Tsushima Strait - Historical Impact

Historical Impact

The earliest settlement of Japan by people most resembling modern Japanese in litoral northern Kyushu next to the Tsushima Strait is supported by legendary, historical, and archeological evidence, and is undisputed. Exactly who and when is a matter of intense debate and national pride, for Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese alike. Historians have suggested a range of dates when immigration began from what is the mainland via the Korean Peninsula to north Kyushu from the fall of Four Commanderies of Han (108 BC) to the 4th Century AD. Historically these narrows (i.e., the whole Korea/Tsushima Strait) served as a highway for high-risk voyages (southern end of the Korean Peninsula to the Tsushima Islands to Iki Island to the western tip of Honshu) for trade between the countries of the Korean peninsula and Japan

The straits also served as a migration or an invasion path, in both directions. For example, archeologists believe the first Mesolithic migrations (Jōmon) traveled across to Honshu around the 10th century BC, supplanting Paleolithic people that walked from Asia to Japan overland over 100,000 years ago when the sea level was lower during the Pleistocene ice age. Immigrants from Goguryeo, Gaya Confederacy, and Baekje also contributed to waves of immigrants arriving in Kyushu, although who, when, and how many exactly is a matter of intense debate. Buddhism, along with Chinese writing, was initially transmitted from Baekje to Japan in the 5th century by way of the straits as well. Iki to Kamino-shima, the southern end of the large island of Tsushima, is about 50 kilometres. Busan (Korea), to the northern tip of Tsushima, about the same across the Korea Strait. These were tremendous distances to attempt in small boats over open seas.

The Mongol invasions of Japan crossed this sea and ravaged the Tsushima Islands before the kamikaze – translated as "divine wind" – a typhoon that is said to have saved Japan from a Mongol invasion fleet led by Kublai Khan in 1281. The 16th century, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was aimed at the conquest of China via the Korean Peninsula from this strait.

But the reason the strait is famous is that one of the most decisive naval battles of modern times, the Battle of Tsushima, fought on May 27 and May 28, 1905 took place there due east of the north part of Tsushima and due north of Iki Island between the Japanese and Russian navies in 1905; the Russian fleet was virtually destroyed by the Japanese.

Japan's territorial waters extend to three nautical miles (5.6 km) into the strait instead of the usual twelve, reportedly to allow nuclear-armed United States Navy warships and submarines to transit the strait without violating Japan's prohibition against nuclear weapons in its territory.