War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its size,

and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history

through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Music James Early. Welcome back to Key Battles of the Pacific Theater of World War II.

This is your host, James Early, as always.

And last time we finished the war, we talked about the dropping of the atomic bombs. We talked

about the events that occurred afterward, the struggle between hardliners and the peace

faction in Japan, and the eventual decision of the emperor to terminate the war and to

surrender to the allies. And we talked about the surrender

ceremony itself. And we warned you that even though the war was done, we are not done.

So here we are, as I discussed toward the end of our last episode, Scott and I are going to

continue our tradition of doing an epilogue.

What happened to them afterward?

We're going to talk about some of the major characters.

And I tell you what, I struggled with this because there are so many fascinating people.

And we've mentioned so many.

And we could go on for probably four or five episodes about this. But we're not going to

do that to you. At the same time, we weren't, or at least I wasn't when I wrote them, I wasn't

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