The Mongol Invasions of Japan: Why Kublai Khan Failed Twice

In the 1270s the Mongol Empire was the largest the world had ever seen — and no army that met it in the field had ever stopped it. Then it turned on Japan, and twice the invasion failed. History gives the credit to the kamikaze, the "divine wind" — the storms that wrecked the Mongol fleets. But the storms were the end of the story, not the cause. Japan broke the largest empire on earth by studying its enemy, building a stone wall across the invasion beaches, and abandoning the way it had fought for centuries. This is the real story of the Mongol invasions of Japan, 1274 and 1281 — and why it was the wall, not the wind, that won the war. Chapters: 0:00 The largest empire on earth 1:04 The myth of the divine wind 1:22 Kublai Khan's ultimatum 2:06 1274: the first invasion 2:37 Honor against a war machine 4:21 The wall 5:12 1281: the great armada 5:57 The wall holds 6:46 The divine wind 7:32 The cost of victory