![]() ![]() ![]() Many of Turnbull’s sources are European, however, and that perhaps skews the evidence towards greater European emphasis. 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.Īs 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. ![]() They included men from many areas, including Europe. Turnbull notes that mercenaries were common in southeast Asia and hired on contracts of various lengths. 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. As for the Samurai, they were not Samurai in the classic, romantic sense but most were initially traders turned pirates, the Wakō. Southeast Asia is loosely defined but shaped to fit the story. Turnbull acknowledges that he deals in terms of convenience. It is a fascinating but sometimes brutal story of competing powers and factions and the men who fought for them. ![]() This book takes us into the world of Japanese mercenaries in Southeast Asia from 1593 to 1688. 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. Stephen Turnbull, The Lost Samurai (Frontline, 2021) ![]()
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