In this episode of 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast, we’ll be talking about Tsushima, an island in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, which lies in the Tsushima Strait on the western side of Kyushu, the southernmost mainland island of Japan. Tsushima sits between Japan and South Korea, about 60 km from Iki, its closest island neighbour, 138 km from the city of Fukuoka, and 49.5 km from Busan, South Korea.

Tsushima has a total area is 708.61 km2, making up 17.3% of the area of Nagasaki Prefecture and meaning it’s a similar size to Singapore, Dominica or a bit larger than Guam. Sitting astride the Tsushima Strait between Korea and Japan, the island has long been a site of conflict, being disputed between Korea and Japan even into the modern day.

The island famously played witness to the Battle of Tsushima in 1905, a naval engagement which took place just offshore between the Japanese and Russian Navies and resulted in a decisive victory for the Japanese, signaling the end of the Russo-Japanese War which was a major contributing factor in the buildup to the Russian Revolution.

However, Tsushima is best-known for being at the forefront of the Mongol Invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281, in events which are still commemorated today, and which were immortalized in the 2020 video game Ghosts of Tsushima.

Your hosts, as always, are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Dublin, Ireland, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in Toronto, Canada, and Joe Byrne @anbeirneach in Dublin, Ireland. Our theme music and other stings come from Thomas O’Boyle @thatthomasfella.

Some further reading material is provided below:

This Tsushima guidebook is showing its age a little, but is packed with useful info.
We also came across an archived City Guide.
And a Timeline of Tsushima’s History.
For geological info, take a look at this page from the International Institute for Asian Studies.
The Yayoi Period settlement is explained in more detail here.
Mark makes reference to the article An Island’s Place in History: Tsushima in Japan and in Chosŏn, 1392—1592 by Kenneth R. Robinson
World History Encyclopedia has a lot more detail on The Japanese Invasion of Korea here
Joe also read into Negotiating with Imperialism: The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy by Michael R. Auslin, which is partially available on Google Books.
For more on the ongoing tensions in the Tsushima Strait, see this article in Observer Research Foundation.

Izuhara Castle Town on Tsushima

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Tsushima (S6.02)