Timeline of japan vs korea

JAPAN VS KOREA

For almost 2,000 years the Korean peninsula battled attempts by foreign invaders to conquer its entire territory

200 CE

THE WARRIOR EMPRESS ⁰²

The Empress Jingu leads an invasion of Silla and overruns its capital. She returns to Japan with much fanfare and plunder. The historiography of this conflict is muddled but it is deemed a starting point for examining Japan-Korea relations.

33 BCE

FIRST ENCOUNTER ⁰¹

Japan’s imperial records reveal a minor expedition to assist a beleaguered rival of the Silla kingdom along the peninsula’s southern coast. It is claimed Japanese troops are left behind to protect their local allies. The event is inauspicious and has little effect on regional politics.

1392

RISE OF JOSEON ⁰³

A military leader of the Goryeo kingdom organises a coup d’etat to avert war with China’s Ming Dynasty. The new government imposes strict social controls and a hierarchy between learned aristocrats known as yangban and commoners. The new era is threatened by imperial Japan’s constant belligerence.

1443

THE GYAHAE TREATY ⁰⁴

Joseon emissaries contact the Japanese samurai in Tsushima, an island chain a day’s journey from Kyushu, to establish trade. The resulting agreement allows the royal court in Hanyang to conduct informal diplomacy with both Japan’s imperial court and the Ashikaga shogunate, whose power is crumbling.

RISE OF TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI

Having climbed the ranks of the warlord Oda Nobunaga’s army during the late Sengoku era, the commander known as Hideyoshi earns the imperial court’s favour and is made regent. Although his role is ambiguous his ambitions are not; the conquest of East Asia captivates him.

PIRATES UNLEASHED

In a clear sign of the worsening relations with Japan, constant raids by the Wokou pirates begin to impact regional security as far as southern China and the violence peaks in 1555. The Joseon court blames Japan’s leaders for failing to curb the problem. A naval arms race begins in earnest to defeat the Wokou.