print | close Kublai Khan's Fleet Reported Found by Japanese (An article from The New York Times, Sunday, December 14, 1980, reprinted by permission)

Tokyo, Dec. 13 (AP) Japanese divers say they have found the wreckage of Kublai Khan's Mongol invasion fleet 700 years after it was driven from Japan's shores by what the Japanese called a kamikaze--a divine wind.

Terming the find one of the most important in Japanese waters, Torao Mozai, a professor emeritus at Tokyo University, said he hoped that salvage work could begin in the spring with a $60,000 grant from the Education Ministry.

"We found the warships," he said in a telephone interview. "They are here, but it's hard to say what condition they are in."

He said the wooden hulks, more than 70 in all, were submerged in mud over six feet below the seabed in waters 80 feet or more deep in an inlet off Nagasaki, in the south. The wrecks were detected by sonar during a search in August after fishermen started hauling up earthenware and porcelain cups in their nets, he said.

Divers retrieved a Mongol sword, stone implements used for pounding rice cakes and a bronze statue of Buddha that Professor Mozai said might have been cast in Korea or China early in the 12th century.

He said he was convinced he had stumbled on the wreckage of the attempted invasion of Japan by Chinese and Korean forces in 1281. Kublai Khan, fifth emperor of Mongolia and grandson of Genghis Khan, was forced to retreat with heavy losses after a typhoon destroyed most of the invading fleet. An attempt in 1274 had failed for the same reason. The Japanese, thanking Providence, called the storms kamikaze. The name was later applied by World War II leaders to the pilots who attacked American ships in suicide dives.

Everything that Professor Mozai and his team manage to salvage will be donated to the museum at Imari Bay, he said. "I don't want anybody else to get to it--it's part of our national heritage," he added.

So far no one else has laid claim to the treasure. The Mongolian Embassy said it was unaware of the find, but a spokesman for the South Korean Embassy, Cha Yun, said his Government was interested. "It sounds like a significant discovery," he said. "First, I think the two countries should conduct a joint survey. We can discuss the legal matters afterward."

Discussion Questions

1) When did Mongolian forces attempt to invade Japan? What was the result?

2) What did the term kamikaze refer to in connection with these invasions? in WWII?

3) What are some of the items found on the sunken ships?

Research Questions

1) Who were the Mongols? Where was their homeland? How far did they expand their territory to the east? to the west?

2) What countries had the Mongols already overtaken when they invaded Japan?

3) When did the Mongol empire fall?

Additional Resources

National Geographic Magazine, vol. 162, no.5 (November 1982) contains a feature article, "The Lost Fleet of Kublai Khan," on the expedition to locate the ships. Complete with historical background, maps, and reproductions of an artists rendition of the invasion.