Yi Sun Shin (1545-98) was a celebrated historical figure in Korean history. In the late 16th century, Japanese armies under the ambitious Japanese Shogun, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, invaded Korea twice. Hideyoshi's ambition is to invade China, for it would be a great pride to be the first person in Japanese history to put a Japanese ruler on the Chinese Dragon Throne.
In 1592, seven Japanese divisions invaded Korea, for Korea had refused to ally with Japan against China, which served as Korea's protector since the Yuan Dynasty. The Japanese armies totalled of nearly 150,000, plus three other reserved divisions. In all, an army of almost 300,000 men, fully armed and ambly supplied, was put to the field. The Japanese armies were also armed with modern matchlocks, making it some of the world's most powerful armies at that time. The Korean armies, on the other hand, were poorly armed and only had swords and arrows.
One by one, Korean armies were pushed back to the north. Now their whole fate and hope lied in the brilliant admiral Yi Sun Shin, plus hopefully that Chinese reinforcements would arrive in time.
By early 1593 Chinese reinforcements had arrived, 400,000-500,000 strong. Chinese forces began to push the Japanese back, while at sea the Japanese suffer terrible defeats at the hand of admiral Yi, who employed Turtle Warships, shaped like a turtle with iron pikes to the sides and armed with canons, which proved tremendously successful against the weak Japanese navy.
The war went on till 1598 when Toyotomi Hideyoshi's sudden death forced the Japanese to withdraw. Seeing the Japanese withdrawing, admiral Yi realized that this might be his one and only chance to get rid of all the Japanese troops forever. Therefore, he led out his whole navy and bared the Japanese retreat route. A furious naval battle took place till admiral Yi was shot in the armpit and he fell. However, he hid this from his men and urged them on. The Korean navy won the day, and all of the Japanese troops had left Korea.
Only then was the death of admiral Yi known, and the lamentations of both Koreans and Chinese sounded far over the oceans. Admiral Yi is recognized today as one of Korea's greatest naval commanders. Every year a festival is held in April in memorizing of his heroic deeds.
