An Incredible Claim
At 0400 Moscow time on 24 February 2022, after a protracted and visible buildup of forces, the Russian Federation launched its invasion of Ukraine.
The war, barely a day old as I write this, continues. Of course, active disinformation and misinformation following during wartime is part of the 21st century’s landscape of warfare. It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that a case of disinformation would eventually intersect with our purview here at Unseen Japan. Amazingly, it involves historic Japanese armor.
A tweet from @visegrad24 on 24 February 2022 subsequently made a rather extraordinary claim. The Japanese ambassador, @visegrad24 stated, had asked for his ancestral armor and sword to be sent from Tokyo. He was staying to protect Ukraine!
This tweet is, flatly, incorrect. So let’s get the facts straight. Who is the man in the armor? Where does the image come from?
Getting to know Ambassador Korsunsky
First, we need to understand a few things.
Ambassadors, as a rule, are not combatants. They may have military officers and guards on their staff, of course. The interests of their country may extend to military matters. But an ambassador is a diplomat. And a foreign ambassador taking to the street in armed defense of his country of assignment does not happen.
Second, the samurai caste was abolished in stages during the 1870s. The last of the people born as samurai were dead by the 1950s. As a result, there are no samurai, and to insist otherwise is plainly ahistorical.
Finally, this is not the Japanese ambassador at all. It is in fact Ukrainian ambassador to Japan Sergiy Korsunsky. Ambassador Korsunsky holds a doctorate in applied mathematics. Per the Ukrainian Embassy, he “has extensive professional experience with strategic planning and development, including energy, trade and investment policy, energy security, regional security, science and technology.” Further, he is also a prolific author, with 320 academic papers and 7 books to his name.
The ambassador posted the armored photo to his own Twitter account @KorsunskySergiy on 14 February. Furthermore, it includes a defiant bilingual message, beneath the image of him wearing tลsei gusoku armor and holding a sword.
Getting to Know Ambassador Matsuda
As of this writing, the Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine is Matsuda Kuninori (ๆพ็ฐ้ฆ็ด). A native of Fukui Prefecture, Ambassador Matsuda assumed office on 24 October 2021. He is a graduate of Tokyo University and the US Defense Language Institute. Since 1982, Matsuda has had a long and accomplished foreign service career. As of this writing, he remains in Ukraine, but is not taking to the battlefield in his ancestral armor. He is hardly the first Japanese diplomat active in eastern Europe during wartime. Sugihara Chiune is perhaps the most famous. But even Sugihara, born in the Meiji era when there were still many former samurai alive, did not wear gusoku while serving in Lithuania. As of this writing, Matsuda remains on the ground in Ukraine, seeing to the needs of Japanese citizens including evacuation.
Conclusion
Inasmuch as Ambassador Korsunskiy has procured a suit of historic Japanese armor, he is not fighting on the streets of Kyiv. Even if he’d done so, a good plate carrier or a solid air defense system would serve him better than armor that was out of date even when samurai last went to war. Because of his country’s dire situation, he has continued to urge international intervention to stop the attack on his country. He has also called for increased military aid to help Ukraine defend itself, including on his social media presence. Late on the 24th, he tweeted this image. In Ukrainian, it depicts the final words of the Ukrainian State Border Guard defenders of Snake Island:
Samurai don’t exist anymore. But steadfast tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds is timeless.
Sources
- “Fukui shusshin no chลซ Ukuraina taishi ga kataru genkyล” ็ฆไบๅบ่บซใฎ้งใฆใฏใฉใคใๅคงไฝฟใ่ชใ็พๆณ Fukui Shimbun, 24 Feb 2022. Accessed 25 February 2022.
- “KORSUNSKY Sergiy.” Embassy of Ukraine in Japan. Accessed 24 February 2022.
- Dave Lawler, “Ukrainian troops killed defending Snake Island to be honored as heroes” Axios.com, 24 Feb. 2022. Accessed 25 February 2022.
- “MATSUDA Kuninori.” Embassy of Japan in Ukraine. Accessed 24 February 2022.
- “Matsuda shin taishi chakunin no aisatsu.” Embassy of Japan in Pakistan. Accessed 25 February 2022.
- Rocky Swift, “Ukraine needs more munitions to defend against Russian missiles, its envoy to Japan says” Nippon.com, 25 Feb 2022. Accessed 25 February 2022.
- “Tลsei gusoku.” Kotobank.jp Accessed 25 February 2022.
