Wokou



Wokou (Japanese: わこう Wakō; Korean: 왜구 Waegu), which literally translates to "Japanese pirates" or "dwarf pirates", were pirates who raided the coastlines of China and Korea. Wokou came from a mixture of ethnicities.

The term Wokou is a combination of Wō (倭) referring to "dwarves" or Japanese, and kòu, meaning "bandit".

History
There are two distinct eras of wokou piracy. The early wokou mostly set up camp on Japanese outlying islands, as opposed to the 16th century wokou who were mostly non-Japanese. The early wokou raided the Japanese themselves as well as China and Korea. Records report that the main camps of the early wokou were the island of Tsushima, Iki Island, and the Gotō Islands. Jeong Mong-ju was dispatched to Japan to deal with the problem, and during his visit Kyushu governor Imagawa Sadayo suppressed the early wokou, later returning their captured property and people to Korea. In 1405 Ashikaga Yoshimitsu sent twenty captured pirates to China, where they were boiled in a cauldron in Ningbo.

According to the History of Ming, 20% of the 16th century wokou were Ryukyu and 10% "other", with the remaining 70% being ethnic Chinese. Notable wokou included the Chinese pirate Wang Zhi, and King Myeongjong of Joseon punished a Chinese wokou for pretending to be Japanese.

Korea launched attacks on pirate bases on Tsushima in 1419 with the Gihae Eastern Expedition. General Yi Jongmu's fleet of 227 ships and 17,285 soldiers set off from Geoje Island toward Tsushima on June 19, 1419. The routes of the Korean attack were guided by captured Japanese pirates. After landing, General Yi Jongmu first sent captured Japanese pirates as emissaries to ask for surrender. When he received no reply, he sent out his forces and the soldiers proceeded to raid the pirates and destroy their settlements. The Korean army destroyed 129 boats, 1939 houses and killed or enslaved 135 coastal residents as well as rescueing 131 Chinese and Korean captives of the pirates and 21 slaves on the island. The number of Wokou raids dropped dramatically since the Korean expedition.



Two well known Chinese military figures involved in the combating of Wokou are Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou. Yu Dayou was a general of the Ming Dynasty who studied martial arts in a shaolin temple and who was assigned to defend the coast against the Japanese pirates. In 1553, a young man named Qi Jiguang became Assistant Regional Military Commissioner of the Ming Dynasty and was assigned to "punish the bandits and guard the people" which meant taking on the Japanese pirates attacking the Ming east coast. At the time he was only twenty-six years old. On the eve of the next year he was promoted to full Commissioner in Zhejiang because of his successes.

Because of the extent of corruption in the Ming Dynasty, many Chinese officials actually had relations with the pirates and benefited from the piracy, making it difficult for central authorities to control.

Some of the coastal forts built for defense against Wokou can still be found in Fujian. Among them is the well-restored Chongwu Fortress in Chongwu Town, Huai'an County, and the ruins of the Liu'ao Fortress in Liu'ao, Zhangpu County.



Controversy over identity
The identity of the wokou is subject to some debate, with various theories about the ethnic makeup and national origin of the pirates.

Professor Takeo Tanaka of University of Tokyo proposed in 1966 that the early wokou were Koreans living on these outlying islands. In the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, Korean historian Sejong Sillok (Hangul: 세종실록; Hanja: 世宗實錄), Sunmong Lee wrote, "I hear that in the late period of the Goryeo Dynasty, Wokou were roaming over this land [Joseon] and peasants could not stand against them. However, even though only 1 or 2 out of 10 incidents were caused by real Japanese (Hangul: 왜인, Hanja: 倭人), some of our peasants wore the clothes of Japan, formed a group and caused trouble... in order to stop all evils, there is nothing more urgent than Hopae (a Goryeo word meaning 'personal identification')." However, Lee did not live during the Goryeo Dynasty, and was likely relating rumor or legend as opposed to solid documented evidence. Moreover, the main body of Lee's record concentrates on how national security was deteriorating and how it required special attention; it is possible he made use of unreliable information to support his point. Lee's assertion is therefore not highly valued as a source for wokou by other researchers.

Some Goryeo records also indicate that only 0.57% (3 of 529) of 14th century Wokou incidents were non-Japanese in origin. In China, in contrast, 100% of ships named as pirates were captained by Chinese. One Chinese source states that none of the early wokou were ethnic Japanese, but Southern Chinese and other foreigners with whom the Chinese traded.

The current prevailing theory, is that of Shōsuke Murai, who demonstrated in 1988 that the early wokou came from multiple ethnic groups rather than one singular nation. Murai claimed that the wokou were "marginal men" living in politically unstable areas without national allegiances, akin to the Zomia thesis. Supporters of this theory point out that one of the early wokou leaders, Ajibaldo, was variously claimed by period sources to be Mongolian, Japanese, Korean, and an "islander"; his name is apparently Korean and Mongolian in origin. Wokou activity increased during the Sengoku period civil war, when Japan was unable to control its ports.

Literature
Primary sources:
 * Zheng Ruohui, Zhouhai Tubian (籌海図編)
 * Hŭi-gyŏng Song, Shōsuke Murai Rōshōdō Nihon kōroku : Chōsen shisetsu no mita chūsei Nihon (老松堂日本行錄 : 朝鮮使節の見た中世日本) Iwanami Shoten, Tōkyō, 1987. ISBN 978-4-00-334541-2

Secondary sources:
 * So, Kwan-wai. Japanese Piracy in Ming China During the sixteenth Century. Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, 1975. ISBN 0-87013-179-6
 * Boxer, C.R. “Piracy in the South China Sea”, History Today, XXX, 12 (December), p. 40-44.
 * Stephen Turnbull "Samurai: The World of the Warrior" Osprey Publishing, Oxford, 2003, p. 155-157. ISBN 1-84176-740-9
 * (Includes an English translation of Galeote Pereira's report and Gaspar da Cruz' book, with C.R. Boxer's comments)
 * The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 4: Early Modern Japan: “The inseparable trinity: Japan's relations with China and Korea”; Elisonas, Jurgis; Cambridge Press 1991; ISBN 9780521223553