The Turtle Boat
Dreamed 1592? by Yi Sun-shin
Admiral Yi Sun-shin was the commander of Korea's navy during the 1592-98 invasion by Japanese naval forces. At first the larger Japanese navy dominated the conflict. Admiral Yi was worrying about how he could repel their ships when he fell asleep one night and dreamed:
I go out to sea to look for food to feed my sailors, who are exhausted after several battles. No matter how far I sail my ship, I can't find anything. Suddenly a huge turtle emerges from the sea. I try to capture it for food and use all my arrows and other weapons. Despite tremendous efforts, I can't get the turtle into my hand. Moreover, fire is pouring out of its mouth, which frightens me terribly.Waking in surprise, Yi immediately conceived the idea of a very special vessel, the kobukson, Korean for "turtle boat." Shaped like a turtle, the ship was built of thick wood blocks and covered with stout iron armor. It was in fact the world's first ironclad battleship. It also had a turtle's belly--a circular, flat bottom in contrast to the more streamlined traditional boats. This shape allowed the kobukson to gyrate freely, nimbly ramming and sinking Japanese ships. The ship's prow was shaped like a dragon's head, through which a cannon fired and sulfurous smoke billowed. Six cannon were concealed behind the armor on each ship so that soldiers could fire from a protected vantage. Even the ship's metal tail held a cannon. The powerful arms almost literally spewed fire.
At the time, the Japanese army was superior at hand-to-hand fighting as a result of the many internal battles of their Warring States period. In sea battles, Japanese ships would close with enemy ships, and soldiers would swarm aboard and engage in deadly hand-to-hand fighting. It was the highest honor to be designated as the first person allowed to board an enemy ship. But the top of the kobukson was covered with lethal pikes and swords. Jumping onto it was certain death.
Days after the first kobukson were completed, the 200,000-strong Japanese army boarded seven hundred warships to cross the sea for what they thought would be their final invasion of Korea.
Korean lore holds that the first time the Japanese forces encountered the kobukson, they were terrified, thinking that the fire-spouting ship was a deadly sea monster. In any case, once they were familiar with its real nature and capabilities, they ran away whenever they spotted it, seeing there was no hope of winning a battle against it. Admiral Yi's dreams and turtle boats had repelled the Japanese invasion.
Note how a Western therapist could easily have rendered this dream useless by assuming it expresses personal feelings: Yi felt frustration and fear, so ask "How are you feeling frustrated or scared in your life just now?" and so on. But Yi doesn't assume it's about his feelings; it shows how the Japanese can be made to feel frustration and terror. Yi, a practical man with a life-and-death problem, tests the solution proposed, and saves his country.
--Chris Wayan
SOURCE: Deirdre Barrett's The Committee of Sleep, 2001, p.110-12.
DATE: Wikipedia. The first turtleboat fought in 1592, earlier in the war than Barrett says. The plates may not have been iron but hardwood with metal spikes.
PRONUNCIATION: Kobukson, properly geobukseon, rhymes with English "The book, son."
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