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Khan of the Rising Sun
Prologue Divine Wind
In 1268, a Mongol delegation presented the Japanese government with a letter from Khubilai Khan, Emperor of the Great Yuan Empire, demanding the Japanese submit to his rule or else they would be subjected to the wrath of the Mongols. The regent Hōjō Masamura defiantly ignored the threat and promptly retired from his post, leaving the war to the young Hōjō Tokimune. Despite his tender age, or perhaps exactly because of his youthful ardour, Tokimune successfully rallied the competing clans to his cause and prepared the country for the inevitable Mongol invasion.
Khubilai Khan
A number of diplomatic missions from Dadu (Beijing) tried to convince the Japanese to surrender, but to no avail. Japan was governed by professional warriors, the samurai, and it behaved as such. Thus, the Mongol fleet indeed set sail in the winter of 1274 from Korea, a vassal of Yuan. It first landed on the island of Tsushima, in the sea separating Japan and Korea. There, Sō Sukekuni, governor of Tsushima, fought a valiant battle against the Mongols, but he was hopelessly outnumbered and easily overwhelmed by the enemy army which numbered 25,000 soldiers.
After the Mongols had finished ravaging the islands of Tsushima and Iki in a manner completely shocking to the samurai, the Mongol fleet landed in Hakata Bay in November 19. A bloody battle between the Kyūshū samurai and the Mongols ensued. Although the samurai fought bravely, they were unacquainted with the more pragmatic Mongol art of war and were forced to retreat further inland, garrisoning themselves behind ancient fortifications at Mizuki. The Mongols, though triumphant, were surprised by the stubborn resistance of the Japanese and were worried by reports that the defenders were expecting reinforcements. The leadership held a council deciding on the course of action. Many commanders advocated withdrawal to the safety of the sea, but eventually a decision was reached to attack the samurai before the reinforcements arrived.
Thus, at dawn the next day, the Mongols successfully overwhelmed the outnumbered Japanese through superior numbers, slaughtering thousands of soldiers and civilians alike. Encouraged by the resounding victory, the Mongol army marched forth and captured Daizafu, the administrative centre of Kyūshū. They then proceeded to sack the settlement, leaving only the Tenman-gū Shrine intact in an effort to appease the local deities. This seemingly did not work, for the sea was churning in a great storm at the same time and it did not relent. The Mongols were glad they had chosen to attack the Japanese positions instead of retreating beyond the bay, for they would have surely drowned in such conditions.
While the Mongols had effectively brought Kyūshū to heel, the awaited reinforcements from Honshu and Shikoku were on their way and could potentially take back the occupied territories. In response to this threat, the Mongols dug trenches and constructed walls of stone and wood in the smouldering ruins of Daizafu, orchestrating the defence from their headquarters at Tenman-gū Shrine.
The armies from Honshū and Shikoku arrived in three days, together around 15,000 men strong. In an effort to diminish their numerical disadvantage, they concentrated their assault on the left wing of the enemy forces, composed of Korean soldiers led by the general Kim Bang-gyeong. However, the samurai sustained heavy casualties attempting to engage the massed formations of Koreans in duels and were eventually repulsed. The Koreans had also suffered but they were quickly reinforced by fresh Mongol troops from the east.
Battle of Daizafu Shrine
The samurai had been decisively defeated in Kyūshū. Over the next few weeks, the Mongols quelled any further resistance on the island, besieging and destroying any castles or fortifications of any kind they encountered. Many samurai lords committed seppuku rather than face Mongol subjugation. A notable example was Shimazu Tadatoki, governor of Satsuma Province, who conducted a valiant last stand against the Mongols before disembowelling himself right in front of the intruders who entered his chambers. The Mongols, to whom retreat was not considered dishonourable, found this behaviour cowardly, but the Chinese and Korean troops were known to have expressed great respect for their enemies.
The conquest of Japan’s westernmost region was only the beginning. Khubilai Khan, upon hearing the news of victory, sent a second fleet carrying 30,000 soldiers to Honshū. This time, the fleet was despatched from Hangzhou in China and was manned almost entirely by Mongols and Han Chinese since Korea was too impoverished to bear the costs of another invasion force. This force joined up with the decimated but determined first army which had crossed the Straits of Shimonoseki a month earlier and pushed north against the disorganized and confused clans on the Japanese mainland.
The huge Mongol army, which now numbered 50,000 men, advanced across Honshū, encountering little resistance. The only significant co-ordinated attempts to stop the Mongols were made before the Imperial Capital of Heian-kyō (Kyoto) and at Kamakura, the seat of the shogun. At the Imperial Capital, a number of powerful samurai clans led by the regent Hōjō Tokimune himself assembled in defence of the Emperor. However, this army was outnumbered five to one. The Mongols pushed the enemy to the very gates of the imperial palace where there was a great bloodbath. There were said to be mountains of corpses Mongol, Chinese, Korean and Japanese alike. Despite its brutal nature, the battle was fought in vain; the Mongols recognized the spiritual value of the Emperor and spared his life and title, alongside the entire imperial court. Meanwhile Hōjō Tokimune escaped east and barricaded himself into the natural fortress of Kamakura, the temporal capital of Japan.
The final battle of the Mongol invasion of Japan was fought at Kamakura, where Tokimune organized a defence against the impending Mongol attack. He were joined by a number of powerful clans including the Takeda and Ogasawara. Fortifying the Seven Entrances of Kamakura, the only major routes into Kamakura by land, the coalition of clans hoped to negate the numerical advantage of the Mongols and inflict enough casualties to force the Mongols to retreat. By now he knew of the tactics and strategy of the Mongols, and his samurai now fought in impersonal formations emulating the enemy. However, Hōjō Tokimune made a fundamental mistake by neglecting the fortification of the beach, providing the Mongols with an opportunity they were quick to take. In May 7 1278 Mongol ships landed on the beach of Kamakura, forcing Tokimune to personally lead a counterattack against the intruders. He left a greatly diminished force at the mountain passes, which were then assaulted by the main part of the Mongol army. Gokuraku Pass became the site of a heroic last stand by Takeda Nobutoki, who slew dozens of enemies with his own blade and was riddled with spear and arrow wounds before succumbing to death. Despite the great courage of the defenders, the battle ended after three days with a costly Mongol victory, concluded with the suicide of Tokumine and execution of the ten-year-old shogun Prince Koreyasu. Japan had been fully conquered by the Mongols and a sea of blood had been spilled. The question was, what was to become of the Land of the Rising Sun?