Righteous army

The righteous armies were an irregular military that fought the Japanese army that twice invaded Korea during the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598). Righteous armies were most active in the Jeolla Province in the southwestern area of Korea. Righteous armies included peasants, scholars, former government officials, and Buddhist warrior monks as well. Righteous armies were important during the war because a significant portion of the expected government organized resistance had been destroyed in Gyeongsang and Chungcheong Provinces in the south by the force of Japanese arms at the outset. The natural defenders had been stripped away and the residue had been called north to help protect the fleeing king. Moreover, many of the district officers had obtained their commissions not through merit, but by bribery or influence, and were essentially incompetent or cowards. This was highlighted in their performance and in the performance of their units in the early days of the conflict. This kind of resistance was totally unexpected by the Japanese invaders. In Japanese warfare, when the leaders fall, civilians would simply submit. However, after they learned that people were forming organized resistance against them, they were shocked. Japanese strategies were based on the premise that the people of Korea would submit to them and assist their supply line by giving their food. However, this was not the case and righteous armies continued to interrupt the Japanese supply line. People's voluntary resistance movements were one of the major reasons why Japanese invasion was not successful.

Righteous army of Jeongmi (1907)

Korean independent army.

Late Joseon dynasty period Korean nationalism outgrew the unplanned, spontaneous, and disorganized Donghak movement, and became more violent as the Japanese occupation began a brutal regime throughout the Korean peninsula and pursued repressive policies against the Korean people.

The Japanese occupiers fought with rifle guns, state-of-the-art cannons, machine guns, repeaters, mounted cavalry reconnaissance units in the mountains, and an entrenched class of informers and criminals developed over the previous decade before the battles began.

Koreans fought with antique muzzle-loaders, staves, iron bars, and their hands. There were rare instances of modern weapons, and a few enemy weapons captured.

For at least thirteen years after 1905, small irregular forces, often led by regular army commanders, fought skirmishes and battles throughout Korea against Japanese police, armies, and underworld mercenaries who functioned to support Japanese corporations looting Korea, and as well armed Japanese settlers who seized Korean farms and land. In one period, according to Japanese records in Boto Tobatsu-shi (Annals of the Subjugation of the Insurgent), between October 1907 and April 1908, over 1,908 attacks were made by the Korean people against the invaders.

While most attacks were done using available weapons, and bare hands, international arms dealers profited. Arms dealers and governments who supplied the Korean resistance included Chinese arms dealers from across the Yalu and in coastal waters; German arms dealers provided Mausers, and a French cruiser in September 1908, resupplied Korean Catholic armies in payment for gold at exorbitant prices. Smugglers from Japan as well supplied Murada weapons, with links to anti-Meiji forces who hoped to see Ito and his clan toppled in the wake of disasters in the Japanese economy.

After the Russian revolution, some weaponry was diverted from the White forces into what is now North Korea, and supporters built there, however this was sparse and while white Russian mercenaries fought against the Japanese, this was a minor element.

• List of Korea-related topics
• History of Korea
• Namdaemun Battle
• Korean independence movement
• Korean Liberation Army
• Battle of Qingshanli

• William E. Henthorn, A History of Korea, Free Press: 1971