Sometimes life makes it impossible to write blog posts on a dependable basis.  This is one of the those times.  For the next little while, I’m going to run pieces from September and October five or six years past.  I hope you enjoy them, and I’ll be back as soon as I can. From September,…

Japan had expected the Mongol invasion for years. In 1266, Kublai Khan, the new Mongol emperor of China, sent envoys to Japan with a letter addressed to the “King of Japan”–a title guaranteed to offend the Japanese emperor.  The letter itself was equally unpalatable.  The Great Khan “invited” Japan to send envoys to the Mongol…