Mongol Invasions of Japan

The Mongol invasions of Japan were two large-scale amphibious campaigns launched by the Mongol-ruled Yuan dynasty of China under Kublai Khan, in 1274 and again in 1281, aiming to subjugate Japan after the Kamakura shogunate had refused repeated demands for submission. Both invasion fleets, carrying tens of thousands of Mongol, Chinese and Korean troops, made initial landings on the island of Kyushu, where Japanese samurai forces resisted fiercely despite unfamiliar Mongol tactics and weapons including exploding shells. On both occasions the invading fleets were struck by major typhoons that destroyed large portions of the invasion force, storms subsequently mythologized in Japan as the kamikaze, or "divine wind." The failed invasions ended Mongol ambitions toward Japan and are traditionally credited with preserving Japanese independence from the vast Mongol Empire that had by then conquered most of Eurasia, though the enormous defensive cost also strained the Kamakura shogunate's finances and contributed to its eventual decline.