Mongol Invasion of Japan (1281)

In the spring of 1281, the Mongols in China (Yuan Empire) sent two separate forces to conquer Japan once more from their failed invasion in 1275. An impressive force of 900 ships containing 17,000 sailors, 10,000 Korean soldiers, and 15,000 Mongols and Chinese set out from Masan, Korea, while an even larger force of 100,000 sailed from southern China in 3,500 ships, for a combined force of 142,000 soldiers and sailors. In the summer, the fleet took Iki-shima and moved on to Kyūshū, landing at several different locations. In a number of individual skirmishes, known collectively as the Kōan Campaign (弘安の役) or the “Second Battle of Hakata Bay“, the Mongol forces were driven back to their ships after fierce resistance froim the Japanese. The Japanese army was heavily outnumbered, but had fortified the coastal line with two-meter high walls (元寇防塁 Genkō Bōrui), and was easily able to repulse the auxiliaries that were launched against August 15, the now-famous kamikaze, a massive typhoon, assaulted the shores of Kyūshū for two days straight, and destroyed much of the Mongol fleet. Most of the invasion force was composed of hastily acquired flat-bottomed Chinese riverboats and ships built in Goryeo and all of a similar type. Chinese and Korean sailors who were only recently just conquered and had no great loyalty to Kublai Khan. Out of the 4,400 ships in Khan’s fleet, only a few hundred survived the torrential waves and merciless winds. Almost all of the invaders drowned. Those who made it to shore were overrun by the loss of ships was so great that “a person could walk across from one point of land to another on a mass of wreckage“. The Roaring Typhoon which destroyed Mongol fleet in First and second Invasion regarded by Japanese as Kamikaze or Divine Winds (神風,) sentThe Mongol invasions are also an early example of gunpowder warfare. One of the most notable technological innovations during the war was the use of explosive bombs. The bombs are known in Chinese as “thunder crash bombs“ (震天雷 zhèntiānléi) and were fired from catapults or hand-thrown, inflicting damage on japanese soldiers.