LEADERS & COMMANDERS

These figures each played a pivotal role in the centuries of conflict and colonialism that plagued Korea and Japan

TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI

A war veteran and a ruthless administrator, hubris led to his disastrous invasion of the Korean peninsula

Undeterred by his family’s low social status, Hideyoshi became a formidable leader in the sengoku era’s waning years. By the 1580s the imperial court in Kyoto recognised his talents, first with the honorific ‘Toyotomi’ and then the formal rank of taiko, and this gave Hideyoshi enough prestige and clout to act as Japan’s national leader.

Invading Joseon in 1592 was part of a Japanese foreign policy designed by Hideyoshi that sought to reorganise maritime trade routes (benefiting Japan) and build an empire. What he did not count on, no matter if the Joseon capital was razed and pillaged, was the national resistance his samurai legions faced. Unlike Japan, with a strict hierarchy dividing commoners and samurai, the Joseon state had a loyal population and an economic system that pivoted to sustaining a long war. It was not surprising that combat dragged on for years, with the eventual reinforcements sent over by China’s Ming dynasty overwhelming the Japanese.

Hideyoshi passed away in 1598 after he ordered another badly planned assault on Joseon. Aside from his foreign policy missteps he was an effective ruler who organised land rights, taxation and the civil service, and laid the groundwork for a modern Japanese military.

GENERAL OYAMA IWAO

A samurai whose life and career bridged the Tokugawa shogunate and the industrialised Empire of Japan, General Oyama was responsible for reorganising Japan’s army

With the bloodlines of two powerful clans – the Oyama and the Shimazu of Kagoshima – intermingling within his family, Oyama Iwao belonged to the rarest samurai generation: those who upheld the imperial throne during the rebellions of the 1860s and 1870s. As a junior officer he was also fortunate to have studied in Europe and receive a ‘modern’ education from French instructors. This resulted in the deep influence of French drill and tactics across the Japanese ground forces and was evident during battles against the Qing, or Manchu, troops during the 1890s.

History books ignore General Oyama’s importance to Japan’s empire-building but his role in organising a campaign in the Korean peninsula during the mid-1890s heralded the return of Japanese forces there three centuries after their defeat by the Joseon kingdom and its powerful navy. Un