The invasions of Khubilai Khan's formidable Mongol army is one of the most memorable events of Japanese history. Twice Japan was saved from almost certain doom by the formidable forces of nature in the legendary divine wind.

The ruler of the Mongol empire at the time of the Mongol invasions of Japan was Khubilai Khan. He was the grandson of the great Genghis Khan and by the 1270s his armies were on their way to adding China to his growing empire although it wouldn't be until 1279 that this country's last vestige of resistance finally fell with the elimination of the Song dynasty which ultimately led to the foundation of the Mongol Yuan dynasty. By the 1273 Korea had submitted to the Khan with the marriage of the Korean crown prince to his daughter. Khubilai Khan had sent envoys to Japan even before then in 1268 demanding tribute from the Hojo shikken (Regency) which was at the time led by Hojo Tokimune (1251-84). Another embassy was received by the shikken in 1271 but like the first Tokimune sent it away and refused any deal.

Khubilai Khan had grown tired of diplomacy and in 1274 had built up a force to begin the first invasion of Japan. Like most other Mongol invasions this was a reconnaissance force and with Korea's maritime resources in his hands the Khan could seriously entertain the possibility of invasion by crossing the Tsushima Strait (between Pusan on the southern point of the Korean peninsula to the island of Tsushima.) Nine hundred ships were built to transport an advance force of around 30,000 Mongols, Koreans (many were crewmen), Chinese and Jurchens. It took two weeks for this advance force to reach the western island of the Japanese archipelago called Kyushu. On the way, however, they raided the island of Tsushima, which lay between Korea and Japan itself, and also the smaller island of Iki. Landfall on Kyushu was made at Hakata Bay and the army gave the Japanese their first taste of Mongol warfare.

It was nothing like the samurai were used to. They conducted their battles according to tradition and ritual which included declaring your name, your exploits and the bold exploits of your ancestors, after which a suitable enemy would do the same and accept the challenge and an archery duel would often commence between the two protagonists. The samurai didn't much care for the lower class warriors in their army who fought on foot. They didn't count. Only those who fought on horseback were deemed worthy enough to count. The Mongols on the other hand employed far superior weapons and tactics in their wars in Asia and furthermore they didn't understand Japanese. When the samurai advanced towards their enemy in their time-honoured tradition they were met by clouds of arrows and exploding bombs and were massacred. Mongol bows were superior to Japanese ones, had a longer range, and often shot poisoned arrows. The bombs were flung from trebuchets and blinded, deafened, frightened and confused the Japanese ranks. These tactics of wholesale slaughter were shocking to the samurai who were driven back several miles inland to Dazaifu. The Mongols then ravaged the locality, burning down buildings including the Hakozaki shrine before returning to their ships anchored in the bay. This was their first fatal mistake.

During the night nature conspired against the victorious Mongols by whipping up a great storm that battered and smashed their fleet. Some 13,000 men lost their lives as the ships limped home. The samurai declared this a great victory but in truth the Mongols may have intended to leave anyway. Some sources doubt that there was a typhoon as the invasion happen out of season, in November, yet despite the brave resistance offered by the samurai they could not have inflicted so many casualties on the Mongol force with arrows, swords and spears alone. The Mongols were quite surprised at the level of resistance displayed by the Japanese as they were used to quick shock raids and the amount of fighting reduced both provisions and ammunition alike. One interesting account of the first invasion from Yuan sources say that a Mongol general, Liu Fu-heng, defeated a Japanese army of 100,000 men! Whatever the case the Mongols were only there for one day.

After this initial invasion Khubilai Khan and the shikken Hojo Tokimune began diplomatic efforts. As before nothing was resolved and it culminated in 1276 of the beheading of the Mongol ambassador and his envoys ordered by the shikken himself. Japan was already preparing itself for the next invasion which even resulted in the establishment of a coast guard. The symbolic Hakozaki shrine was rebuilt and the number of religious services increased, praying for divine help. A number of warriors who had fought exceptionally well in the invasion, about one hundred and twenty, were rewarded. In 1276 construction began of the defensive wall around Hakata Bay: it was two metres high with a stone face at the front and a sloping, earthen embankment at the back.

The Second Mongol Invasion

Preparations for the second invasion were much more extensive than the first. Quite clearly the intention was to conquer and settle on Japan as farming implements were found on board sunken Mongols ships. The Mongols' second fleet was much larger than the first, reputedly some 4,000 ships and 200,000 men with Arakhan, the Mongol general, in supreme command. There were two forces in all and both intended to join near Iki island but this plan never materialised. Apparently one of the Mongol commanders refused to wait for the other and as a result the fleets landed several days apart.

When the first fleet arrived the Mongols could not make a landing for days because of the ferocious fighting of the Japanese defenders in Hakata Bay. The Mongols withdrew and established themselves on two islands in the bay. From here they launched attacks against the Japanese for a week. Despite these overwhelming odds and the martial reputation of the Mongols the samurai displayed unbelievable bravery and performed many feats of heroism that would go down in history and inspire generations of warriors to come. The samurai boarded small boats, which held between ten and twenty of these warriors, and rowed to the anchored Mongol ships at night. They would then lower their boat's mast in order to form a bridge to a Mongol ship and then engage its crew and fighters in hand-to-hand combat. On another occasion thirty samurai swam to a Mongol ship and beheaded its entire crew before swimming back to safety. Another samurai by the name of Kusano Jiro raided a ship in broad daylight and set fire to it even though he lost an arm in the engagement. Kono Michiari was another notable samurai and he led two boats in a daylight raid. The Mongols thought that they were coming to surrender and allowed the Japanese to come close but before they knew it they were boarded. After the subsequent fight Kono and his samurai took a high-ranking Mongol general as prisoner.

To prevent these foolhardy attacks the Mongols stretched chains between their ships and stones were hurled from catapults to sink the Japanese ships. In the face of this resistance the Mongols withdrew to the island of Iki to await the arrival of the second fleet. Finally it did arrive near the island of Takashima where a large battle not long afterwards took place. The fighting lasted a day and a night and eventually the superior numbers of the Sino-Mongol army drove the Japanese back. With this defeat it paved the way for the Mongols to attack Hakata Bay and they needed to do something because supplies were running low in their huge army and disease was spreading.

What happened next was one of the most momentous events in world history. A retired emperor made a pilgrimage to Ise to pray for divine intervention and the gods answered. A massive typhoon came, worse than the last one in 1274: the kamikaze or divine wind. It wrecked the Mongol fleet and as most of the army were still onboard the ships they suffered horrendous casualties. Two-thirds of the invasion force failed to return. The thousands who remained were killed over the following days in Japanese attacks. Although the Mongols were beaten the threat to Japan remained. Another invasion was planned between 1283 and 1285 but never materialised. However, a sighting of an invasion fleet happened off Satsuma province in 1301 but was almost certainly a false alarm. Yet the coastal guard of Satsuma were only taken off their duties in 1312. Furthermore it took until 1320 for the shogunate to release the troops from their high state of alert along the coastline.

Incredibly the samurai learnt nothing from the Mongol invasions. They did not copy any of the weapons used against them because they believed that it mattered how a man used a weapon rather than the nature of the weapon itself. It was normal practice for samurai to be rewarded at the end of a successful campaign, in terms of booty and land, but there was none of either after the defeat of the Mongols. The priests also wanted a share of the nonexistent spoils because did they not pray for the kamikaze to smite the enemy ships? Farming was also neglected because of the invasions and famine began to spread. To add to the crisis the capable Hojo shikken Tokimune died an early death in 1284. Anarchy ensued and culminated in the War of the Northern and Southern Courts. The Mongol threat had passed and now the samurai went back to their time-honoured tradition of civil war.

Further Reading

Early Samurai (Osprey Publishing) - Anthony J Bryant.

Genghis Khan and the Mongol Conquests (Osprey Publishing) - Stephen Turnbull.

The Martial Arts - Michel Random.

The Samurai (Osprey Publishing) - Anthony J Bryant.

Samurai Commanders 1 (Osprey Publishing) - Stephen Turnbull