Here you will find small bits of info salvaged from the old site unfortunatly the authors were not recorded nor the original post names. hopefully you will find something to discuss here:

japan snippet file

i just have chinese and korean's ,they were the invaders, so their records are almost the same...

that is :

first invasion.its a mongol & korean joint army..they looted some japanese villages and back...on the way of returning, they met with typhoon..

2nd one is..a mongol & korean joint army landed first. they stationed and wait for 100,000 south chinese army's reinforcement,but the chinese army met with typhoon,left few survivers..then japanese piped all out..

The expeditions conquered the Iki (?) island in the Tsushima strait. Here the samurai rode out to initiate personal challenges (which may have even been a now forgotten Mongol custom) but the Mongols just filled the challengers with arrows. In any engadgements on the Japanese mainlands where usually Mongol victories but soon the Japanese started to adapt. They used wooden mantlets held up in front of their lines as they advanced and fired through the gaps. They also fought in small boats at night, creeping up to the large Chinese and Korean ships and torching them or fighting the occupants on board. This never beat the Mongols outright but delayed them until the typhoon made their position untenable.

The battle of Hakata bay was a naval engadgement in Hakata bay where Japanese ships lay in ambush in the circle of the bay and when the invading ships entered they where surrounded and destoyed.

There may be gaps/innacuracies because Im just telling you what I remember off the top of my head!

On a further note, the Korean and Mongol prisoners were all put to death but the Chinese were not, as some Chinese had high positions in the Japanese bakufu and had much respect at this time. The Mongol conquest of China was attributed to a degeneration of the world.

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The traditional swordsmiths of Japan copied the katana design from the Chinese straight blade. By giving it a bit of curve, some Chinese metalworking skills and their own innovativeness, the blade eventually became a very good weapon known as the katana.

When a good katana was made, it was tested on huge bundles of hay to see its sharpness. Occasionally, it was tested on bodies (or condemned criminals). Typically, on bodies several cuts would have to be made to see whether the sword will nick. The most difficult one would be the waist cleave

A katana sword from the fifteenth century once cut through the barrel of a machine gun.

Well, Japanese were famed of their delicate works not only in modern time, but also in ancient time. It is part of their perception of beauty.

From Sung Dynasty to Ming, China imported massive of swords (katana), fans, traditional lacquerwares, etc. A ordinary sword which made by ordinary swordmith in Japan, the value of sword rosed to sometimes 10 times of its original price in China. And, some famous chinese poets even praised Japanese items in their poems, such as Sung poet Ou Yang_Xiou

Man, the whole Samurai thing has been a phenomena in West ever since the economical miracle that happended in Japan 2 decades ago. Yes, as I stated in the previous post, Katana was considered as a superior close_combat in ancient time, both Korean and Chinese valued them in battles. But, sword or blade_based weapons (polearms etc.) were considered as art pieces than weapons themselves. Some famous swords, which made by saint_like smiths, were never been used as weapons in battles. In other words, artists made swords, not blacksmiths.

On the other hand, to answer your question, yes or no, swords in Japan are superior as their looks. Good swords (i meant at price of about 100,000 US dollars) can probably cuted through ordinary swords. It is because the compressoin of thousands layers of hard steel and irons, which allow the sword to absorb (iron part) the shock force, while cut (steel part) through the metal it encounters. Having say that, it would be a big mistake for a professional samurai to let his blade to get touch with any metals or enemies's blades, especially in a dual. In the Orintal swordship, regarding Chiense or Japanese, swords are lethal only in the comat of un_armoured or un_polearms types. And this was fact that even swords dont cut through armous that easiers, let along swords. That is why most armour_samurais used yari instead of swords as first choices. In Kendo, moves only restricted to attack exposed areas. (you never attack the body armour iteself). In addition to the specific question of katana's endurance in battles, of course it will get damaged or even chiped depending how long the swords were made. It is merely a physics question rather than a supernatural one. Swords are just metal or steels, they would be rust and decayed. Japanese valued their swords as their souls, so the swords always keep in best conditions. No armour_samurais would use their such expensive art pieces in battles, unless they need to (in desperate situation before commiting suicide). Because they know, on one hand, swords will devalued if they clash with any metal objects, on the other hand it is part of samurai spirit.

In short, katanas like any matters in nature (alloy) will chip in encountering any metals, but it certainly endure much longer than most of swords in general before it breaks. And, most samurais wont use them in combats unless it is a duals or unarmoured battles

No, only arrows, they were abandoned largely with the advent of guns.

     excuse me but have you played Counter Strike 1.6 ?

     this is what differentiate chinese from other east asian...