The word kamikaze first meant the storms that wrecked Kublai Khan's fleets
Long before it named suicide pilots in the Second World War, kamikaze, meaning 'divine wind', described typhoons credited with destroying Mongol invasion fleets sent against Japan in 1274 and 1281. Kublai Khan's failure there helped mark the limit of Mongol expansion and became a defining moment in Japanese national history.
The war began with letters. After Korea's Goryeo kingdom became a Mongol vassal, Kublai sent missions to Japan six times between 1266 and 1273 demanding submission. His first letter spoke politely of one family under heaven, then asked who would care to resort to arms. Japan's military regents of the Hōjō clan ignored every demand. One set of envoys was lodged at a poor inn outside the capital for five months and sent home without an answer; a later delegation was met by armed samurai.
Japan read the 1268 letter as an omen of invasion. Shrines and temples were ordered to pray that the invaders be driven off, and the government set aside most routine business to fortify Kyushu. The regent Hōjō Tokimune, according to a popular Japanese story, conquered his own fear through Zen meditation, answering his teacher with a mighty shout that pleased the master greatly.
The first invasion fleet sailed from Korea in November 1274 with about 15,000 Mongol, Han Chinese and Jurchen soldiers plus thousands of Korean troops and sailors. Korea had been forced to supply labour and materials for some 900 ships. Tsushima Island fell first; its deputy governor, Sō Sukekuni, met the landing with just 80 mounted samurai and their retinues and was killed. Both sides exaggerated each other's numbers, and Japanese defenders probably totalled only 4,000 to 6,000.
The campaign is also notable in the history of technology as one of the earliest uses of gunpowder weapons outside China, including hand-thrown explosive bombs. Yet despite that advantage, neither invasion succeeded, and the Mongol empire's eastward push stopped at the sea.
Source: Mongol invasions of Japan
