Describe the important aspects of why the Mongols were not able to conquer the Japanese

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
Having secured Korea, the Mongols looked toward Japan, a target they could easily reach from Korea. Their first 30,000-man invasion force in 1274 included Mongol cavalry and archers and sailors from Korea and northeastern Asia. Its weaponry included light catapults and incendiary and explosive projectiles of Chinese manufacture. The Mongol forces landed successfully and decimated the Japanese cavalry, but a great storm on Hakata Bay on the northside of Kyushu Island prevented the establishment of a beachhead and forced the Mongols to sail back to Korea. The invasion hastened social and political changes that were already under way. Under the Kamakura Shogunate established in 1185—another powerful family actually exercised control—the shogun, or military leader, distributed land and privileges to his followers. In return they paid him tribute and supplied him with soldiers. Military planners studied Mongol tactics and retrained and outfitted Japanese warriors for defense against advanced weaponry, while farm laborers drafted from all over the country constructed defensive fortifications. This effort demanded, for the first time, a national system to move resources toward western points rather than toward the imperial or shogunal centers to the east. The Mongols attacked again in 1281. They brought 140,000 warriors, including many non-Mongols, as well as thousands of horses, in hundreds of ships. However, the wall the Japanese had built to cut off Hakata Bay from the mainland deprived the Mongol forces of a reliable landing point. Japanese swordsmen rowed out and boarded the Mongol ships lingering offshore. Their superb steel swords shocked the invaders, while an epidemic decimated the Mongol troops. After a prolonged standoff, a typhoon struck and sank perhaps half of the Mongol ships. The remainder sailed away, never again to harass Japan. Religious institutions later claimed that their prayers for help brought a “divine wind”—kamikaze—that drove away the Mongols.