Kamikaze destroys second Mongol invasion of Japan
August 15, 1281
A vast Yuan invasion force of Chinese and Korean ships anchored at Kyushu was caught by a typhoon in Imari Bay. Tens of thousands drowned. Shinto priests credited the gods; samurai inherited a legend that would be invoked with tragic results in 1945. The wreckage of the invasion fleet, recently discovered on the seafloor, confirms the scale of the disaster that contemporary Japanese sources describe.
In context
Also in 1281 (3 other events on record)
- Mamluk sultan Qalawun defeats Mongol invasion at Homs · Middle East · War
- Champa kingdom resists Vietnamese expansion · Southeast Asia · War
- Arghun corresponds with European courts · Middle East · Politics
Before and after in East Asia
Before and after in War
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.