Samurai Invasion: Japan's Korean War 1592 -1598

Rating:
Summary: Pretty, Informative Book
Review: Stephen Turnbull's lengthy account of the Imjin Wars is a curious mix of candid, yet agreeable, character depictions, and gritty, exhaustive battle narratives. As gracefully as he illustrates admiral Yi Sun-Sin and his successes with the turtle ship at the Battle of Tangp'o, he is able to lose the reader with complexly woven chronicles and the dozens of characters he aimlessly parades in and out of the account.
The most consistent characteristic of Samurai Invasion is its appearance. The elegant cover is only a preview to this aesthetically well-designed book. The photographs, sketches, charts, maps and color scheme fit nicely to please the reader, and nothing about it is distracting. Turnbull's extensive use of illustration supplements nicely the more bewildering elements as well as the eloquent pieces, making the well-crafted battle scenes virtually tangible, and the character-dense paragraphs of confusion almost understandable. Additionally, several pages each chapter are charmingly imprinted with barely perceptible watermarks of battles, warriors, and other significant images.
With his clear, vivid descriptions of the impish Japanese King Hideyoshi and the way he easily represents admiral Yi Sun-Sin's calculating intelligence, it is obvious that Turnbull could have written a simple, pleasing account of the Imjin Wars-if he had wanted to. With very few quality books on the topic, especially aimed at English speakers, that he chose to make his book as fact-dense as possible comes as no surprise. It is hard, however, to pinpoint the audience he had in mind. A pleasure reader may find himself sailing through the chapter on the defeat of the Japanese Armada, and then wonder, when the next chapter begins and the pace changes, why the entire book wasn't written to be so engaging. Similarly, a fact-seeking researcher might become annoyed by the flashy graphics and the accommodations to non-experts, recognizing that the size of the book could easily have been cut in half had it been designed to be less aesthetically agreeable.
Two chapters at the beginning and one at the end are dedicated to pre- and post war issues, comfortably providing historical context for the reader. Four appendices at the end also help fill in gaps, allowing those of us who couldn't get enough of admiral Yi Sun-Sin's turtle ship escapades to learn even more. There is a minutely perceptible imbalance throughout the book in favor of the Japanese perspective, but after two hundred fifty-six pages you will be too busy absorbing what you did learn than clamoring about what you did not.
Although tedious at points, you will come away with a greater understanding of a conflict scarcely known beyond circles of Asian history buffs. An easy read? No. But with careful reading you are guaranteed to learn everything you ever wanted to know-and more-about the Imjin Wars.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty, Informative Book
Review: Stephen Turnbull's lengthy account of the Imjin Wars is a curious mix of candid, yet agreeable, character depictions, and gritty, exhaustive battle narratives. As gracefully as he illustrates admiral Yi Sun-Sin and his successes with the turtle ship at the Battle of Tangp'o, he is able to lose the reader with complexly woven chronicles and the dozens of characters he aimlessly parades in and out of the account.
The most consistent characteristic of Samurai Invasion is its appearance. The elegant cover is only a preview to this aesthetically well-designed book. The photographs, sketches, charts, maps and color scheme fit nicely to please the reader, and nothing about it is distracting. Turnbull's extensive use of illustration supplements nicely the more bewildering elements as well as the eloquent pieces, making the well-crafted battle scenes virtually tangible, and the character-dense paragraphs of confusion almost understandable. Additionally, several pages each chapter are charmingly imprinted with barely perceptible watermarks of battles, warriors, and other significant images.
With his clear, vivid descriptions of the impish Japanese King Hideyoshi and the way he easily represents admiral Yi Sun-Sin's calculating intelligence, it is obvious that Turnbull could have written a simple, pleasing account of the Imjin Wars-if he had wanted to. With very few quality books on the topic, especially aimed at English speakers, that he chose to make his book as fact-dense as possible comes as no surprise. It is hard, however, to pinpoint the audience he had in mind. A pleasure reader may find himself sailing through the chapter on the defeat of the Japanese Armada, and then wonder, when the next chapter begins and the pace changes, why the entire book wasn't written to be so engaging. Similarly, a fact-seeking researcher might become annoyed by the flashy graphics and the accommodations to non-experts, recognizing that the size of the book could easily have been cut in half had it been designed to be less aesthetically agreeable.
Two chapters at the beginning and one at the end are dedicated to pre- and post war issues, comfortably providing historical context for the reader. Four appendices at the end also help fill in gaps, allowing those of us who couldn't get enough of admiral Yi Sun-Sin's turtle ship escapades to learn even more. There is a minutely perceptible imbalance throughout the book in favor of the Japanese perspective, but after two hundred fifty-six pages you will be too busy absorbing what you did learn than clamoring about what you did not.
Although tedious at points, you will come away with a greater understanding of a conflict scarcely known beyond circles of Asian history buffs. An easy read? No. But with careful reading you are guaranteed to learn everything you ever wanted to know-and more-about the Imjin Wars.

Rating:
Summary: An extremely worthy first book (in English) on the subject
Review: The Imjin Wars of 1592-1598 were pivotal in changing the face of North East Asia. The wars bankrupted Ming China, making it vulnerable to attacks from the Manchu (thus contributing quite a bit to ending the dynasty), traumatized and insulated Korea, and ended Japanese international adventurism till the 20th century and set the stage for the Tokogowa Shogunate. The book itself is very handsomely crafted, with a beautiful jacket and many color and b/w illustrations inside. Every other page is watermarked with the outline of the painting or print from the following page. One of the few cases where the books matches the expectations set forth by the cover. Turnbull has obviously spend a lot of time researching and it shows. He evenly displays the Japanese and Korean side of the war. An excellent first book on the subject written in English. He clearly shows how the Japanese method of war compared to and interacted with Chinese tactics based on sheer numbers and Korean guerilla and fortification based tactics. Also does justice to Admiral Yi's amazing naval victories at sea, and more importantly how it aided the Korean land battles and conversely frustrated the Japanese. Turnbull gives a good description of the unique Turtle Ship as well. The Imjin War was a very important event in Northeast Asian history, and hopefully this book will spur on more study into this area by observers in the West.

Rating:
Summary: A notable effort but incomplete
Review: Turnbull does a good job of detailing the Japanese and Korean aspects of this war but he almost totally ignores the Chinese who sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers to Korea. While Admiral Yi and his navy were certainly indispensable in cutting off Japanese supply lines, the Chinese armies were just as indispensable in besieging and rooting out the entrenched Japanese. In terms of sheer numbers, the Korean land forces were almost insignificant and their reliance on flails ineffective against the better armed Japanese. But yet Turnbull practically ignores the Chinese side and mentions maybe 2 Chinese generals by name while he details the various exploits of many Korean generals despite the fact that those exploits consist mainly of being slaughtered by the militarily more experienced Japanese. It's as if someone were to write a history of the 20th century Korean War and neglected to detail the Chinese side. Overall it's an interesting book but incomplete.

Rating:
Summary: A notable effort but incomplete
Review: Turnbull does a good job of detailing the Japanese and Korean aspects of this war but he almost totally ignores the Chinese who sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers to Korea. While Admiral Yi and his navy were certainly indispensable in cutting off Japanese supply lines, the Chinese armies were just as indispensable in besieging and rooting out the entrenched Japanese. In terms of sheer numbers, the Korean land forces were almost insignificant and their reliance on flails ineffective against the better armed Japanese. But yet Turnbull practically ignores the Chinese side and mentions maybe 2 Chinese generals by name while he details the various exploits of many Korean generals despite the fact that those exploits consist mainly of being slaughtered by the militarily more experienced Japanese. It's as if someone were to write a history of the 20th century Korean War and neglected to detail the Chinese side. Overall it's an interesting book but incomplete.

Rating:
Summary: The Accessible Imjin
Review: Turnbull's intended audience for this book on the Japanese invasion of Korea is the interested, educated layperson. From the large amount of amazing pictures, approachable, concise diction, modest length, and flashy cover, this is clearly not aimed at the hardbitten scholar. But don't think that there's only fluff here. Turnbull does a great job of putting a human face on proceedings that would otherwise seem so very remote 400 years later. To capture readers' interest, it is important to put them in the middle of the action, engaging their imaginations. It's the universal nature of emotion that allows the reader to relate to another human being on a personal level although separated by time and space, and by concentrating on the actors versus the acts, Turnbull hits the nail right on the head and achieves that crucial "you are there" feel. Turnbull scores again by anecdotally discussing not only the standard battlefield moments of bravery and horror, but also the insanity, mercy, and even beauty that are inseparable from war. Bias is also thankfully absent; the book is dedicated with, "affection and respect to the people of Japan and Korea," and the professed egalitarian attitude is backed up in practice as well as in theory. However, Turnbull's perhaps most important success lies with the book's tone. It is never dull or dry, and the masterful wording manages to achieve freshness and vibrancy without feeling either condescendingly dumbed-down or abstrusely incomprehensible. Fully recommended, but be aware that the focus is on the military personnel, with very little print on civilian bystanders who were, as always, the real victims. Also, short shrift is given to the background of late 16th century Korea, a time of political, economic, and social turmoil that made the Japanese invasion possible in the first place.