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, as always, your host, James Early.

In our last episode, we finished up our discussion of the epic battle of Okinawa,

which, as we mentioned, turns out to be the very last battle in the island hopping campaign.

Of course, they didn't know this at the time, but we know with the benefit of hindsight

that it is the last island invasion. It's the last amphibious

invasion that the United States is going to do.

Scott, do you think I just spoiled the story for some people?

I just gave away the ending there.

To be fair, it's pretty well known the result of it,

unless you think you're living in an alternate

history, Philip K. Dick, uh, situation where Japan has won. It's pretty well known. I would

like to think among our listener base what happens with World War II. Yeah, I don't think very

many are listening to actually find out what happened, but maybe more of the how it happened and

what like specifically what went into all the how it happened and what like specifically

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