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.

Thank you. host, James Early. Hello and welcome to a special bonus episode of Key Battles of the Pacific

Theater of World War II.

This is your host, James, as always.

And I'm recording this in very late May 2021.

Scott and I have finished recording the regular episodes in the Key Battles of the Pacific War

series, all 35 episodes. And yet I still feel like there's more that needs to be done. I feel like there

are more stories that need to be told. And to be honest, I could do the rest of my life just on

the Pacific Theater alone of World War II. There's just so many great stories, so many books,

so many movies. When we did the regular series, even though it was 35 episodes,

I still felt like we were just skimming the surface.

We were giving my classic patented 10,000-foot view.

And if we'd wanted to, we could have spent many, many, many more episodes.

It could have been 50 or 100.

For example, on the Battle of Okinawa alone, we could have probably had 10 episodes.

But as you know, that's not my style.

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