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Battle of Busanpo
Part of the Imjin War
Date September 1, 1592 Location Joseon Gyeongsang (庆尙道) Busan (釜山廣域市) now Busan Metropolitan City Result Korea's Decisive victory Japan's navel control completely lost Japanese Navy seriously damaged
Belligerents
Joseon Dynasty, Joseon Navy, Fleet of Yi Sun-sin (李舜臣)	Japan, Japanese Navy, Fleet of Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Commanders and leaders
Yi Sun Shin Won Gyun Yi Eok Ki Woon 권준 Songhuirip Yi muuigong Kim Wan 이영남 Eoyoungdam Yieonryang	Wakisaka Yasuharu Kuki Yoshitaka Tōdō Takatora Kato Yoshiaki
Strength
166 vessels (74 Panokseon and 92 hyeopseon)	470 vessels 70,000 soldiers
Casualties and losses
Officier Woon and Six soldiers dead 25 soldiers wounded few Panokseon damaged	128 vessels destroyed 5,000 soldiers dead

The Battle of Busanpo (the Battle of Busan 1592) (釜山浦 海戰) was a naval engagement that took place on 1 September, 1592 during the first phase of the Japanese invasions of Korea. It was a suprise attack to the fleet of Toyotomi Hideyoshi stationed at Busan. In this battle, officier Woon and six soldiers died, but Japanese lost over 100 ships, 5,000 soldiers and control of the Korean sea. After this battle, the Japanese were no longer able to fight aggressively.

Elapse

After commander Yi Sun Shin 's fleet decisively defeated Japanese in the Battle of Hansando on July 8, Japanese had to change their war strategy. Their strategy was to deliver more Japanese land forces and foods through seas to northern part of Korean peninsula and then they would march to Ming dynasty's territory. By failure of this strategy, Japanese troops which seized north provinces of Joseon had to suffer from starvation and shortage of supplies. To invade China, they needed to secure war supply routes. Japanese tried to deliver Japanese land forces and foods through roads, but this was blocked by Uibyeong. Uibyeong is literally translated as righteous. A lot of civil and Buddhist monk voluntary army were formed and attacked Japanese troops. [[1]]

Formation of United Joseon Fleet

After the Battle of Hansan Island which commander Yi Sun-sin's navy won against the Japanese navy around mid-July, they remained silent for nearly a month. In the meantime, in mid-August Japanese Kato Yoshiaki's army, Kimura's army, and Okamoto's army retreated from Hanyang, later capital of Joseon dynasty, to Gyeongsang Province. Around this time, most of the Japanese troops retreated to Gimhae to secure their munitions. During that time in Busan, there was 8,000 soldiers and 430 vessels protecting the coast. Commander Yi, however, sent spy ships to Busanpo port and found out there was about 470 warships at Busan port. [[2]] Commander Yi and Joseon Navy considered that Japanese were retreating to their mainland, so Gyeongsang Province Governer (慶尙右水營) Kim Soo requested commander Yi to block their sea route. Therefore, commander Yi with commander Won Gyun and commander Yi Eok Ki united their fleets totaling 166 vessels. On their way to Busan, commander Yi defeated 24 Japanese ships at seopyeongpo (西平浦), Battle of Dadaejin (多大浦), and jeolyoungdo (絶影島).Combined Joseon fleet defeated Japanese navy continuously. They could win because Joseon fleet had well-trained sailors and were equipped with medium and long range cannons. [[3]]

Battle of Busanpo

In front of the coast of Busan, the united Joseon fleet realize Japanese navy had readied their ships for battle and Japanese army had stationed themselves around the shoreline. The united Joseon fleet made formation Jangsajin (長蛇陣), [[4]] many ships going in a line, and attacked straight into the Japanese fleet. Overwhelmed by Joseon fleet, Japanese navy abandoned their ships and fled to the coast where their army was stationed. [[5]] Japanese army and navy joined their forces and attacked Joseon fleet from the near hills in desperation. [6] Against Japanese desperate attack, Joseon fleet shot arrows from their ships to defend and restrict their attacks, and in the meantime concentrated their cannons in destroying Japanese vessels. [[7]]

Advantages and Disadvantages

In terms of fleet, united Joseon ships were one-third of Japanese ships, so in terms of power Japanese fleet had three times more power than Joseon fleet did. In addition, Japanese navy and army had stationed themselves in high grounds, but Joseon fleet was on relatively low grounds and was in open sea completely exposed to the enemy. [[8]] In both ships and geographical condition Joseon fleet was in complete disadvantage, but because Japanese fleet had been losing continuously to commander Yi, later know as admiral Yi, Japanese navy's morale was low. Due to this, rather than going on a full out attack on ships, Japanese troops hid behind hills and mountains around the sea coast and shot muskets. [[9]]

Although commander Yi destroyed over 100 ships, he did not order his soldiers to pursuit the Japanese on the shoreline. The so-called "danbyeong engaged," or to put it into modern languages, "close hand to hand combat" skills for Joseon was significantly weaker than Japanese. In addition, the Joseon soldiers were tired from long sea travel and battle, and was heavily outnumbered on land. Commander Yi so far did not fight with number of soldiers, but rather with ships and cannons. Yi reinforced disadvantage in number of soldiers with heavy fire arms. Also, Japanese had well-trained cavalry another aspect the Joseon army lacked. Instead of Joseon fleet, however, the Righteous Army fought against the Japanese army on land and killed 3,800 soldiers. In this battle, however, Yi lost one of his cherished officer Woon [[10]]

Impact

After this battle, the Japanese naval activity subsided and Joseon navy maritime completely took control of the Joseon sea again. Konishi Yukinaga remained intacted at Pyongyang because the shorelines were completely blocked off by the Joseon Navy stopping munitions. [[11]] Reinforced Joseon army also blocked the march of Japanese. In October of 1592, General Kim Si-min triumphed over 20,000 Japanese at the battle of Jinju. General Gwon-yul also triumphed at the battle of Haengju. Since the end of 1592, Ming dynasty's Army started to participate in the Imjin war. Combined army of Ming and Joseon retook Pyongyang castle that was seized by the Japanese. [[12]]

See also

• Siege of Busan
• List of naval battles
• List of Korea-related topics
• Military history of Korea
• Military history of Japan
• Yi Sun Sin
• Imjin War

Category:1592 in Korea Category:1592 in Japan Category:Conflicts in 1592 Pusan 1592 Category:South Gyeongsang Province