This is an IHeart podcast.

And we return to our American stories, and we love to tell stories about history on this show. And all

of our history stories are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College where you can

go to learn all the things that matter in life, all the things that are beautiful in life, a classical

liberal arts college. And there are so few of them left in this great country. And if you can't

get to Hillsdale,

Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses. I learned more watching

the Constitution 101 course their free offering than I did in three years studying law at the

University of Virginia School of Law. Up next, a story from writer Anne Claire on two of America's first responses to the attack

on Pearl Harbor, the Doolittle Raids, and the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Take it away, Anne.

The Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and other Allied strongholds on December 7th, 1941,

had far-reaching consequences. Shocked and angered, the United States officially entered the Second World

War. On the home front, people of Japanese descent living in the U.S.

faced suspicion and in some cases internment. Abroad, the U.S. Navy, damaged but not destroyed,

looked for chances to strike back.

Now, as the U.S. was looking for a chance to strike back, one of the goals was Tokyo itself.

The new commander in the Pacific, World War I veteran, Admiral Chester Nimitz, definitely knew that striking Tokyo was no mean feat.

His ships were pretty severely outnumbered in the Pacific,

and in order to get bombers close enough to strike Tokyo, he'd have to send an aircraft carrier

and escort ships within just a couple hundred miles of the target. And at that range, he risked both

the planes and the ships when he didn't really have any to spare.

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