In the 19th century, when it comes to Korea, Japan was doing the heavy lifting. Queen Min (who couldn’t be pinned down by Korea’s intensely patriarchal society) developed a spy network in Imperial Nippon to track the modernization of its military as Japanese ambassadors practiced the same gunship diplomacy they learned from Europe.

She became such a problem, Japan sent a literal platoon of ninjas to kill her. Which they did, brutally.