Ryūkyū Kingdom: Japans forgotten war and Cultural Eradication of Okinawa

Okinawa Golden Street Lights Map – Home Décor Ryūkyū Kingdom today known as Okinawa a prefecture of Japan. Did you know it was once a pretty large trading Empire? Before 1608 it was a major autonomous trading partner of China and a prosperous place. Then it was invaded by Japan. Over time the cultural distinction of the islands has disappeared due to suppression and the Kingdome of Ryukyu has almost completely been forgotten. SUPPORT THE CHANNEL My videos take up to and over 30 hours to produce each and require editing tools and stock footage. Please help me cover the costs with any of the options below: add yourself to the PATREON MAP OR I proudly support the future of money and accept donations :) BTC 1KQpMBgmbw4ymeYkgvNYDFqPko9rCU22GE ETH 0x17832E0930c8726E8e396bfaD00d15fb6F0319BA BCH qzc780fdmgacjr8nzzt4wyekrrh4yf8gt5apesm33q TETHER 0x17832E0930c8726E8e396bfaD00d15fb6F0319BA Paypal sinelnikovsarturs@ AMAZON Use one of my links below to go there and buy whatever you were going to buy anyway: MY FAVOURITE BOOKS (Not necessarily educational 🙂 Murakami 1Q84 (my favourite fiction) Sapiens, Yuval Harari (just a mind-blowing read) Video Set Up: Main microphone: Audio Interface Camera (for the occasion when you see my face) Camera lense (it takes beautiful pictures) Get in touch: Sources: Wikepedia The Samurai Capture a King: Okinawa 1609 (Raid) Stephen Turnbull Diligent Googling :) Script excerpt: Between 1416 and 1429, the separate principalities of people were united under one name the “Ryukyu Kingdom” The early history of the new kingdom was prosperous as much wealth was generated through lucrative trade with the Chinese Empire This trade was so lucrative that it brought the attention of another nearby power….. Japan. In order to trade with China your nation needed to acknowledge the supremacy of the Chinese Emperor and pay a “tribute” The “Ryukyu Kingdom” happily prospered by participating in the “tribute system” but Japan on the other hand having an emperor of its own would not participate. A plan was made, If Japan was to annex Ryukyu they could conduct trade with China through the islands in secret. But there was another reason Tokugawa Ieyasu had interest. In 1571 he saw how Spain had seized the Philippines and he was already noticing the Christian missionaries arriving on Japanese mainland. He feared their influence greatly and wanted to turn the Ryukyus into a buffer zone that could give the mainland protection from any European invaders. With this in mind, an envoy was sent to Ryukyu capital in Okinawa demanding that their King submit to the rule of the Shogun. The request was treated with much contempt. The rejection of Ieyasu’s demands set in motion the invasion. Not long after, concrete invasions plans were put in place by Ieyasu’s third son and successor Tokugawa Hidetada. And On 27th of October 1608 The Shogun commanded The Shimazu clan to pacify and take control over all of the Ryukyu islands. The fighting force was about 3000 strong with an additional 2000 labourers and 3000 sailors to support the fighting force. The fighting force consisted of 100 mounted samurai, 700 foot samurai, 800 Ashigaru soldiers armed with Arquebus guns, 800 ashigaru armed with traditional spears and 300 bow Ashigaru soldiers. The remaining soldiers would have been mostly attendants to the Samurai. The Shimazu army was very well armed, armoured and experienced. Considering the relatively high number of soldiers with guns we can deduce that Shimazu put a lot of faith in the power of bullets especially when fired in controlled volleys. With regards to the Ryukyu the information available on the arms of the soldiers is a lot more sketchy but it is likely that the Ryukyu forces had a mixture of weapons at their disposal from both China and Japan including bows, swords, spears and most definitely guns. Though the guns Ryukyus most likely had access to were more outdated models that they could get from China whereas the Japanese had been making their own for quite some time based on the arms coming from Europe. The Ryukyu also had cannons otherwise known as the Ishibiya whereas the Japanese chose not to bring any artillery with them. After gathering their forces the Shimazu leave from Yamakawa harbour on April 8th. They would have used the Ataka bune and Sengoku bune to traverse the sea. They arrived peacefully in Kuchinoerabujima the following day. And on April 11th they arrived on Amami Oshima where the first shots of the campaign were fired. The island was taken by April 20th.