Subj : Re: August stats To : alt.tv.farscape From : weirdwolf Date : Wed Sep 07 2005 20:57:42 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape Graham Thurlwell wrote in news:ac234ea54d.jades@d.thurlwell.btopenworld.com: > On the 2 Sep 2005, weirdwolf wrote: > > > >> Most people know the word kamikaze even if they don't know the >> derivation. It is the devine (kami) wind (kaze) that blew away the >> mongols ships. > > I've always thought that the Mongol policy of trying to make the > world's finest land army into a maritime one is right up there with > putting a guy who's been sacked from public office two times already > in charge of EU trade. > Well there is the slight technical problem of having to cross the korean straights, bit hard to get your horses to swim that far >;-) Strictly speaking they didn't change into a maritime army. The boats and sailors were Korean. The Mongols hadn't got a navy, much like the samurai. Indeed apart from the wako, Japanese naval battles could be counted on the fingers of one hand up until say, the Russo-Japanese war in which they scored a stuning victory in part due to the naval technology given to them by the British in the 19th century. The mongols landed and subdued both Tsushima and Iki islands. They made quite a headway into the mainland at Hakata bay on Kyushu. You have to remember that at the time the Japanese were also a bow and horse culture when it came to warfare. The ancient defences the Japanese retreated to, the re-enforcements and a lack of arrows halted the Mongols just long enough. The second occasion was different in that the Japanese had learnt the lessons over the failure of their tactics in the first invasion, harrying the Mongols on their boats for example. To use a later military quote though "It was a damn close run thing" Ted -- Stare too long into the abyss and the abyss looks like a nifty place to hide the bodies .