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It's early 1266 CE, and by this point, the Mongol Empire had broken up into four parts. In the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty (the easternmost of the four khanates, located in present-day China), Emperor Kublai Khan had his sights on dominating East Asia. He had already led the conquest of Korea, and so one last major power stood in his way - the Kamakura shogunate of Japan. Between 1266 and 1273, Mongol and Korean diplomats went to Japan on six occasions, demanding the Japanese submit to the Mongols. However, the Japanese ignored their demands. This infuriated Kublai Khan, who began drawing up plans for an invasion of Japan.
Preparations for the invasion began in April of 1274, when both sides began mobilizing tens of thousands of soldiers and the Mongols began constructing hundreds of boats for a naval landing. By early November, the Mongols were ready, and this was bad for the Japanese - the Mongols had gunpowder and outnumbered them 4 to 1. Despite the odds stacked against them, they were determined to hold their ground and fight to protect their homeland. On November 4, the Battle of Bun'ei had begun after the Mongol invasion force landed at Hakata Bay and began clashing with defending samurai warriors. The Yuan troops, with their superior tactics, weapons, and numbers, successfully pushed the Japanese back several miles.
However, luck was in store for the Japanese. The Yuan commanders, worried about troop fatigue and the risk of a nighttime ambush, ordered their armies to retreat back to the docked ships after just one day of fighting to rest up. And then, a typhoon struck the docked fleet, destroying one-third of it, throwing the Mongol troops into confusion. The Japanese capitalized on this, engaging in hit-and-run and nighttime assaults, and by November 19, the Mongols, after suffering heavy casualties from both the typhoon and the Japanese, left the island and retreated back to their homeland.
This was pretty embarrassing for Kublai Khan, who decided to leave Japan alone (for now) and focus on his southern flank instead, where over the next decade, led campaigns against Burma and Vietnam. By 1281, however, his attention had turned back to Japan, and this time, he was going all in. Over 4,000 ships were prepared and around 142,000 soldiers were readied. This was about to become the largest attempted naval invasion in history, only eclipsed by the D-Day Normandy landings during World War 2. The Second Battle of Hakata Bay began on June 8, 1281 when the smaller portion of the invasion fleet began attacking the Japanese defenses, which consisted of around 60,000 soldiers and coastal fortifications. Although the Japanese held their positions initially, they knew they couldn't sustain it for long as the larger portion was still approaching.
Good luck saved the Japanese again. A strong typhoon struck the Tsushima Strait, crippling the Mongol fleet by sinking most of their ships and killing over 80% of the Yuan soldiers, forcing them to retreat by August 22 of that year. Kublai Khan attempted to gather his forces to prepare for a third invasion, however events at his southern and western borders warranted his attention, leading him to abandon a third attempt, leaving Japan safe for the rest of the Yuan dynasty's existence.
The cultural impact of all this was significant. The Japanese were convinced that a divine force had intervened and sent the typhoons to protect them. This was when the first instance of the word "kamikaze" was used, meaning "divine wind". Additionally, during World War 2, the government of the Empire of Japan used "kamikaze" as a metaphor in nationalist propaganda for suicide attacks by Japanese pilots, one that meant that the pilots were to be the "divine wind" that would again sweep the enemy from the seas.
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Alr, hope you guys liked this one as well, and as usual, feedback is always appreciated! :D
