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 War in World War II.

This is James again.

And last time we talked about, we took a break from the actual battlefield, and we focused on what it

was like to be just a regular old American sailor and a Japanese sailor, what it was like

to be a soldier fighting in the Pacific Theater on both sides. And we talked a little bit about

Marines, but the one branch we did not discuss at all were sailors.

And so today we're going to go ahead to do that.

We have a whole episode on the life and experience of a Japanese sailor as well as an American sailor.

We're not, no offense against the Australians or the British, anybody else. Of course,

they played a role, an important role in the Pacific Theater. But certainly it was not as

major of a role as the Americans played. And we're not focusing on Americans just because we're

Americans, you know, it's not, we're not trying

to be uber patriotic necessarily. We're trying to give the two major sides, how their lives

were similar and how their lives were different experiences, differed as well as we're similar.

So we help you enjoy this.

We're an entire episode just on sailors

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