Khubilai Khan was a man who had everything. He was the grandson of Genghis Khan, and had successfully taken over his grandfather’s rule of China seven centuries ago. Nevertheless, there is one country that defied him – Japan.

So it was, that in the year 1281, Khubilai Khan (also known as Kublai Khan) built an armada of 4,400 ships carrying 140,000 men, and set forth to conquer the Land of the Rising Sun.

However, one fateful night in August that year, the massive fleet and all its crew members mysteriously vanished. It was the largest loss of life at sea in history, and a turning point that changed the history of the world, as we know it.

Discovery Channel (Astro Channel 50) will be screening a one-hour documentary, Khubilai Khan: Fall of the Mongol Hordes, that reveals how the legacy left behind by Genghis Khan was destroyed in one night in the greatest naval disaster of all time.

This programme follows diving expert and marine archaeologist Kenzo Hayashida of the Kyushu Okinawa Society for Underwater Archaeology and his team as they investigate the wreck of a huge Mongol warship in search of valuable evidence of the doomed armada’s final moments.

For nearly 700 years the fleet was lost, and the story behind its demise left to mere speculation, until in 1981 when a Japanese fisherman found a bronze object featuring stylised Mongol writing.

Using the coordinates from the fishing vessel, Hayashida’s team found the wreck of a huge Mongol warship, which helped them discover the truth behind the greatest disaster in military history.

When Hayashida saw the bronze seal in 1989, he knew that it was a very important artefact.

“It was a written (curved) specimen that was different from the other muted artefacts found at the excavation site,” he explained during a telephone conference from Japan recently.

“The bronze seal belonged to ‘a captain of a thousand soldiers’, and it proves that Kublai Khan’s fleet really was here and that their ships sank here in 1281.”

However, they still could not tell what kind of ship the seal came from until 2001, when they finally excavated some large-sized timbers that belonged to the ship.

Hayashida went to Takashima in 1989 to supervise the search and excavation of Mongol ships that may have sunk there. His hard work was rewarded when, in 1994, the excavation team found a large anchor belonging to one of the ships, which convinced them to concentrate their efforts in that particular area.

Then, in 2001, they had a breakthrough when they discovered a treasure trove of objects that belonged to Khubilai Khan’s fleet.

“We found large amounts of artefacts that might have belonged to the captain’s ship – anchors, bronze mirrors, bronze ornaments, Chinese ceramics and lacquer ware, ink stones and stone figurines. Most of them belonged to Khubilai Khan’s soldiers,” he said.

It is assumed that Khubilai Khan had first sent an envoy to the Shogun of Japan seeking a good relationship between Mongol and Japan. However, from his missive, the Shogun and his clans perceived Khan to be very envious of Japan, and refused to give an answer.

Things then came to a head when Khan’s second batch of envoys completely failed to forge a relationship between the two nations and were killed by the Shogun instead. As a result, Khan decided to send his army to attack Japan.

“Historically, we know that Khubilai Khan attacked Japan twice –once in 1274 when about 900 ships landed in northern Kyushu and the second attack in the same place in 1281.

“However, no evidence has been found about those attacks until now. The discovery at Takashima gave us some concrete archaeological evidence that proved that the ships of Kublai Khan’s fleet sank at Takashima in 1281.”

The theory is that a “kamikaze” (divine wind) destroyed the fleet and saved Japan from invasion. A less supernatural theory derived from the archaeological surveys at Takashima would be that Kublai Khan’s ships were relatively old river boats that were constructed poorly. Also, iron nails with high sulphur content were used and thus not suitable for ocean voyages.”

According to Hayashida, the program on Discovery Channel will show Khubilai Khan’s attack based on the archaeological evidence taken from the bottom of the Takashima Sea.

“The programme does not attempt to overanalyse or exaggerate the history of what happened at Takashima.

“However, through it, viewers can learn how scholars and specialists deduce the historical incidents that happened at Takashima in 1281.”
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I really hope I can find that special. This is really flaring up my curious mind about how such a wind would be able to take down so many ships and men just like *snap* that. Surely, it would had have been one hell of a storm and as wide spread as the ships would have been.

I thoguht it was concluded as a severe hurricane that did in the large naval army or am I speaking of a a different attack on Japan by the Mongols?

One and the same.

Thats pretty cool

Actually there is a far greater disaster at sea than this one. During the Punic wars a Roman Navy lost over 200,000 men and a complete fleetto a Mediterranean storm. The losses were so high because of the huge numbers of rowers on war galleys. Contrary to the movies though, they were not slaves. Although the later rennaissance galleys had slave crews.

Khans, the Mangolians... In my history class I learned that a great typhoon or storm seperated and/or destroyed most of the fleet. When the Mangolians finally reached Japan, their forces were insignificant and they were easily defeated.

I heard a different story, they still had a large enough army to invade but they landed in an area that was in favor of the small samurai militia that did not run and decided to fight. I'm getting this from a previous documentary on the discovery about the history of the samurai. This new documentary can say other wise!

when is this going to be on discovery channel? sounds very interesting, i can't imagine what it must of been like to lose that many men and ships

try to imagine being one of the guys on the ships, no air-sea rescue coming for you. hungry sharks, fighting your fellow man for the flotilla.

I doubt the leaders of the time showed any sincere remorse. Barbarians they were...... barbarians.

Maybe it was God, mother nature, Allah, or Buddha giving payback to the Mongols, history shows they werent very nice to those who they invaded. Everything living was usually put to the sword. Of course, I wasnt there, just flapping the gums from a long ago history class and a few web site readings.

Not necessarily, the Mongols are famous for passing propaganda of eminent defeat, suffering, and death to their enemies. Usually their enemies would put up their white flag just because of the rumors before a Mongol even draws his sword. But don't get me wrong some of it may very well be true!

there were equal parts propaganda and truth to the fear the world had of the mongols. They were some of the first to use widespread bio-tactics, (mainly because their armies carried the plague with them for a long time and would vault their dead into opposing cities), also they utilized archery from horseback long before any of the conquered even thought of such a thing. It was like the mobile artillery of today.

It was indeed a huge storm that demolished the mongol ships. It did help that the ships were, as stated above, of poor construction and poorly crewed. The mongols were plainsmen, not sailors.

Most amazing is the fact that that "invasion" was the last time a foreign army sat foot on Japanese soil for over 660 years...the next to do so was the US in 1944!

To call this a "Mongol fleet" would be a mistake. Kublai Kahn became emperor of China. The ships were of the Imperial Chinese Navy manned by Chinese sailors, and I suspect most of the soldiers/marines were Chinese and not Mongolian. Mongolians were superb cavalry, but ill-suited for naval opertions. Most had probably never seen the ocean in their entire lives, let alone, build and man a fleet of ships.

Yes SP, we know for a fact that is what happened to the fleet the story goes the worriers of Japan prayed for help and a divine wild the kazikma came. The worst hurricane to ever hit Japan at that time. even today people still go and pray at the temple which was used to bring the winds that saved Japan.

The Mongols were barbarians? Thats nonsence, the Mongels were an advanced civilization at that time, how else do you think they could have won that many land? They had one of the best tactics ever.
Hell even the Chinees were afraid of the Mongols thats why they built the Great Wall of China. But Im quite sure the Mongols would have taken over Japan, it their fleet would have survived.