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Depiction of Takezaki Suenaga.

Battle of Kōan: The Second Mongol Invasion

The Battle of Kōan (弘安の役)  is also known as the Second Battle of Hakata Bay. The first was a failed attempt seven years earlier in the Battle of Bun’ei, when by divine providence the Japanese were aided by a storm they refer to as kamikaze (divine wind), a name that was later used in World War II for aerial suicide attacks.

Depiction of Takezaki Suenaga.

During the next seven years, while Kublai Khan mulled over his unexpected defeat in Japan, the samurai still waited for the bafuku in Kamakura to reward them for fighting against the Mongol invaders. As was the custom for honoring samurai who had fought valiantly and victoriously in domestic battles, they expected  to be granted a share of the land or any goods seized from the enemies.

Depiction of Takezaki Suenaga.

Unfortunately, in the case of the  Battle of Bun’ei, there were no spoils of war to portion out since the invaders were not from Japan and had left no booty behind. This left the bafuku with nothing to pay the thousands of samurai who had fought off the Mongols.

Takezaki Suenaga took the initiative to travel for two months to the Kamakura shogun’s court to plead his case in person. He was rewarded with a prized horse and stewardship of Kyushu island, but only 120 samurai out of the 10,000 who had fought received rewards from the bafuku. This brought the Kamakura government much resentment from most of the samurai class.

Meanwhile, Kublai Khan sent a delegation of six men to Japan demanding that the emperor travel to the capital of the Kublai Khan’s empire, Dadu (modern day Beijing), and  bow to him in submission. Japan responded by beheading the six envoys and prepared for a second attack from the Mongols by taking a census of all available weaponry and warriors. All of Kyushu’s landowning class was also tasked to build a defensive wall around Hakata Bay measuring five to fifteen feet high and 25 miles long.

The second Mongol invasion

In the spring of 1281, the Japanese got wind that the second Mongolian invasion force was on their way to Japan. Kublai Khan knew that his initial defeat seven years prior was just a case of bad luck due to the weather rather than his prowess in fighting the samurai.

Image of Samurai ships, detail from theMōko Shūrai Ekotoba hand scrolls.

Image of Samurai ships, detail from theMōko Shūrai Ekotoba hand scrolls.

This time around, the Japanese were more prepared for the battle. There were 40,000 samurai and other fighting men ready at arms for the coming Yuan army. The Mongols sent two separate forces: 40,000 Chinese, Korean, and Mongol troops in 900 ships set out for Masan, and an even larger army of 100,000 in 3,500 ships from southern China. The smaller fleet arrived in Hakata Bay on 23rd June, 1281. However, the ships from China still had not arrived. The Korean fleet were unsuccessful in breaching the Japanese defensive wall, bringing the battle to a stalemate. The samurai would row out in small boats some nights and set fire to the opposing ships. These raids greatly demoralized the Chinese and Korean sailors who were only recently just conquered and had no great loyalty to Kublai Khan.

On the 12th of August, the Mongols’ main fleet arrived in the west of Hakata Bay. The Mongol army was more than three times the size of the samurai army, and the Japanese were in serious danger of defeat. On August 15, just as it seemed that the Japanese army would be slaughtered and defeated by the Mongols, another typhoon blasted its way into Kyushu. 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 samurai.

This is the legend of the kamikaze, or divine winds that brought the mighty Mongol army to its knees. Kublai Khan never again tried to conquer Japan.

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