Mongol invasions of Japan

The Mongol invasions of Japan were two attempts by Kublai Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire and the Yuan dynasty of China, to conquer the Japanese archipelago, made in 1274 and 1281. In the first, a fleet with Mongol, Chinese and Korean troops landed at Hakata Bay in Kyushu, and fought the samurai defenders, but withdrew, partly because of a storm. The second was much larger, but the Japanese had built a defensive wall, and a typhoon destroyed much of the invasion fleet. The Japanese later called these storms kamikaze, meaning divine wind. The defence strained the Kamakura shogunate, which could not reward the warriors, and this contributed to its fall.

Open on the timeline