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ImportantBattlesOfHistory"Divine Wind" Wrecks Mongol Invasion Fleet Threatening Japan | The American Legion's BurnPit Nature Intervenes; "Divine Wind" On the night of August 13, 1281 storm winds began blowing from the southwest. Within hours, these winds picked up speed and before long were howling down on the anchored Mongol fleet...there was no way for them to maneuver or escape. In addition, most of the Sung ships impressed by the Mongols were flat-bottomed river vessels, which without the deep keels of the larger vessels, began capsizing and sinking very quickly. The typhoon blew for two full days...When the storm moved out on August 15, nearly 90 percent of the Mongol fleet was sunk, and thousands of the sailors and soldiers were drowned. One Japanese account claimed that Mongol and Chinese corpses filled Imari Bay that a man could walk across the bay...This unusual victory thanks to the intervention of nature – or, to the Japanese mind, from the successful use of prayer to their gods – became a central part of the Japanese national psyche. The islands of Nippon were believed to be divinely protected. The typhoon was labeled kamikaze, or "divine wind." |