HAKATA Bay
                      In CHIKUZEN - MOKU-SHURAI - "The
                        Invasion of the Mongols" 
                KAMIKAZE
                          "The Divine Wind"  
              
              
              On August 15, 1281,
                      KAMEYAMA-JOKO, the retired father of Emperor
                      GO-UDA, appeared before AMATERASU "The Divine
                      Goddess of the Sun" in ISE asking her intervention
                      on behalf of Japan.   
                 
              900 Korean ships with
                      10,000 infantry and 17,000 sailors had ferried
                      15,000 Chinese and Mongol troops to rendezvous at
                      IKI Island with the 3,500 ship Chinese "Yang-tze"
                      task-force of 60,000 navy carrying 100,000
                      soldiers to conquer the Land of the Gods. 
                       
                      Six and half years before, the 150 ship first
                      invasion had thrashed against the coast in a
                      storming November night to the loss of 13,000
                      lives.  
              
                  
              
              This was
                        summer - the well-planned, long awaited
                      summer.  
                       
                      A sea of angry boats and garish streamers imposed
                      hideous clarity to the excited echoes of drums and
                      horn, - filtering over the flat, naked water. 
                       
                      The Japanese had prepared six and half years. HOJO
                      TOKIMUNE's coordinated national muster stood ready
                      but outnumbered on its fifteen foot, 25 mile wall
                      protecting HAKATA from the waves and this vast
                      spectacle painted across everyone's eyes. 
                       
                      Moving effortlessly from the horizon, a small
                      black dot appeared in the cloudless sky. -
                      Searching a station just above the throng, it
                      stretched dark fingers without wait.  
                       
                      A huge and deafening still swallowed their noisy
                      clamor as the ocean and its ships began to leap in
                      eerie silence.  
                       
                      Then the leaves started rattling... 
                       
                      Foretelling the deep growl that shook trees before
                      its violent thunder hit with howling rage. Flags
                      were pulled from standards. And warriors clung for
                      the moaning earth  -  just to
                      watch.  
                       
                      Careening ships were pitched on crags or dragged
                      away. Swamped wrecks rolled over, and over each
                      other in the boiling sea;   
                                                                          
- 
                      grinding their vessels to splinter wood. 
                       
                      The sight made men drunk, some sat numb. 
                       
                      That day, the Hand of God labored for the Japanese
                      just as it had for Moses at the Red Sea. 
                       
                      AMATERASU allowed three lives to return the news
                      to Kublai-Khan.  
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