Kamikaze Typhoons

The kamikaze, or divine winds, were the two typhoons of 1274 and 1281 that wrecked the Mongol invasion fleets of Kublai Khan bound for Japan. The larger 1281 armada, said to number thousands of ships and over 100,000 men, was destroyed at anchor off Kyushu, ending the Yuan dynasty’s attempts to conquer Japan. Marine archaeology off Takashima has recovered anchors, ceramics, and ship timbers from the lost fleet, confirming the scale of the disaster. The events gave the word that later named Second World War suicide pilots.