21st Century Pirates VS 16th Century Pirates
discussion is initiated as follows
'I like to start the discussion of similarity between Japanese's Wokou and Somalia's pirate problem.''
''Pirating by ransacking towns and villages or boarding into large cargo ships may sound differently to you guys, but basic principle of pirating have not changed since the early days of pirating, just that today's pirating targets cargo ships.
Wokou didn't always raided coaster towns, they actually dominated the illegal sea trades between Japan's corrupted warlords and neighboring trading cities/states. I was referring to political sense of Wokou and Somali pirates.
Both Somalia and Japan (at that time) had multiple warlords, and they are equally corrupted as well as there was no single dominant govt.
Before 16th century, Wokou were simply known as simple pirates that raided trading ports, they even kidnapped aristocrat's family member in return for ransoms much same way as today's Somalia's pirates.
Somalia's pirates are not just simple pirates, they are well-organized group with warlord, and Wokou was exactly in same situation.''
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index. ... i-pirates/
