Customer Reviews

The Samurai Capture a King - Okinawa 1609 (Raid)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Stephen Turnbull wrote this book on the subjugation of the kingdom of RyuKyu (Okinawa) by the Shimazu from Satsuma. Probably he is the greatest occidental scholar on the subject of Japanese warfare; this by itself is a very good reason to buy this work on a military action that is almost unknown in the western world.

Far from just describing the campaign (yes...this isn't just a raid, but a full invasion), the author analyses the sources methodically, the background from both points of view, including the important relations between Korea, China and RyuKyu or the reason for the invasion by the Shimazu family (this conquest is a "peace" offering to the Tokugawa shogunate, but also a trust statement from the shogunate to the Shimazu and the official recognition that those islands belonged to them).

Although not highly detailed, both armies and leaders are presented in a clear, concise and unbiased way, wich wasn't certainly easy considering the origin of the sources (that the author studied thouroughly).

The author's conclusion are extremely interesting, especially in the evaluation of Jana Teido's (Okinawas general in chief) actions and the concealment of the ocupation of the island from outside visitors and emissaries.

The interior art from Richard Hook is quite good, and the cover is a digital piece (unusual in Osprey) from Mariusz Kozic.

It includes a glossary and a further reading guide (unfortunately for me, most books are Japanese and they aren't translated).

Turnbull's short book on the Japanese invasion of Okinawa in 1609 provides the reader with a short description of the available source materials, a narrative of events, and a lot of glossy graphics. At about 60 pages, the book took only a couple hours for a liesurely read.

Typical for a Turnbull book, we have a highly accessible, non-academic presentation that is still highly sourced. I appreciate this aspect of Turnbull's work, as he often presents material that it would be impossible for an amateur writer/researcher to find.

The book is part of a series on "Raids". There isn't much analysis here on the raid qua raid, and I'm not sure what an armchair general would get from the book. I was interested in the book as it might relate to Okinawan martial arts, and it did not disappoint, including reproductions of period depictions of Okinawan armor and weapons.

Not a great work of history, but good for what it is.

Although this 'book' contains only 64 pages there is a considerable amount of information to be gleaned from it. Baring in mind that a huge amount of Okinawa's historical records were destroyed during the US bombardment of 1945, Turnbull has managed to provide quite a comprehensive and detailed account of the events leading up to and during the Satsuma invasion of the Ryukyu's.

Having read this book for research purposes, I found the timeline of events that are highlighted on tagged sections of some pages, extremely useful, rather than having to sift through the often confusing tooing and frowing between dates and events in the main text. The descriptions and breakdown of the opposing forces uniforms, weaponry and ranks was also very detailed and interesting. The illustrations are probably the most striking element of the book being both beautiful and informative.

All in all a good little reference to the events of 1609 and combined with another superb book - Okinawa; History of an island people it provided me with all the information I needed.

Stephen Turnbull is now THE authority in English concerning the samurai. Amazingly, after a dozen + books on the subject, he still finds interesting and little known incidents to write about.
This book is necessarily short because there are only a few contemporary sources. Mr. Turnbull describes each of them in his text, and is meticulous in attributing each fact to one or more of them. Thus he tells you clearly what he knows, what he surmises, and what he does not know.

Despite the brevity, this book tells of the only successful foreign conquest by the samurai. Part of the interest of the foreign adventures of the samurai are the parallels between the Sengoku campaigns and modern military campaigns over the same ground. Much like the UN forces, Hideyoshi's samurai invaded Korea, got all the way to the Yalu, and then had to fall back. Similarly, the Shimazu invasion of Okinawa comes ashore in almost the same place as the American invasion of 1945 and culminates in an attack on Shuri castle. However the Japanese, as attackers, were able to overrun the island with very light casualties. Four hundred years later, as defenders, they utilized the same hills to bring about a bloodbath. Both times the key was firepower.

Stephen Turnbull does it again by writing a book on a little known invasion that influence lives of people of Okinawa even to this day. In 1609, Shimazu Iehisa, daimyo of Satsuma Han, with the tact permission from the Tokugawa Shogunate (led by Ogosho Tokugawa Ieyasu), invaded and took over the sovereign island kingdom of Ryukyu (Okinawa) and made it part of Shimazu's domains. This serves to benefit both Satsuma Han and Tokugawa Shogunate who reaped profits from the China trade conducted through Okinawa who spent the rest of Tokugawa period under puppet kings.

The book is short but highly informative and easy to read. It is nice to note that this author wrote the Japanese names in the proper order as "Shimazu Iehisa" where many American writers will blandly and incorrectly write "Iehisa Shimazu". The author did some good research to bring out this subject to life. The accompanying illustrations and maps proves to be highly helpful and useful in tracing the narrative. Since nothing of this invasion has never been written before in English for popular history, this book breaks new ground despite of using Osprey's short format for this series. The book goes step by step on how the invasion was considered, why it was considered and how it was carry out. It also show how a small 3,000 man army sent by Satsuma was able to overwhelmed their Okinawan defenders who outnumbered them. Satsuma's victory was due to professionalism of its men, tactics learned during the long Sengoku Period of Japan and competency of their leaders.

This book is part of the new Osprey's RAID series. For some reason, this subject doesn't fit the mold of a raid. Unlike other subject matter of this series such as Rescuing Mussolini, Cockleshell Raid, Great Locomotive Chase and Raid on Entebbe, all which were short hit and run events. But Okinawa wasn't a "raid" at all but a full scale invasion of a sovereign nation that resulted in permanent occupation and formal annexation that made Okinawa permanent part of Japan proper to this day. Shouldn't this book benefit by getting a bit longer format of a Campaign series?? (Campaign series got average of 30 more pages then Raid series.)

This book however, come highly recommended to anyone interested in this unknown but successful Samurai invasion. While it was a short and sweet affair, the impact of it actions can be felt to this day.

Too brief and certainly dominated by the view of the battle from the Satsuma Clan. The invasion and its aftermath may be little known to the west but for Okinawans and diaspora Okinawans it is a watershed event demonstrating Japan's first imperialist expansion event and resulting colonial indifference and bigotry. I disagree with the author in his assesment of Jana Teido and King Sho; their Sinophile attitude ultimately spelled doom for Independent Okinawa and ensured the second-class treatment of Okinawa by their Naichi overlords. The stink of Japanese colonial attitudes remains even today with Japan's lip-service to the removal of US millitary bases on the long rope and its clandestine NIMBY resolve. I am eager to read what I assume is part of the Samurai battle series: "The Samurai Have Their Rears Kicked by the Koreans - 1592".

Ich finde das Buch ziemlich gut als Ergänzung zur Fachliteratur über das Uchinadi und dessen Entstehung. Hierdurch kann man sich ein besseres Bild von den Umständen damals machen. Okinawa wurde erobert und dadurch entstand das Uchinadi. So, sehr einfach. Aber durch dieses kleine Osprey-Werk mit seinen hervorragenden Bildern kann man sich wirklich ziemlich gut in diese Zeit hinein versetzen. Zusammen mit dem Werk von G.H.Kerr gehört dieses Buch zu den Schätzen dieser Thematik.