2001The old Monk(the early days of Poetry+)

 Produced bySteven S. Bammel andVince Rubino, and hosted by Tom Tucker.November 16, 2011The Korea Business Interview SeriesDr. David Dolinger"A Participant in Korean History and in Korean-Led Innovation of the Global Medical Industry"Dr. David Dolinger, Vice-President at Seegene, Inc. in Seoul, Korea* * *The contrasts between the Korea of the 1970s and the Korea of today are vast and few people bring as unique a perspective to these changes as Dr. David Dolinger, who, having spent nearly 30 years outside Korea, returned in early 2011 as vice president at Seegene, one of Korea’s most dynamic and forward-looking companies.With an academic and professional background in the medical field, Dr. Dolinger shares about his work as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Korea in the late 1970s, including his incredible involvement in the Gwangju Incident of 1980. His uncommon understanding of Korean culture and the Korean mindset also contribute to his many insights about working at Seegene and the future of medicine in Korea and the world.Deepen your understanding of Korea by listening as David shares from his experiences and expertise!Original Post, Transcript, & Discussioncan be found on Korea Business Central

 Produced by Steven S. Bammel, and hosted by Tom Tucker.October 9, 2011The Korea Business Interview SeriesCommissioner Hank Ahn"Korea Is a Great Destination for Foreign Direct Investment"Hank Ahn is Commissioner of Invest KOREA.* * *For too long, the advantages of Korea as a foreign direct investment destination have been overlooked while overseas companies have poured money into economies of Japan and China. However, with Korea’s rise to economic strength, the US Commerce Department reports that American companies’ investments in Korea have been more lucrative than anywhere else over the past decade.It’s time for a new perspective on foreign direct investment to Korea and it is the role of Invest KOREA to help foreign investors find and execute their business plans in Korea successfully. In this interview, Invest KOREA Commissioner Hank Ahn shares with KBC listeners about the many advantages of doing business in Korea, as well as the amazing and free services provided by Invest KOREA.Original Post, Transcript, & Discussioncan be found on Korea Business Central

 Produced by Eun-Shil Parkand Steven S. Bammel, and hosted by Tom Tucker.September 2, 2011The Korea Business Interview SeriesProfessor Ha-Joon Chang"23 Things They Don’t Tell You About (Korean) Capitalism"Professor Ha-Joon Chang is Professor in the Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, and author of the international best-seller 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism.* * *The Korean economic miracle was not achieved through policies of free trade or hands-off capitalism. But, in the last decade, the Korean government has jumped on the global free market bandwagon, deregulating industries and signing free trade agreements with many other countries.One voice that has consistently spoken out to remind people of forgotten history is Professor Ha-Joon Chang. Having lived through the Korean economic boom, and studied and taught development economics in Europe, Professor Chang brings a much-needed alternative perspective to the mainstream.With a knack for explaining complicated concepts in easy-to-understand language, in his latest book, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism, Professor Chang helps KBC listeners understand the connections between global generalities and their specific applications to Korea.You may not, in the end, agree with all of Professor Chang’s conclusions, but you can’t deny that he points out many truths of business and economics that others often overlook. His compelling perspective makes the debate richer and this interview contributes to an understanding of Korea and Korean business today.Listen to the interview first, and then go out and buy the book. It’s available in at least eight languages.Original Post, Transcript, & Discussioncan be found on Korea Business Central

Korea News Talk#3 August 20, 2011A collaborative project brought to you by  KoreaBusinessCentral.com & Koreabridge.netParticipants: Adam Cave, Stafford Lumsden, Charles Ahn, Daniel Lafontaine, & Jeff Lebow Topics: The effect of  the U.S. credit downgrade and global economic downturn on Korea, SC First Bank and Hanjin Union issues,  HomePlus/Tesco Success,  Samsung's pass on Android, & Korea's sodium standing Chat Log &  Story Links Below: Story Links    Economic Downturnlatimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-south-korea-economy-20110812,0,4486389.storyonline.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110819-706332.html  Unions & Doing Business in Koreakoreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2011/07/123_91721.html http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2011/08/19/0200000000AEN20110819009400320.HTMLkoreabusinesscentral.com/forum/topics/korea-business-central-exclusive-interview-tom-brown-homeplus-tes   AssortedHow Samsung Lost the Opportunity to Own Androidhttp://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/08/12/2011081201089.htmlsynapse.koreamed.org/Synapse/Data/PDFData/0161NRP/nrp-3-328.pdfhttp://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_northkorea/492633.htmlChat Log [11:46] Steven Bammel: But they were close. [11:46] Steven Bammel: Very close [11:46] Don Southerton: does the book discuss? [11:46] Steven Bammel: The employees dance in the aisles several times per day... [11:47] Steven Bammel: The employees of Homeplus, that is... [11:47] Steven Bammel: Don - Yes, the book does talk about how much JH Park liked Chung Ju Yung. [11:57] Steven Bammel: Can some of our other chat room attendees introduce themselves? [11:57] Steven Bammel: click "Edit nickname" to change your user ID... [12:02] Steven Bammel: Daniel's comment is prophetic... [12:02] Steven Bammel: Wait for the next KBC interview... [12:04] Hyungsik Yoon: What is the topic in this chat room? [12:04] Steven Bammel: Hyungsik - Whatever we want! [12:05] Hyungsik Yoon: Just learned our dear leader Kim Jongil is visiting Russia [12:05] Steven Bammel: Yeah, I saw that. [12:05] Steven Bammel: Jeff - Jongil Kim is in Russia [12:05] Hyungsik Yoon: He will meet with Putin probably in Vladivostok [12:06] Steven Bammel: Jeff - Are you watching this? [12:06] Steven Bammel: Amazing!! [12:07] Steven Bammel: Whew... [12:07] Steven Bammel: I was worried we'd miss this... [12:07] Hyungsik Yoon: Gas piple line from Russia to South Korea via North Korea will be the main topic [12:07] Hyungsik Yoon: between the two men [12:08] JL:http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/08/12/2011081201089.html [12:09] [12:09] Hyungsik Yoon: This is no good news. No salt on Rramyeon? No taste! [12:09] Steven Bammel: Best idea: skip the ramyoen [12:09] Steven Bammel: I won't eat it. [12:09] Steven Bammel: My kids like it though... [12:10] JL:http://synapse.koreamed.org/Synapse/Data/PDFData/0161NRP/nrp-3-328.pdf [12:10] Hyungsik Yoon: I probably have world record in ramyeon consumtion. Minimum five a week [12:10] Steven Bammel: Wow! [12:12] Steven Bammel: Yes, I'll stick with makgeolli [12:12] Hyungsik Yoon: Makgeolli doesn't go with me as I get sick the following day. So is my friend [12:12] Hyungsik Yoon: Soju, that is [12:13] Steven Bammel: You should try the Buja brand of makgeolli. [12:13] Hyungsik Yoon: Buja? Rich person? [12:14] Hyungsik Yoon: or Father and Son [12:17] Steven Bammel: It's the makgeolli brand I drink. [12:17] Steven Bammel: It doesn't make me sick at all. [12:20] Hyungsik Yoon: There are many brands. The most famous is Il**** makgeolli [12:20] Steven Bammel: Which one? [12:20] Hyungsik Yoon: Il**** is a small village near DMZ above Seoul, and soliders liked it [12:21] Steven Bammel: Oh. [12:21] Steven Bammel:http://seongpo****.koreanconsulting.com/2010/07/good-makgeolli.html [12:21] Steven Bammel: This is the one I drink [12:22] Hyungsik Yoon: Somehow I can't open the link [12:22] Steven Bammel:http://seongpo****.koreanconsulting.com/2010/07/good-makgeolli.html  

Tanjore Splan was born in St. Ignace, Michigan and grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. He served in the Korean War. He joined the Army at age 17, and decided to specialize in filed artillery. He trained at Fort Bragg, NC where he trained for the airborne and was then shipped to Korea, where he served with the 5th Regimental Combat Team in operations against the Chinese and North Koreans throughout the Korean Peninsula from Pusan into North Korea and back in 1950 and 1951.

John Erickson is a Korean War veteran who served with the U.S. Army from November 1949 to 1953. Erickson discusses his training and service in Washington and Alaska before he was sent to Korea. He joined the 2nd Division on its advance from Pusan to the Yalu River, and was taken prisoner during a counterattack by the Chinese Red Army, and spent the remainder of the war different Chinese POW camps, and provides detailed descriptions of his experiences as a POW.

Produced bySteven Bammel and hosted by Tom Tucker.August 9, 2011The Korea Business Interview SeriesTom Brown"Homeplus: Tesco’s Success Story on Entering the Korean Market"Tom Brown is Site Research Director at Homeplus Korea, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tesco of the UK.* * *Tesco’s entry into the Korean market contains valuable lessons for anyone doing or wishing to do business in Korea. While other foreign brands like Wal-Mart and Carrefour have failed, Tesco’s Korean brand, Homeplus, is moving from strength to strength as it closes the gap with the market leader, E-mart.This interview covers many fascinating aspects of the Homeplus story in Korea. From its early partnership with Samsung, to an extraordinary level of office culture localization, as well as matching uniqueness of the Korean consumer market, Tesco and Homeplus have achieved an amazing success.Tom Brown has been with Tesco in Asia during this time, both in Korea and China, leading the company’s efforts to locate new stores. His insider perspective leaves us with many valuable insights about business in Korea (and even a little about business in China!).This interview is a “must-listen” for anyone with an interest in business in Korea.Original Post, Transcript, & Discussioncan be found on Korea Business Central

Koreabridge Hangout w/ Matthew Weigand, Stafford Lumsden,  & Jeff Lebow August 1, 2011 Tech in KoreaTopics:  Google Privacy IssuesIE6 finally on its way outMinerva & Korea Defamation LawKoreans encouraged to switch from Naver to GoogleGalaxy Tab 10.1  Subscribe to Koreabridge Hangouts

Korea Business Talk #2 July 30, 2011A collaborative project brought to you by  KoreaBusinessCentral.com & Koreabridge.net   Participants:  Jeff Lebow,  Joshua Davies, Hyungsik Yoon, Adam H Cave Subsribe to Korea Business TalkTopics & Chat Log BelowNews Items & TopicsFrom HyungSik's Last Two Weeks in KoreaA high rise building rocks to Tae BoPrivate school whistle blowers make a lot of moneyHyundai workers arrested for gamblingJTEKT builds a bearing plant in Korea Other StoriesKorea to ban Japanese lawmakers from UlleungdoThe rain this week in Korea!HackingHackers Attack Internet Portal Nate and Cyworld Blog Majority of South Koreans’ data exposedRadiation-Free Food Bolsters South Korea's Exports to JapanBusan braces for ‘Hope Bus’ chaosChat Log[11:03] Jeff: http://lasttwoweekskorea.blogspot.com/ [11:06] Jeff: http://reformsymposium.com/ [11:08] Hyungsik Yoon : I can not join the webcast. It is much different from last time [11:09] Steven Bammel: Oh, very nice blog for HS! [11:18] netz: Hi guys [11:21] Steven Bammel: I'll sign in twice to bump up the numbers. [11:29] Jeff: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/07/29/bloomberg1376-LOD6HB07SXKX01-7858NMFT47U5C6VVVSBPLGFRLE.DTL [11:33] Jeff: that's what I meant - 70mm/hour [11:33] DolsotDan: The tancheon in Bundang was about 2 metres higher than usual on Wednesday, yet the soccer game at the Tancheon Sports Complex went ahead. [11:34] Steven Bammel: What's "tancheon in Bundang"? [11:37] DolsotDan: The Tancheon is the large stream that runs through Bundang and Seongnam and joins the Han at Olympic Stadium [11:39] Scott: agree with Josh completely [11:39] Scott: lol [11:39] DolsotDan: HOw about the black leather jacket 2MB sported after the Yeongpyeong incident [11:40] Jeff: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2011/07/19/Tae-Bo-blamed-for-building-shake/UPI-51641311101106/ [11:42] Scott: Psychoacoustics 101 [11:43] DolsotDan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam****g_Department_Store_collapse [11:44] DolsotDan: This terrible disaster springs to mind instantly [11:44] Scott: The contractors took bribes, and contruction was substandard [11:45] Scott: I think that there is a lot more transparency today, due to those incidents [11:46] Joshua Davies: definitely [11:48] Scott: don't worry about giving on air credit for my comments from the peanut gallery, Josh, I'm just trying to particiapte as much as possible [11:49] Scott: which means, when you hurry to do something, it usually gets done wrong the first time [11:50] DolsotDan: I'm not sure about bbali bbali, but definitely last minute last minute [11:50] Scott: or having to redo things 3 or 4 times [11:51] Scott: let's not talk about the re-calls then [11:53] Scott: it also has to do with the fact the customer support is MUCH stronger in foreign markets, than the local doemstic market, and that is why Koreans are usually complaining about Hyundai [11:53] Steven Bammel: I think the Genesis importing was mainly due to the price difference. [11:54] Jeff: http://www.recentpoker.com/news/hyundai-gamblers-2351.html [11:55] Scott: can't be as bad as http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/14/chrysler-workers-in-michigan-reportedly-caught-smoking-drinking-during-lunch/ [11:58] Jeff : http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2939559 [11:59] Scott: equal opportunity vilification of auto workers  http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2F2011%2F07%2F29%2Finternet-explorer-iq%2F&h=kAQCEfUlk [12:08] Scott: that has to be prety skewed data, just based on the fact the more people use IE than any other browser [12:08] DolsotDan: highest IQ - opera? [12:09] Scott: Don't tell KEB that Josh [12:10] Jeff : http://nielsfootman.com/korea-campaign-against-ie6-portals-ending-support-january/ [12:11] Jeff : http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2939313 [12:15] Scott: Unbelievable! [12:16] Scott: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/06/113_89881.html [12:17] Scott: KIM CHI!!! [12:19] DolsotDan: There hasn't been a decent Korean cooking show up to now - Kimchi Chronicles [12:20] DolsotDan: The celebrity chefs need to be on board, not just government messages [12:21] Jeff : http://www.crazykoreancooking.blogspot.com/ [12:23] DolsotDan: interesting show guys - just picked it up off the Korea Business Central Tweets [12:24] Steven Bammel: nice job guys!

Koreabridge Hangout July 25, 2011 Participants:Britt Kee, Chris Backe, Jason Teale, Jeff Lebow, & Steve Miller Topic:  The inspiration and economics of producing creative works (blogs, paintings, photos, videos, websites) in KoreaRelevant Links Britt: http://brittkee.com Chris: http://chrisinsouthkorea.com Jason: http://jasonteale.com Jeff: http://jefflebow.net/ Steve: http://qiranger.comYou Tube Users In Korea Independent Film Team KOREA Busan hobby photographers unite! Flickr Korea Images Seoul Photo ClubUlsan Online (Ulsan Pear archves)Agit - Busan Art Space

Korea Business Talk #1 July 16, 2011A collaborative project brought to you by  KoreaBusinessCentral.com & Koreabridge.net   Participants:  Jeff Lebow,  Joshua Davies, Daniel Lafontaine, Hyungsik Yoon, Adam H Cave, David Yoon, Don Southerton Subsribe to Korea Business TalkNext KBT Webcast: July 30 11amKSTNews Items & TopicsPyeongchang 2018 Olympics PyeongChang's Olympic bid chief credits teamwork, new marketing Rogge rules out N. Korea co-hosting Pyeongchang GamesChange in Unionization Laws Korean Multiple Labor Union Law Class Action Suit against AppleSouth Korean Lawyer Plans Class-Action Suit Agaist Apple Union attempt in Hyundai Alabama down the tubeHyundai Teaches UAW Best Factory Job Doesn't Need a Union Inflation/Interest Rates S. Korea to Encourage Fixed-Rate Loans to Curb Record Home Debt South Korea Consumer Prices Advance 4.4% Year on Year, More Than ForecastKoreans urged to abandon Naver in favor of Google Blogger Blasts Naver, Urges Korean to Go Google Lonestar Takeover of Korea Exchange Bank Lone Star, Hana Cut KEB Deal Price by 6%Chat Log[10:39] Jeff: Now we're streaming [10:47] Steven Bammel: Crystal clear [10:47] matt: audio excellent [10:48] Steven Bammel: It's not like your hair is going to be messed up... [10:50] Joshua Davies: Thanks Steven! [10:57] Steven Bammel: How about the match fixing in Korean soccer? [10:57] Steven Bammel: Japan's order to public servants not to ride Korean Airlines [10:58] Meebo Message: David is now known as David Yoon [10:58] David Yoon: Thank you for the invitation to this forum! [10:58] Steven Bammel: The typhoon on its way to Korea... [10:58] Steven Bammel: The continuous breakdowns of KTX lately [10:58] Jeff: David, would you like to join the Hangout? [10:58] Steven Bammel: I'm flipping through the paper... [10:59] Steven Bammel: No [10:59] Steven Bammel: I'll contact him now. [11:02] Steven Bammel: I don't know what the deal is with Don. [11:04] Steven Bammel: Jeff - I emailed you now. [11:12] Joshua Davies: Botique is a better way to say small [11:14] Steven Bammel: BTW, please shoot out the link to your social media networks right now... [11:14] Joshua Davies: all of mine is at joshuawdavies.com cheers! [11:35] Steven Bammel: I think Don's connection is coming and going... [11:39] Rahul: Rahul here; you're talking of a lot of topics (Dokdo, Apple) [11:39] Steven Bammel: Yes, it's a good discussion, isn't it? [11:39] Rahul: perhaps. ive just joined in. what's the agenda precisely? [11:40] Steven Bammel: Just a general discussion about the news. [11:40] Steven Bammel: Don Southerton is here to share about a specific business topic, but his connection is struggling. [11:43] Don C.: I think the comment about Chrome solving the problem might be true. Hangout has crashed Firefox and Safari on my Mac [11:47] Jeff: http://nielsfootman.com/blogger-slams-naver-urges-koreans-use-google/ [11:49] Rahul: Guys, please read my article titled "South Korea Beckons: Global Awareness and Cultural Sensitivity Strategies for Western Technical Communicators" at http://2brahulprabhakar.blogspot.com/2009/02/south-korea-beckons-global-awareness.html [11:57] Steven Bammel: Nice job! [12:00] tynessa: joshua you rock

Produced bySteven Bammel and hosted by Tom Tucker. July 13, 2011The Korea Business Interview SeriesYong Wook Jun, Ph.D."Business Lessons in Hallyu & Globalization at Solbridge School of Business in Daejeon"Yong Wook Jun, Ph.D. is Dean of Solbridge School of Business at Woosung University in Daejeon, Korea, as well as Director and Advisor to many Korean corporations.* * *Korea has been on a roll lately, and the Hallyu phenomenon that’s swept Asia, and is now making an impact in the West too, is a visible and powerful symbol of this success. In many ways, Korea has thrived on niche strategies, and no other educational institution in Korea more exemplifies both a niche strategy and efforts to maximize the benefits of Hallyu than Woosung University and Solbridge International School of Business.Yong Wook Jun, also known as Woody Jun, is the Vice President of Woosung University and Dean of SolBridge International School of Business in Daejeon, Korea. Dean Jun earned his bachelor’s degree at Seoul National University, his master’s at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in Illinois, and a Ph.D. from the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT.He was on the faculty of Chung-Ang University in Seoul for 22 years before taking his current position as Dean of SolBridge last year in 2010. Dean Jun has also served on the board of directors for many leading Korean multinational companies, including Hynix, Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motors, and SK Telecom.In this interview, Dean Jun shares valuable insights about business and education strategy in Korea from the perspective of Solbridge.Original Post & Discussioncan be found on Korea Business Central