On September 15, 1597, Admiral Yi Sun-sin judged that the greatly diminished Joseon navy could not afford to fight with the narrow strait of Myeongnyang (Uldolmok) at its back. He moved his fleet across the strait to Usuyeong, the Right Naval Command post in Haenam, and the following day, September 16, the Joseon navy inflicted a crushing defeat on the Japanese fleet at this location. The name "Myeongnyang" itself means "roaring strait," describing the sound made by the current colliding through the narrow channel. This victory, which turned the terrain and the violent tidal current into a tactical weapon, became the decisive turning point of the second Japanese invasion of Korea (1597–1598).
To commemorate this victory, a monument known as the Myeongnyang Daecheop Monument was erected in 1688 (the 14th year of King Sukjong's reign) in Dongoe-ri, Munnae-myeon, Haenam County. But during Japan's colonial occupation of Korea, the monument was forcibly removed from its original site and relocated to the corridor of Geunjeongjeon Hall at Gyeongbokgung Palace — a move that can reasonably be read as an attempt to erase the memory of the victory. After liberation, local leaders in Usuyeong recovered the monument in 1947, but it was first re-erected at Cheongnyongsan in Hakdong-ri, Munnae-myeon; only in 2011 was it moved to its original Joseon-era site in Dongoe-ri, Munnae-myeon. Designated Korean Treasure No. 503, the monument still stands there today, bearing witness to a memory of victory that was taken away and then reclaimed.