Tsushima Strait - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

is the eastern channel of the Korea Strait

Korea Strait

The Korea Strait is a sea passage between South Korea and Japan, connecting the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan in the northwest Pacific Ocean...

, which lies between Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, connecting the Sea of Japan

Sea of Japan

The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, between the Asian mainland, the Japanese archipelago and Sakhalin. It is bordered by Japan, North Korea, Russia and South Korea. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific...

and the East China Sea

East China Sea

The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean and covers an area of 1,249,000 km² or 750,000 square miles.-Geography:...

.

The Tsushima Strait is the broader eastern channel to the east and southeast of Tsushima Island

Tsushima Island

Tsushima Island is an island of the Japanese Archipelago situated in the middle of the Tsushima Strait at 34°25'N and 129°20'E. The main island of Tsushima was once a single island, but the island was divided into two in 1671 by the Ōfunakosiseto canal and into three in 1900 by the Manzekiseto canal...

, with the Japanese islands of Honshū

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

to the east and northeast, and Kyūshū

Kyushu

is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

and the Gotō Islands

Goto Islands

The are Japanese islands in the East China Sea, off the western coast of Kyūshū. The islands are a part of Nagasaki Prefecture.- Geography :There are 140 islands in total, including five main islands:,,,, and....

to the south and southeast. It is narrowest south-east of Shimono-shima

Shimono-shima

or is the southern end of Tsushima Island, which lies in the Korea / Tsushima Straits between the East China Sea to the south and the Sea of Japan to the north, and Korea to the west and mainland Japan to the east....

, the south end of Tsushima Island proper, constricted there by nearby Iki Island

Iki Island

Iki Island is an island lying between the island of Kyūshū and the Tsushima islands in the Tsushima Strait, the eastern channel of the Korea Strait. It is currently part of Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan. The city of Iki is the centre of the local government. The island has three ports.The island’s...

, which lies wholly in the strait near the tip of Honshū. South of that point Japan's Inland Sea mingles its waters through the narrow Kanmon Strait between Honshū

Honshu

and Kyūshū

Kyushu

, with the those of the Tsushima Strait, making for some of the busiest sea lanes in the world.

Geography

The strait measures approximately 100 kilometres along Tsushima Island and is about 65 kilometres wide at its narrowest. The strait has a depth of about 90 metres and is bounded by the Tsushima Islands to the west through north (of Gotō Islands). Nearby Iki Island

Iki Island

lies in the strait about 50 kilometres towards Kyūshū from the southern tip of Kamino-shima (South Island).

The Tsushima Current, a warm branch of the Kuroshio

Kuroshio Current

The Kuroshio is a north-flowing ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean. It is similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic and is part of the North Pacific ocean gyre...

(Japan Current) passes through the strait. Originating along the Japanese islands, this current passes through the Sea of Japan

Sea of Japan

then a branch eventually flowing into the Pacific
Northern Pacific Ocean via the Tsugaru Strait

Tsugaru Strait

is a channel between Honshu and Hokkaido in northern Japan connecting the Sea of Japan with the Pacific Ocean. It was named after the western part of Aomori Prefecture...

south of Hokkaidō

Hokkaido

, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...

. Another branch continues far northward and divides along either shore of Sakhalin Island

Sakhalin

Sakhalin or Saghalien, is a large island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N.It is part of Russia, and is Russia's largest island, and is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast...

; eventually flowing into the Sea of Okhotsk

Sea of Okhotsk

The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, lying between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the far south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast along the west and...

via the La Perouse Strait

La Perouse Strait

La Pérouse Strait is a strait dividing the southern part of the Russian island of Sakhalin from the northern part of the Japanese island of Hokkaidō, and connecting the Sea of Japan on the west with the Sea of Okhotsk on the east....

north of Hokkaidō

Hokkaido

and via the Strait of Tartary

Strait of Tartary

Strait of Tartary is a strait in the Pacific Ocean dividing the Russian island of Sakhalin from mainland Asia , connecting the Sea of Okhotsk on the north with...

into the Sea of Okhotsk

Sea of Okhotsk

north of Sakhalin Island

Sakhalin

near Vladivostok

Vladivostok

The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...

.

The Tsushima Current brings rich fisheries resources from the East China Sea into the Sea of Japan, like Japanese amberjack

Japanese amberjack

The Japanese amberjack or yellowtail, Seriola quinqueradiata, is a fish in the family Carangidae. It is native to the northwest Pacific, from Japan to Hawaii....

, Japanese horse mackerel, but these days also brings disaster like mass aggregation of gigantic Nomura's jellyfish

Nomura's jellyfish

is a very large jellyfish, in the same size class as the lion's mane jellyfish, the largest cnidarian in the world. The diameter of one fully grown is slightly greater than the height of an average fully grown man. The species was named in tribute to Mr...

and waste

Waste

Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...

from countries along the course of the current.

A commercial ferry service operates between Shimonoseki at the western tip of Honshū and Busan (aka Pusan), South Korea. Another operates between Shimonoseki and Tsushima Island

Tsushima Island

. The Cities of Kitakyushu (Kyūshū) and Shimonoseki (Honshū) are joined by an ocean-spanning bridge across the Kanmon Strait joining those cities with Nagasaki, which latter city serves as prefecture-level capital and administers both Tsushima and Iki Island. Kanmon Strait lies approximately 85 miles (135 km) due east of the center of Tsushima Island

Tsushima Island

, while Nagasaki city proper lies about 100 miles (165 km) to the south-south-east of the southern tip of the island.

Historical impact

The earliest settlement of Japan by people most resembling modern Japanese in litoral northern Kyūshū 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 modern day Korea to north Kyūshū from the fall of Four Commanderies of Han

Four Commanderies of Han

The Four Commanderies of Han are Lelang, Lintun, Xuantu and Zhenfan commanderies in northern Korean Peninsula and part of the Liaodong Peninsula. set up by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in early 2nd century BC after his conquest of Wiman Joseon...

(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 (Korea to the Tsushima Islands to Iki Island to the western tip of Honshū

Honshu

) for cultural exchange between Japan and Korea.

The straits also served as a migration or an invasion path, in both directions. For example, archeologists believe the first Mesolithic

Mesolithic

The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....

migrations (Jōmon) traveled across to Honshū around the 10th century BC, supplanting Paleolithic

Paleolithic

The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...

people that walked from Asia to Japan overland over 100,000 years ago when the sea level was lower during the Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

ice age

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

. Immigrants from Goguryeo

Goguryeo

Goguryeo or Koguryŏ was an ancient Korean kingdom located in present day northern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula, southern Manchuria, and southern Russian Maritime province....

, Gaya Confederacy

Gaya confederacy

Gaya was a confederacy of territorial polities in the Nakdong River basin of southern Korea, growing out of the Byeonhan confederacy of the Samhan period.The traditional period used by historians for Gaya chronology is 42–532 CE...

, and Baekje

Baekje

Baekje or Paekche was a kingdom located in southwest Korea. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla....

also contributed to waves of immigrants arriving in Kyūshū, although who, when, and how many exactly is a matter of intense debate. Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, along with Chinese writing, was initially transmitted from Baekje

Baekje

Baekje or Paekche was a kingdom located in southwest Korea. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla....

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

Busan

Busan , formerly spelled Pusan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of around 3.6 million. The Metropolitan area population is 4,399,515 as of 2010. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world...

(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 Mongolian invasion of Japan crossed this sea and ravaged the Tsushima Islands before the kamikaze
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....

(神風) – translated as "divine wind" – a typhoon that is said to have saved Japan from a Mongol invasion fleet led by Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan , born Kublai and also known by the temple name Shizu , was the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from 1260 to 1294 and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China...

in 1281. Military commander Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

was a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle...

and loyal allies of Western Japan (but not the East) led an invasion of Korea by way of the straits in the late 16th century, and more recently, the Japanese Imperial Army had attacked Korea and beyond.

But the reason the strait is famous is that one of the most decisive naval battles of modern times, the Battle of Tsushima

Battle of Tsushima

The Battle of Tsushima , commonly known as the “Sea of Japan Naval Battle” in Japan and the “Battle of Tsushima Strait”, was the major naval battle fought between Russia and Japan during the Russo-Japanese War...

, fought on May 27 and May 28, 1905 took place there due east of the north part of Tsushima

Tsushima Island

and due north of Iki Island

Iki Island

(shown in red on the second map) between the Japanese and Russian navies in 1905; the Russian fleet was virtually destroyed by the Japanese. This decisive result was to affect Naval planners and Fleet Admirals for the next forty years with a type of tunnel vision such that national and naval leaders were continually looking for the chance or to create that set of circumstances which would lead to a similar decisive major fleet engagement— while ignoring objective realities such as the new and eventually overwhelming ability of air power to devastate and neutralize the big gun ship. Even brilliant strategists such as Britain's Admiral Sir John Jellicoe

John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe

Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, GCB, OM, GCVO was a British Royal Navy admiral who commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in World War I...

(Battle of Jutland

Battle of Jutland

The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...

) and air power enthusiastists and supporters like Japan's Combined Fleet Commanding Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

Isoroku Yamamoto

was a Japanese Naval Marshal General and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II, a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and a student of Harvard University ....

(Battle of Midway

Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...

), or a tactician like American Vice-Admiral William 'Bull' Halsey

William Halsey, Jr.

Fleet Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Jr., United States Navy, , was a U.S. Naval officer. He commanded the South Pacific Area during the early stages of the Pacific War against Japan...

(Battle of Leyte Gulf

Battle of Leyte Gulf

The Battle of Leyte Gulf, also called the "Battles for Leyte Gulf", and formerly known as the "Second Battle of the Philippine Sea", is generally considered to be the largest naval battle of World War II and, by some criteria, possibly the largest naval battle in history.It was fought in waters...

) fell prey to the 'Big Fleet Battle Theory', consequently ignoring other tactical realities with an over focus on 'The Big Score'; an idealization which eluded all.

Japan's territorial waters extend to three nautical miles (5.6 km) into the strait instead of the usual twelve, reportedly to allow nuclear

Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...

-armed United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

warships and submarines to transit the strait without violating Japan's prohibition against nuclear weapons in its territory.

Geography

Historical impact

See also