Commander

August 14

1281 “Divine wind” destroys Mongol army

On this day in 1281, a typhoon hits Hakata Bay in Japan, killing 100,000 and devastating the Mongol forces attempting to conquer the country. The storm effectively ended efforts by the Chinese dynasty of the time to rule Japan.

Kublai Khan, the first Mongol emperor of China and founder of the Yuan Dynasty, had sought repeatedly to extend his rule to the islands of Japan. In 1274, invasion forces were repelled by a strong storm in Hakata Bay on the coast of Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost major island. The following year, Khan instead sent envoys to threaten the archipelago into submission, but the Japanese killed the envoys. In 1279, he again sent envoys and the Japanese again killed them.

By 1281, Khan was determined to take Japan. He sent 40,000 soldiers on 900 ships from Korea and 100,000 troops on 3,500 ships from southeastern China to Hakata Bay. Despite the size of the force, they were not able to conquer Kyushu as quickly as they anticipated; heavy fighting went on for six weeks. Then, on August 14, a typhoon came blowing in from the northwest. The Chinese ships were blown into the narrow straits near the bay, where they hit rocks and sank. The dead bodies of men and horses floated everywhere--some claimed that one could even walk across the bay on them.

The surviving soldiers retreated immediately to Korea and Khan never again attempted to conquer Japan. The Japanese Shinto priests claimed that the storm was a form of godly intervention, calling it “kamikaze,” or “divine wind.”

Nikd

Really fascinating story, the Mongol army was better equiped and armed against the brave japanes army, who fight for every inch of the ground but was slowly losing territory, yeah Japan won with "Divine" help a war sure lost.

Professor Phantom

Kamikaze!!!!! That divine wind has sure saved them many times!

Commander

It's funny, until I read that article I never knew what kamikaze stood for. See, this forum is useful!

MrStoff1989

It's rather funny that Kamikaze was used by the Japanese to name Suicide Pilots and americans lost the true meaning of the word, Much like the meaning of the swastika symbol. The swastika is acually a chinese or indo-chinese symbol for peace.

Efendi

The mongols hurried in their attack to Japain. They ordered much warship to land the troops on Japain.

Some of the ships were not suiteable for Ocean because they were for rivers carriage.

Source Discovery Channel.

tksensei

Of course that was the second aggressive move by the Mongols against Japan, as a raiding party in 1274 did a lot of damage but couldn't establish a permanent position and actually spurred preparations for the larger invasion to come.

Belisarius

Everyone says it was a Mongol invasion, whereas most of the forces committed were in fact Chinese and Korean.

RollingWave

No it's not. the Chinese symbol your thinking of is like this



Swastika

the two are not the same.

Comnena

That these winds had protected them was one of the reasons that the Japanese were convinced that a divine wind would protect them from being harmed during the second world war. It is in relation to this belief that the pilots were come to be known as kamikaze pilots.