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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shurai" data-source="post: 2375533">Samurai vs. MongolsActually the Japanese didn't do that bad against the Mongols, according to The Samurai, A Military History by S. R. Turnbull:When they made landfall in 1274, they had an easy time of it . . . at first.  They rolled over Tsushima and Iki Islands with little trouble (by sheer weight of numbers; these are small islands with small fighting forces).  They hit the mainland pretty hard, too, attacking the town of Hakata:And no wonder.  They had several important social advantages:  The Japanese hadn't fought seriously since the Gempei war almost a century past, and had never ever fought a foreign foe before.  Conversely, the Mongols who invaded Japan had been fighting (as opposed to merely training) for their entire lives.  In addition, technology was on the Mongols' side in several ways:  They had artillery (some form of catapult or ballista), superior archery (at the time!), and better tactics.So why did the Japanese win?  Turnbull continues:The Mongols & Koreans regrouped at sea, managing to get on their boats just in time for a huge storm to wreak havoc on the invading fleet.  After that, the invaders basically went home.  According to Turnbull:I contend that the Japanese would've won anyway:  The Mongols couldn't use archery any longer (they were running out of arrows) and none of the reinforcements from elsewhere in Japan (particularly the sharpshooting Kantou Samurai) had arrived yet.  The Mongols had been stalemated by the Kyuushuu forces alone.The Japanese knew that the Mongols would probably be back, so they kept close watch on their activities and worked hard at planning their defence and fortifying their country.  So, the second invasion, in 1281, did little better.  From wikipedia:It's worth noting that the Chinese army was over 100,000 strong, and it never did assault the mainland.  However, the Japanese resistance was easily comparable in size (in fact it was nearly 400,000 strong nation-wide, though not all of them had arrived yet), and they were all professional warriors (I don't think peasants had been conscripted yet at that point).  Likewise, they had been preparing and fortifying for a decade, they were fighting on their home turf, and they were willing to hurl themselves with their famous abandon into the fight.  Thanks to recent religious changes they were unified and nationalistic.  Though, they did have significant technological disadvantages, I think it would've gone just about the same way even if the Chinese had made landfall.Yet for the Mongols themselves, they'd been trying to make a beachhead for over a week.  Their ships were rotting, many of them were diseased, and the Japanese had been harrying the fleet by conducting repeated guerilla raids.  They were destroyed by the Kamikaze because the Japanese had repeatedly beaten them, if you ask me.-S</blockquote>

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