Queen Jingu (170 – 269) was the first queen to appear in the original Japanese history books. “Nihon Shoki” and “Kojiki” are the 2 oldest records in Japanese history. They both carry articles about Queen Jingu. According to records, the Yamato government (later to become unified Nippon) was in civil war, in the process of unifying Japan in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Emperor Chuai, Jigu’s husband, led Yamato troops fighting a tribe on the island of Kyushu. Empress consort Jingu was pregnant but she accompanied her husband as one of the generals of the Yamato army. When her husband died in the middle of the war, Empress Consort Jingu decided to take over her husband’s vision and continue fighting.
His army won the civil war on the island of Kyushu and he led his army into Korea against all the objections of his subjects. This was the first Japanese aggression against Korea in world history. It was the first time that Japan appeared in the history of Far East Asia as an aggressor. It was unfortunate that this war was purely an aggression against Japan. However, it helped redefine Japan as one of the powers in the Far Eastern Region that opened up Japanese cultural exchange and trade with the mainland of Eurasia. The link with the Continental Culture helped Japan to modernize its culture, society and politics from prehistoric characteristics.
Still Jingu was not anxious. She gave birth to a boy, who later became Emperor Ojin. On the way back to her war palace with her newborn baby, she discovered that the rebel army of her nephews stopped her from trying to become the next emperor. According to the legend of her, she stopped her soldiers who wanted to fight traitors. She invited her nephews and generals from the rebel army, telling them that she had no intention of fighting. Instead, she wanted to surrender if she helped the peaceful solution. When her nephews came to talk about peace, Jingu killed them and declared that he would not kill the generals and soldiers of the rebel army if they agreed to surrender.
She appears to be a cruel woman who attacked Korea and killed her own nephews to become empress. She obviously had an international sense opening the door to continental culture to take her country to the next level. It was also not uncommon for brothers and sisters in the royal family to kill each other for reaching the highest position in the history of any country. No one should blame Empress Jingu just because she was a woman and she killed her family members for the stability of her rule.
Instead, it is noteworthy that this determined and powerful queen brought her own country one step closer to a unified Japan and opened the door to the next cultural and social level. There is no record of her officially becoming empress. Therefore, Japanese history calls her Empress Consort Jingu, not Empress Jingu. Japanese history remembers and respects her as the Dragon Queen.