imonoseki Strait; at
Harima, on the southern shore of the Inland Sea; and at Tsuruga, on
the northwest of the main island. Among these places, Hakozaki and
Nagato were judged to be the most menaced, and special offices, after
the nature of the Kyoto tandai, were established there.

ENGRAVING: HOJO TOKIMUNE

Seven years separated the first invasion from the second. It was not
of deliberate choice that Kublai allowed so long an interval to
elapse. The subjugation of the last supporters of the Sung dynasty in
southern China had engrossed his attention, and with their fall he
acquired new competence to prosecute this expedition to Japan,
because while the Mongolian boats were fit only for plying on inland
waters, the ships of the southern Chinese were large, ocean-going
craft. It was arranged that an army of 100,000 Chinese and Mongols
should embark at a port in Fuhkien opposite the island of Formosa,
and should ultimately form a junction in Tsushima Strait with an
armada of 1000 Korean ships, carrying, in addition to their crews, a
force of 50,000 Mongols and 20,000 Koreans.

But before launching this formidable host, Kublai made a final effort
to compass his end without fighting. In 1280, he sent another embassy
to Japan, announcing the complete overthrow of the Sung dynasty, and
summoning the Island Empire to enter into friendly relations.
Kamakura's answer was to order the execution of the envoys at the
place where they had landed, Hakata in Chikuzen. Nothing now remained
except an appeal to force. A weak point in the Yuan strategy was that
the two armadas were not operated in unison. The Korean fleet sailed
nearly a month before that from China. It would seem that the
tardiness of the latter was not due wholly to its larger dimensions,
but must be attributed in part to its composition. A great portion of
the troops transported from China were not Mongols, but Chinese, who
had been recently fighting against the Yuan, and whose despatch on a
foreign campaign in the service of their victors suggested itself as
a politic measure. These men were probably not averse to delay and
certainly cannot have been very enthusiastic.

In May, 1281, the flotilla from Korea appeared off Tsushima.
Unfortunately, the annals of medieval Japan are singularly reticent
as to the details of battles. There are no materials for constructing
a story of the events that occurred on the Tsushima shores, more than
six centuries ago. We do not ev