If at first you don’t succeed, lose, lose again.
The first Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274 progressed about as far as I did with the
first girl I ever asked out in high school.
When the invaders returned, the Korean king begged the Mongol leader Kublai Khan to please
shut up about any more invasions.
His people were already starving because they had to provide soldiers and build ships for
the last invasion.
Kublai read this plea, then threw it in the trash with disgust like it was a math test
with a 9 out of 10 grade.
He may not even have thought that the invasion was a failure.
One general claimed that they totally demolished the Japanese,
and only withdrew because they ran out of supplies.
The Japanese also didn’t claim success, and expected another invasion.
Maybe Kublai thought he had slapped around the Japanese enough to clear their heads,
because after the invasion, he sent a peaceful envoy to Japan to convince them to come visit
and discuss becoming a vassal state, over some wine.
The Mongol ambassadors traveled to Kamakura, the seat of the shogunate government.
The Japanese’s bums were still sore from being invaded, and they were in no mood to play nice.
They thought, “Hm...what is a good way to let this Kublai guy know we’re not interested?”
So they cut off the heads of the ambassadors.
Head-cutting usually sent a strong message, one in all caps with four exclamation points.
Now the shogunate was being a bit cheeky, because there were two governments at the time:
the military shogunate in Kamakura, and the traditional Imperial government in Kyoto.
They were supposed to cooperate.
The shogunate leaders just decided to kill the envoys themselves, then sent a message
to Kyoto informing them of the decision.
It was easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission, when you controlled the military.
In 1275, after years of fighting, Kublai’s Yuan Dynasty conquered the Song Dynasty.
He rested for a few years, but Japan remained a thorn in his bum that he really wanted to take out.
Meanwhile, Japan wasn’t sitting around with a katana up its butt waiting to be invaded.
No, the shogunate ordered its warriors to build walls around Hakata Bay,
the top invasion spot 4 out of 5 emperors recommended.
They even planned an attack on Korea, but it didn’t happen.
Probably for the best.
Warriors in Kyushu were put on wall duty, creating big beautiful walls and having the
fish pay for them.
The more land you owned, the more wall you had to create and maintain.
One samurai was documented as having to maintain about one foot of wall,
because he only had a tiny piece of land.
They also stuck large sharpened logs into the water to pierce any ships trying to land.
The logs were about 9 feet long, with a diameter of 4 inches.
Warriors in Kyushu had to perform guard duty, which lasted for months at a time.
Even when not on guard duty, they had to be ready to ride to battle immediately
at a moment’s notice.
They also built watch fires on the surrounding islands to warn of invaders, or visiting wives.
All this wall duty was a huge pain for these samurai, a financial burden.
It would later be one of the reasons that the Kamakura shogunate fell.
One day Kublai Khan woke up and realized that the itch was back,
and he needed to scratch it with some spears.
An unattainable goal is infinitely attractive.
He called up the poor Korean king and put in an order for an invasion fleet,
bigger than the last.
He told the king to really put his pp into it this time, to really give it 110% suffering.
It would be a massive invasion.
He also called up the newly conquered Southern China and told them to create a second fleet,
twice the size of the Koreans’.
Both forces would sail to Japan and proceed with a penetration of their defenses, doubly so.
Meanwhile, Kublai didn’t give up on the diplomatic route.
In 1279, he sent yet another envoy to Japan.
Seriously, Kublai, take a hint.
Remember, he had sent about a million envoys even before the first invasion.
This latest mission included recently-conquered Song Chinese.
Kublai thought maybe that would make a difference.
The envoys traveled to the Imperial Court in Kyoto and urged the Japanese to at least
come talk to the Mongols.
They had already crushed Song China for gods’ sake.
The Court didn’t know what to do so they asked the shogunate.
The shogunate leaders were like, “Hm...how about we just cut off their heads?”
And the envoys were like, “Now hold on a minute there--” and screamed before stopping abruptly.
After his ambassadors from both missions failed to return, Kublai was really frustrated,
almost as bad as when you’re trying to make a sunny side up egg and the yolk breaks.
He kicked off the second invasion.
He was serious.
He even created in his government a freaking Ministry for Conquering Japan, that was the name.
The two fleets set sail for Japan.
The Eastern fleet had 40,000 men.
The Southern fleet, 100,000.
The Eastern fleet, the one from the Korean Peninsula, got there first.
They just rolled over the islands of Tsushima and Iki like the islands were dough and they
were making pizza.
They were supposed to stay at Iki and wait for the Southern fleet to sail up to meet them,
but no plan survives contact with stupidity.
They sailed straight for Hakata Bay without waiting.
Maybe they thought waiting for the Southern fleet would have given the Japanese too much
time to prepare.
Joke’s on them, the Japanese defenders were like introverts when the pandemic hit.
They had been preparing for this moment their entire lives.
A few ships landed on the coast of the bay.
The invaders charged towards the Japanese, spears up, ready to beat the boy-love out of them,
and then faltered when arrows started flying from behind the walls.
They couldn’t get through.
They retreated to their ships and held Shiga and Noko islands instead.
The Mongol fleet was huge, but it didn’t stop the Japanese from sneaking onto them
at night and torching them.
Defenders ran across a thin land bridge that connected Shiga island to the mainland and
raided the invaders there.
The fleet retreated back to Iki to catch its breath and to wait for reinforcements.
Japanese ships tried raiding Iki, but they didn’t have much success.
Finally, the Southern armada arrived at Takashima, and with their powers combined, the two fleets
got destroyed by a typhoon.
Actually, the Southern fleet got destroyed, we’re not sure what happened to the Eastern fleet.
The Mongol leader decided to cut his losses and lead the remaining ships back home, abandoning
thousands of soldiers on Takashima.
Over the next few days, the survivors were slaughtered.
The Japanese captured a few thousand enemies, but killed all the Mongols, Koreans, and Northern Chinese.
Apparently the Mongol forces treated civilians brutally, especially women,
so the Japanese showed no mercy.
They did spare the Southern Chinese because Southern China was recently conquered.
The Southern Chinese soldiers cheered, until the Japanese made them slaves.
The Mongol leader who retreated was charged by Kublai with the crime of leaving the battlefield,
and was convicted of being a little bish.
Now unlike for the first invasion, there’s no question among historians whether or not
a typhoon hit in this second invasion.
It was typhoon season, and documents on both sides confirmed the stormy destruction.
The popular narrative is that the typhoon saved Japan, but was that true?
Or could Japan have won even without a typhoon?
The answer is complicated and involves asking, how big were the invasion fleets really?
We’ll talk about that in another video.
Meanwhile, get your fine butt over to these other Mongol invasion ones.
I’ll see you there.
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