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The Lost Samurai: Japanese Mercenaries in South East Asia, 1593–1688
The Lost Samurai reveals the greatest untold story of Japan's legendary warrior class, which is that for almost a hundred years Japanese samurai were employed as mercenaries in the service of the kings of Siam, Cambodia, Burma, Spain and Portugal, as well as by the directors of the Dutch East India Company.
The Japanese samurai were used in dramatic assault parties, as royal bodyguards, as staunch garrisons and as willing executioners. As a result, a stereotypical image of the fierce Japanese warrior developed that had a profound influence on the way they were regarded by their employers.
Whilst the Southeast Asian kings tended to employ samurai on a long-term basis as palace guards, their European employers usually hired them on a temporary basis for specific campaigns. Also, whereas the Southeast Asian monarchs tended to trust their well-established units of Japanese mercenaries, the Europeans, whilst admiring them, also feared them. In every European example a progressive shift in attitude may be discerned from initial enthusiasm to great suspicion that the Japanese might one day turn against them, as illustrated by the long-standing Spanish fear of an invasion of the Philippines by Japan accompanied by a local uprising.
It also suggested that if, during the 1630s, Japan had chosen engagement with Southeast Asia rather than isolation from it, the established presence of Japanese communities overseas may have had a profound influence on the subsequent development of international relations within the area, perhaps even seeing the early creation of an overseas Japanese empire that would have provided a rival to Great Britain. Instead Japan closed its doors, leaving these fierce mercenaries stranded in distant countries never to return: lost samurai indeed!
The Japanese samurai were used in dramatic assault parties, as royal bodyguards, as staunch garrisons and as willing executioners. As a result, a stereotypical image of the fierce Japanese warrior developed that had a profound influence on the way they were regarded by their employers.
Whilst the Southeast Asian kings tended to employ samurai on a long-term basis as palace guards, their European employers usually hired them on a temporary basis for specific campaigns. Also, whereas the Southeast Asian monarchs tended to trust their well-established units of Japanese mercenaries, the Europeans, whilst admiring them, also feared them. In every European example a progressive shift in attitude may be discerned from initial enthusiasm to great suspicion that the Japanese might one day turn against them, as illustrated by the long-standing Spanish fear of an invasion of the Philippines by Japan accompanied by a local uprising.
It also suggested that if, during the 1630s, Japan had chosen engagement with Southeast Asia rather than isolation from it, the established presence of Japanese communities overseas may have had a profound influence on the subsequent development of international relations within the area, perhaps even seeing the early creation of an overseas Japanese empire that would have provided a rival to Great Britain. Instead Japan closed its doors, leaving these fierce mercenaries stranded in distant countries never to return: lost samurai indeed!
184 pages, Hardcover
Published March 23, 2021
10 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Turnbull
179 books126 followersStephen Richard Turnbull is British a historian specializing in eastern military history, especially the samurai of Japan. His books are mainly on Japanese and Mongolian subjects. He attended Cambridge University where he gained his first degree. He currently holds an MA in Theology, MA in Military History and a PhD from the University of Leeds where he is currently a lecturer in Far Eastern Religions. He has also written a number of books on other medieval topics. He is semi-retired but still holds the post of Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies at Akita International University in Japan.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 5, 2022
If you have been following Osprey's output for the past couple decades, you probably know of Stephen Turnbull. He really like samurai. Sometimes, like when he is ostensibly writing about other topics, this can kind of get in the way. But other times, when its the right focus to have, he brings out new and previously unknown (outside of Japan) information to light. Fortunately, this book is the second of these options.
A valuable addition to the collection of anyone interested in Japanese military history. I found the connections with Southeast Asian kingdoms the most interesting. There is even an attempt to make the case that Koxinga's 'iron men' in his Taiwan campaign were Japanese, but this is still a very circumstantial argument.
A valuable addition to the collection of anyone interested in Japanese military history. I found the connections with Southeast Asian kingdoms the most interesting. There is even an attempt to make the case that Koxinga's 'iron men' in his Taiwan campaign were Japanese, but this is still a very circumstantial argument.
March 22, 2021
An interesting and engaging read, I have an interest in Japanese history and culture , but I’m no expert , so I found this book well presented, immersive and really interesting , it really was well thought out, researched and laid out. Thoroughly recommended to anyone interested in history, Japan or even war , great read.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
July 21, 2021
You might not think that Stephen Turnbull has anything left to say after having written umpteen books on Japan’s Samurai warriors, but you would be wrong. This book takes us into the world of Japanese mercenaries in Southeast Asia from 1593 to 1688. It is a fascinating but sometimes brutal story of competing powers and factions and the men who fought for them.
Turnbull acknowledges that he deals in terms of convenience. Southeast Asia is loosely defined but shaped to fit the story. As for the Samurai, they were not Samurai in the classic, romantic sense but most were initially traders turned pirates, the Wakō. Others were left over fighters from the Sengoku Period of almost continual warfare; some were exiled Christians, while more were already resident in Japanese enclaves abroad. Turnbull notes that mercenaries were common in southeast Asia and hired on contracts of various lengths. They included men from many areas, including Europe. It just so happened that the Japanese were rather good at it and developed a fearsome reputation that frightened the enemy but made their masters suspicious.
As you might expect, it was the intrusion of Europeans into the region that created employment for so many of the Japanese mercenaries, though native powers had few qualms in using them too. Many of Turnbull’s sources are European, however, and that perhaps skews the evidence towards greater European emphasis. Fittingly, it was the Spanish in the Philippines who were the first to employ Japanese mercenaries for their schemes to invade China, which came to nothing, but their assault on Cambodia in the 1590s proved more fruitful albeit temporarily so. Japanese mercenaries here also found themselves useful as state executioners on a grand scale against rebellious natives. Turnbull describes the weapons and tactics of the Samurai; while they possessed unmatched bravery, they proved susceptible to European firepower. Nevertheless, the Samurai were used in attack and defence, and as bodyguards. Turnbull visits Siam, a long-standing recruiter of mercenaries through the trade system, then he describes how the Dutch were the most enthusiastic employers of Japanese mercenaries, recruiting directly from Japan. Of note here, is the role of the Japanese in the Dutch wars with the Portuguese, Spanish, and English for the Spice Islands, the Moluccas. But like the other Europeans, the Dutch began to distrust the Japanese, leading to the end of their employment from 1623. Similarly distrustful, the Spanish feared a Samurai invasion of the Philippines. The Dutch had a better case though, when in 1643, ‘native’ Japanese mercenaries helped defend Cambodia against the Dutch, which in reality proved to be a massacre of the Europeans. The Dutch also lost in Taiwan in 1662 with the ‘Iron Men’ playing a leading role. These were probably Japanese mercenaries, according to Turnbull, and they were the last recognised as such in the region.
Turnbull is without peer in bringing the complex world of the Samurai to a public audience yet works like this demonstrate that he is no lightweight historian. This is also a bit of a detour for Turnbull, away from the history of Japan he clearly loves and into southeast Asia with its ancient civilizations and early modern European interlopers. Turnbull follows the sources, sketchy as they might be sometimes, to paint a colourful picture of individual and collective exploits, some of them very gruesome indeed. He also provides the background and context for the use of Japanese mercenaries, which uncovers a familiar but alien world in many respects. The structure of Turnbull’s book is short, self-contained chapters like an edited book of essays on a theme, and it works well, though some chapters are deeper than others. Readers interested in the Samurai and southeast Asian early modern history will no doubt enjoy this book.
Turnbull acknowledges that he deals in terms of convenience. Southeast Asia is loosely defined but shaped to fit the story. As for the Samurai, they were not Samurai in the classic, romantic sense but most were initially traders turned pirates, the Wakō. Others were left over fighters from the Sengoku Period of almost continual warfare; some were exiled Christians, while more were already resident in Japanese enclaves abroad. Turnbull notes that mercenaries were common in southeast Asia and hired on contracts of various lengths. They included men from many areas, including Europe. It just so happened that the Japanese were rather good at it and developed a fearsome reputation that frightened the enemy but made their masters suspicious.
As you might expect, it was the intrusion of Europeans into the region that created employment for so many of the Japanese mercenaries, though native powers had few qualms in using them too. Many of Turnbull’s sources are European, however, and that perhaps skews the evidence towards greater European emphasis. Fittingly, it was the Spanish in the Philippines who were the first to employ Japanese mercenaries for their schemes to invade China, which came to nothing, but their assault on Cambodia in the 1590s proved more fruitful albeit temporarily so. Japanese mercenaries here also found themselves useful as state executioners on a grand scale against rebellious natives. Turnbull describes the weapons and tactics of the Samurai; while they possessed unmatched bravery, they proved susceptible to European firepower. Nevertheless, the Samurai were used in attack and defence, and as bodyguards. Turnbull visits Siam, a long-standing recruiter of mercenaries through the trade system, then he describes how the Dutch were the most enthusiastic employers of Japanese mercenaries, recruiting directly from Japan. Of note here, is the role of the Japanese in the Dutch wars with the Portuguese, Spanish, and English for the Spice Islands, the Moluccas. But like the other Europeans, the Dutch began to distrust the Japanese, leading to the end of their employment from 1623. Similarly distrustful, the Spanish feared a Samurai invasion of the Philippines. The Dutch had a better case though, when in 1643, ‘native’ Japanese mercenaries helped defend Cambodia against the Dutch, which in reality proved to be a massacre of the Europeans. The Dutch also lost in Taiwan in 1662 with the ‘Iron Men’ playing a leading role. These were probably Japanese mercenaries, according to Turnbull, and they were the last recognised as such in the region.
Turnbull is without peer in bringing the complex world of the Samurai to a public audience yet works like this demonstrate that he is no lightweight historian. This is also a bit of a detour for Turnbull, away from the history of Japan he clearly loves and into southeast Asia with its ancient civilizations and early modern European interlopers. Turnbull follows the sources, sketchy as they might be sometimes, to paint a colourful picture of individual and collective exploits, some of them very gruesome indeed. He also provides the background and context for the use of Japanese mercenaries, which uncovers a familiar but alien world in many respects. The structure of Turnbull’s book is short, self-contained chapters like an edited book of essays on a theme, and it works well, though some chapters are deeper than others. Readers interested in the Samurai and southeast Asian early modern history will no doubt enjoy this book.
September 2, 2023
Very interesting book about part of Japanese military history that is not mentioned that often.
Considering the fame Japanese warriors garnered on the bloody battlefields of their homeland, it was not unexpected that during the peacetime, all these warriors turned their attention toward near abroad where they could sell their services and do what they do best. For Japanese central government that emerged after the bloody internal war period this was also a very good turn of events because they were getting rid of surplus of armed and dangerous men that could never be put under the full control and could cause problems.
Besides above mentioned way of exporting soldiers, Japanese became involved with foreigners, serving as hired swords, through the Japanese communities in the South East Asia that had rather strange relationship with the motherland - while they did bring business and trade to the mainland and thus enabled exchange of goods through the entire region, these freelancers were also very much involved in the piracy in South East Asia. As pirates they were quite notorious. Because of this dual role Japan did not want to do anything with them, when they got into problems. Very interesting are correspondences between Shogun and kings of Siam and Cambodia, where Shogun informs them that these pirates if caught are to be treated by the local law and custom, without any interference from the Japanese government.
Third source of Japanese mercenaries was due to the religious issues - lots of Japanese Christians were expelled from the mainland and these people found very soon service in Spanish and Portuguese armies fighting for their respective state interests in the South East Asia. This caused Japanese forces to fight one another at times.
Also interesting is role played by Dutch East India Company (VOC) and their employment of Japanese troops for outright conflict with Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese. When it comes to Chinese, Taiwan (known as Isla de Formosa at the time), also played a central role in the wars involving Japanese mercenaries. And not just mercenaries, but also several plans for invasion of China that were planned but never executed by the Japanese themselves.
Playing a pivotal role in conflicts from Siam, Cambodia to Malaya and Taiwan (Koxinga's Iron Men, tell me better name for the mercenary outfit, even if it wasn't 100% Japanese outfit) , Japanese mercenaries suffered a fate that no mercenary group can evade - while they were used by their mainland government from time to time, at the very end they were abandoned and left to their own devices whenever they got into troubles with locals.
Also interesting is the way how they were viewed by their employers - while local SE Asia kingdoms held them in high esteem and trust, European powers viewed them as they viewed all the mercenaries - good soldiers, with a bit of wee crazy/berserker approach to combat, but something to keep at the arms length due to the nature of the job they are hired for.
Very interesting book, highly recommended to history and especially military history buffs.
Considering the fame Japanese warriors garnered on the bloody battlefields of their homeland, it was not unexpected that during the peacetime, all these warriors turned their attention toward near abroad where they could sell their services and do what they do best. For Japanese central government that emerged after the bloody internal war period this was also a very good turn of events because they were getting rid of surplus of armed and dangerous men that could never be put under the full control and could cause problems.
Besides above mentioned way of exporting soldiers, Japanese became involved with foreigners, serving as hired swords, through the Japanese communities in the South East Asia that had rather strange relationship with the motherland - while they did bring business and trade to the mainland and thus enabled exchange of goods through the entire region, these freelancers were also very much involved in the piracy in South East Asia. As pirates they were quite notorious. Because of this dual role Japan did not want to do anything with them, when they got into problems. Very interesting are correspondences between Shogun and kings of Siam and Cambodia, where Shogun informs them that these pirates if caught are to be treated by the local law and custom, without any interference from the Japanese government.
Third source of Japanese mercenaries was due to the religious issues - lots of Japanese Christians were expelled from the mainland and these people found very soon service in Spanish and Portuguese armies fighting for their respective state interests in the South East Asia. This caused Japanese forces to fight one another at times.
Also interesting is role played by Dutch East India Company (VOC) and their employment of Japanese troops for outright conflict with Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese. When it comes to Chinese, Taiwan (known as Isla de Formosa at the time), also played a central role in the wars involving Japanese mercenaries. And not just mercenaries, but also several plans for invasion of China that were planned but never executed by the Japanese themselves.
Playing a pivotal role in conflicts from Siam, Cambodia to Malaya and Taiwan (Koxinga's Iron Men, tell me better name for the mercenary outfit, even if it wasn't 100% Japanese outfit) , Japanese mercenaries suffered a fate that no mercenary group can evade - while they were used by their mainland government from time to time, at the very end they were abandoned and left to their own devices whenever they got into troubles with locals.
Also interesting is the way how they were viewed by their employers - while local SE Asia kingdoms held them in high esteem and trust, European powers viewed them as they viewed all the mercenaries - good soldiers, with a bit of wee crazy/berserker approach to combat, but something to keep at the arms length due to the nature of the job they are hired for.
Very interesting book, highly recommended to history and especially military history buffs.
December 27, 2022
I can well understand why this book may not hit the sweet spot for many of its readers, but if you know your Southeast Asian history and the roles that the European powers of Portugal, Spain, England and Holland played in the region in those years, you'll find the book spellbinding.
This book tied so many strands together in my knowledge of 16th and 17th century Southeast Asian history, that when I finished it, I immediately turned back to the beginning and read it through a second time. I note that most readers were interested in Japanese history or samurai, but I teach and write about Southeast Asian history and art and the impact of discovering an entirely new element that contributed to the region's history, which was previously unknown to me, was as shocking as finding an ancient shipwreck off a familiar beach. And discovering that author Turnbull had done much of his research in the library of the Siam Society in Bangkok--one of my favourite libraries that I am a frequent user of--'blew my mind' (as I would have said thirty years ago). I had so many of the pieces, but had never put them together. I don't think anyone really had ... until this book.
In short, for a variety of reasons, which are well explained in the book's eleven chapters, Japanese mercenaries served in a number of Southeast Asian countries, for a number of 'employers' ranging from the Dutch East India Company to Thai kings and other royalty, until finally banned by Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada in 1621. Why they were first allowed to go abroad to serve as mercenaries only to have their exodus banned later, stranding many overseas, is another fascinating side story.
Japanese samurai worked on the side of the Portuguese in defending the city of Malacca (which the Portuguese themselves had ruthlessly conquered in 1511), from the Dutch in 1606 when they in turn tried to control the region's trade . The Spanish were so impressed with the samurai's skills that they planned on launching an invasion of China from the Philippines with the help of these Japanese warriors, figuring that with their help China could be as easily captured as Peru had been. Samurai served as royal bodyguards for the kings of Cambodia and Ayutthaya (Thailand). Their loyalty could be bought and switched. They may have fought on the side of the Dutch previously in the Spice Islands and were responsible for the "savage conquest of the Banda Islands" in 1621 (p. 94), but when the Cambodian king wanted to rid his kingdom of the Dutch in 1643, they slaughtered both the Dutch party sent to attack the king as well as the crew of a Dutch vessel anchored nearby.
This well-researched and footnoted, documented text is also well-written and a book I've already recommended to a number of colleagues who work in the same area I do. The danger is it is such a page-turner that readers may find, as I did, the need to return for an immediate second reading!
This book tied so many strands together in my knowledge of 16th and 17th century Southeast Asian history, that when I finished it, I immediately turned back to the beginning and read it through a second time. I note that most readers were interested in Japanese history or samurai, but I teach and write about Southeast Asian history and art and the impact of discovering an entirely new element that contributed to the region's history, which was previously unknown to me, was as shocking as finding an ancient shipwreck off a familiar beach. And discovering that author Turnbull had done much of his research in the library of the Siam Society in Bangkok--one of my favourite libraries that I am a frequent user of--'blew my mind' (as I would have said thirty years ago). I had so many of the pieces, but had never put them together. I don't think anyone really had ... until this book.
In short, for a variety of reasons, which are well explained in the book's eleven chapters, Japanese mercenaries served in a number of Southeast Asian countries, for a number of 'employers' ranging from the Dutch East India Company to Thai kings and other royalty, until finally banned by Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada in 1621. Why they were first allowed to go abroad to serve as mercenaries only to have their exodus banned later, stranding many overseas, is another fascinating side story.
Japanese samurai worked on the side of the Portuguese in defending the city of Malacca (which the Portuguese themselves had ruthlessly conquered in 1511), from the Dutch in 1606 when they in turn tried to control the region's trade . The Spanish were so impressed with the samurai's skills that they planned on launching an invasion of China from the Philippines with the help of these Japanese warriors, figuring that with their help China could be as easily captured as Peru had been. Samurai served as royal bodyguards for the kings of Cambodia and Ayutthaya (Thailand). Their loyalty could be bought and switched. They may have fought on the side of the Dutch previously in the Spice Islands and were responsible for the "savage conquest of the Banda Islands" in 1621 (p. 94), but when the Cambodian king wanted to rid his kingdom of the Dutch in 1643, they slaughtered both the Dutch party sent to attack the king as well as the crew of a Dutch vessel anchored nearby.
This well-researched and footnoted, documented text is also well-written and a book I've already recommended to a number of colleagues who work in the same area I do. The danger is it is such a page-turner that readers may find, as I did, the need to return for an immediate second reading!
July 29, 2022
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy for review.
I went in to this one pretty blind, didn't even read the synopsis really which I probably should have. I was under the initial impression it was about a single group of samurai, but it was about a lot more. This follows the samurai who were hired out to various nations, mainly the Dutch, as mercenaries essentially. These samurai also fought for various other South East Asian nations. I was really hoping it would focus on how and why these lost samurai chose to continue to live and fight for other people as opposed to returning to Japan. I feel like that's how the book started but eventually it became more about the Spanish and Dutch trading companies trying to get footholds in Japan and the Philippines, and the persistent attempts to convert Japan to Catholicism. Despite all that though I did find this to be really interesting, and definitely a part of samurai history I didn't know about, and it was clearly very well researched.
I went in to this one pretty blind, didn't even read the synopsis really which I probably should have. I was under the initial impression it was about a single group of samurai, but it was about a lot more. This follows the samurai who were hired out to various nations, mainly the Dutch, as mercenaries essentially. These samurai also fought for various other South East Asian nations. I was really hoping it would focus on how and why these lost samurai chose to continue to live and fight for other people as opposed to returning to Japan. I feel like that's how the book started but eventually it became more about the Spanish and Dutch trading companies trying to get footholds in Japan and the Philippines, and the persistent attempts to convert Japan to Catholicism. Despite all that though I did find this to be really interesting, and definitely a part of samurai history I didn't know about, and it was clearly very well researched.
February 26, 2021
A useful and well-researched book, on a subject that I knew little about. I counted something like 30+ pages of notes and a 16-page bibliography, so you get the idea that this is a history/reference book, and not a rollicking adventure ride. (I do feel that a map would have been useful, as I had to keep my atlas to hand as I was reading, and a chronology would have been good as Turnbull tends to jump back and forward in time with each chapter.)
Exactly the sort of book to grace the shelves of anyone interested in Japanese history, or the history of European expansionism in the 16th or 17th centuries. A solid 3.5 stars.
Exactly the sort of book to grace the shelves of anyone interested in Japanese history, or the history of European expansionism in the 16th or 17th centuries. A solid 3.5 stars.
October 22, 2021
this was a interesting book about Samurai, I enjoyed going through this book as it was well researched and interesting. I would read another book by Mr. Turnbull.
March 29, 2022
I have always been something of a history buff, so what I see a story about something I didn't know about before, you definitely have my interest. The Lost Samurai certainty fits that bill. The history covers Japanese mercenaries of the 16th and 17th centuries operating outside of Japan proper. In my mind, I was thinking more along the lines the a Varangian Guard scenario ... which it was not (except maybe in Siam). The author plays a little with the terms, so it was actually quite a stretch to label these "Wild Geese" as Samurai elites, but the author does explain why in the first Chapter ... "Its lead title - The Lost Samurai - an obvious play on the name of a well-known film, but together with the subtitle it introduces three expressions which need to be clarified at this stage. They are the use of 'samurai' to identify Japanese fighting men, 'mercenary' for conditions of service and 'south-east Asia' for their area of operation." In other words, not just elite warriors. What followed was some history detailing how the "Samurai" class came to ... and a lot more history about the [Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch] colonial power machinations and interests in the region and how Japanese expats were recruited and used to further those goals. I was particularly interested in how Christianity played a part (specifically the Christians of Nagasaki and the conflict between Catholics and Protestant powers and Japanese response to it all). While this was not a fun as I was hoping for, it was a good historical review of a time and region that doesn't get much attention in the West.
I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#TheLostSamurai #NetGalley
I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#TheLostSamurai #NetGalley
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews