FYI August 15, 2019

On This Day

1281 – Mongol invasion of Japan: The Mongolian fleet of Kublai Khan is destroyed by a “divine wind” for the second time in the Battle of Kōan.
The kamikaze (Japanese: 神風) literally “divine wind” were two winds or storms that are said to have saved Japan from two Mongol fleets under Kublai Khan. These fleets attacked Japan in 1274 and again in 1281.[1]. Due to the growth of Zen Buddhism among Samurai at the time, these were the first events where the typhoons were described as “divine wind” as much by their timing as by their force. Since Man’yōshū, the word kamikaze has been used as a Makurakotoba of waka introducing Ise Grand Shrine.

History
The latter fleet, composed of “more than four thousand ships bearing nearly 140,000 men”[2] is said to have been the largest attempted naval invasion in history whose scale was only recently eclipsed in modern times by the D-Day invasion of allied forces into Normandy in 1944.

Events
In the first invasion, the Mongols successfully conquered the Japanese settlements on Tsushima and Iki islands. When they landed on Hakata Bay, however, they met fierce resistance by the armies of samurai clans and were forced to withdraw to their bases in China. In the midst of the withdrawal, they were hit by a typhoon. Most of their ships sank and many soldiers drowned.[3][better source needed]

During the time period between the first and second invasion, the Japanese prudently built two-meter-high walls to protect themselves from future assaults.

Seven years later, the Mongols returned. Unable to find any suitable landing beaches due to the walls, the fleet stayed afloat for months and depleted their supplies as they searched for an area to land. After months of being exposed to the elements, the fleet was destroyed by a great typhoon, which the Japanese called “kamikaze” (divine wind). The Mongols never attacked Japan again, and more than 70,000 men were said to have been captured.[4]

In myth
In popular Japanese myths at the time, the god Raijin was the god who turned the storms against the Mongols. Other variations say that the gods Fūjin, Ryūjin or Hachiman caused the destructive kamikaze.

As metaphor
The name given to the storm, kamikaze, was later used during World War II as nationalist propaganda for suicide attacks by Japanese pilots. The metaphor meant that the pilots were to be the “Divine Wind” that would again sweep the enemy from the seas. This use of kamikaze has come to be the common meaning of the word in English.

 
 

Born On This Day

1896 – Gerty Cori, Czech-American biochemist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)
Gerty Theresa Cori (née Radnitz; August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957[2]) was a Jewish Austro-Hungarian-American biochemist who in 1947 was the third woman—and first American woman—to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for her role in the discovery of glycogen metabolism.

Cori was born in Prague (then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now the Czech Republic). Gerty was not a nickname, but rather she was named after an Austrian warship.[3] Growing up at a time when women were marginalized in science and allowed few educational opportunities, she gained admittance to medical school, where she met her future husband Carl Ferdinand Cori in an anatomy class;[4] upon their graduation in 1920, they married. Because of deteriorating conditions in Europe, the couple emigrated to the United States in 1922. Gerty Cori continued her early interest in medical research, collaborating in the laboratory with Carl. She published research findings coauthored with her husband, as well as publishing singly. Unlike her husband, she had difficulty securing research positions, and the ones she obtained provided meager pay. Her husband insisted on continuing their collaboration, though he was discouraged from doing so by the institutions that employed him.

With her husband Carl and Argentine physiologist Bernardo Houssay, Gerty Cori received the Nobel Prize in 1947 for the discovery of the mechanism by which glycogen—a derivative of glucose—is broken down in muscle tissue into lactic acid and then resynthesized in the body and stored as a source of energy (known as the Cori cycle). They also identified the important catalyzing compound, the Cori ester. In 2004, both Gerty and Carl Cori were designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark in recognition of their work in clarifying carbohydrate metabolism.[5]

In 1957, Gerty Cori died after a ten-year struggle with myelosclerosis. She remained active in the research laboratory until the end of her life. She received recognition for her achievements through multiple awards and honors.

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