The Notorious Wako Pirates of Japan

The wako (also called wokou or waegu) were a group of marauders that dominated the seas of East Asia for centuries. They have been seen by Western historians and culture as a kind of Japanese pirate, but as scholars dig deeper into the history of these people, questions arise about their true nature.

What was the reaction to these ‘pirates’? How did governments try to control their actions, and were they successful? These are questions that scholars are now working to answer.

“Wako”: The Difficulties of Translation

The difficulties with understanding the wako begin with their name. In the West, wako, read in Mandarin as wokou, in Korean as waegu and in Japanese as wakō, has been translated to ‘Japanese pirates.’ But is this accurate?

According to Frank L. Chance, who has done extensive research on the wako, the term has controversial connotations. Firstly, the word was used in the ancient period to describe someone who was seen as a non-Chinese ‘ barbarian’ and who was characterized as an outsider. The term was used particularly for foreign people from the East.

There are further implications. The word can also be a pejorative meaning ‘dwarf.’ Despite this, Chance argues that while the residents of the Japanese islands were relatively short and cultural outsiders from the Chinese, they actually took ownership of the term.

In addition to this, the simplistic translation of wako as ‘Japanese’ is also problematic. At this point in history, there was no entity known as…

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