Turning Point
The Battle for Milne Bay 1942 - Japan's First Land Defeat in World War II
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Turning Point
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Narrated by:
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Michael Veitch
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By:
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Michael Veitch
About this listen
September 1942 marked the high point of Axis conquest in World War II. In the Pacific, Japan's soldiers had seemed unstoppable. However, the tide was about to turn.
On Sunday, 6 September 1942, Japanese land forces suffered their first conclusive defeat at the hands of the Allies. At Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea, a predominantly Australian force - including 75 Squadron (fresh from their action in 44 Days) - fought for two weeks to successfully defend a vital airstrip against a determined Japanese invasion. The victorious Australian army units were crucially supported by two locally based squadrons of RAAF Kittyhawks.
The Battle for Milne Bay and victory for the Allies was a significant turning point in the Pacific War, but while it received worldwide publicity at the time, it has since been largely forgotten. It deserves to be remembered.
Michael Veitch, actor, presenter and critically acclaimed author, brings to life the incredible exploits and tragic sacrifices of these Australian heroes in another fast-paced and thrilling tale.
©2019 Michael Veitch (P)2019 Hachette Australia AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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-
Story5 out of 5 stars 320
The story of the Battle of Saipan has it all. Marines at war: on Pacific beaches, in hellish volcanic landscapes in places like Purple Heart Ridge, Death Valley, and Hell's Pocket, under a commander known as "Howlin' Mad." Naval combat: carriers battling carriers from afar, fighters downing Japanese aircraft, submarines sinking carriers. Marine-army rivalry. Fanatical Japanese defense and resistance. A turning point of the Pacific War. James Hallas reconstructs the full panorama of Saipan in a way that no recent chronicler of the battle has done.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding!
- By Patrick on 03-08-20
By: James H. Hallas
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Guadalcanal Marine
- By: Kerry L. Lane
- Narrated by: Kenneth Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
In Guadalcanal Marine, Lt. Col. Kerry L. Lane recounts the dark reality of combat experienced by the men of the 1st Marine Division fighting on Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester. With 80 gripping photographs and his text, he brings to life the struggles of his companions as they achieve these two astonishing victories.
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3 out of 5 stars
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I want to give a very honest review.
- By Jfm on 07-12-15
By: Kerry L. Lane
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But Not in Shame
- The Six Months After Pearl Harbor
- By: John Toland
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
What were the events which determined the Pearl Harbor catastrophe? What were the last few days on Wake Island like? What really occurred on the infamous Bataan Death March, and why did it happen? How did MacArthur make his dramatic escape from Corregidor? And what is the story behind the greatest capitulation in American history, General Wainwright’s forced surrender of the Philippines?
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great story
- By dexter on 03-03-20
By: John Toland
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Bloody Okinawa
- The Last Great Battle of World War II
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 104
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 88
On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, more than 184,000 US troops began landing on the only Japanese home soil invaded during the Pacific war. Just 350 miles from mainland Japan, Okinawa was to serve as a forward base for Japan's invasion in the fall of 1945. Nearly 140,000 Japanese and auxiliary soldiers fought with suicidal tenacity from hollowed-out, fortified hills and ridges. Under constant fire and in the rain and mud, the Americans battered the defenders with artillery, aerial bombing, naval gunfire, and every infantry tool.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very Technical
- By J.Brock on 07-16-21
By: Joseph Wheelan
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Sand and Steel
- The D-Day Invasion and the Liberation of France
- By: Peter Caddick-Adams
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 37 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 85
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story5 out of 5 stars 76
Sand and Steel gives us D-Day, arguably the greatest and most consequential military operation of modern times, beginning with the years of painstaking and costly preparation, through to the pitched battles fought along France's northern coast, from Omaha Beach to the Falaise and the push east to Strasbourg.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Details, details, details
- By Mike From Mesa on 11-11-21
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Given Up for Dead
- America's Heroic Stand at Wake Island
- By: Bill Sloan
- Narrated by: David Cochran Heath
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story5 out of 5 stars 37
On December 8, 1941, just five hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes attacked a remote US outpost in the westernmost reaches of the Pacific. It was the beginning of an incredible 16-day fight for Wake Island, a tiny but strategically valuable dot in the ocean. Unprepared for the stunning assault, the small battalion was dangerously outnumbered and outgunned. But they compensated with a surplus of bravery and perseverance, waging an extraordinary battle against all odds.
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4 out of 5 stars
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For want of a nail...
- By Kindle Customer on 07-21-21
By: Bill Sloan
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Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
- By: Ian W. Toll
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,957
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,531
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Story5 out of 5 stars 3,516
On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Astonishingly good.
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-01-12
By: Ian W. Toll
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SAS Ghost Patrol
- The Ultra-Secret Unit that Posed as Nazi Stormtroopers
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story5 out of 5 stars 41
On a scorching September day in 1942, the Special Air Service (SAS), a special forces unit of the British Army, pulled off one of the most daring, top-secret ruses of the Second World War. The plan (sanctioned by Churchill): cover a grueling 2,000 miles of the Sahara desert to attack German general Erwin Rommel's seemingly impregnable port fortress in North Africa from the rear to break free and arm more than 30,000 Allied POWs.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Superlative
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 05-24-21
By: Damien Lewis
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By Water Beneath the Walls
- The Rise of the Navy SEALs
- By: Benjamin H. Milligan
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 22 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 428
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 384
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Story5 out of 5 stars 383
How did the US Navy - the branch of the US military tasked with patrolling the oceans - ever manage to produce a unit of raiders trained to operate on land? And how, against all odds, did that unit become one of the world’s most elite commando forces, routinely striking thousands of miles from the water on the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, even Central Africa?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Extra. Ordinary.
- By Anonymous User on 12-15-21
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Operation Vengeance
- The Astonishing Aerial Ambush That Changed World War II
- By: Dan Hampton
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 152
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 136
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 136
In 1943, the United States military began to plan one of the most dramatic secret missions of World War II. Its code name was Operation Vengeance. Naval Intelligence had intercepted the itinerary of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander in chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, whose stealth attack on Pearl Harbor precipitated America’s entry into the war. Harvard-educated, Yamamoto was a close confidant of Emperor Hirohito and a brilliant tactician who epitomized Japanese military might.
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1 out of 5 stars
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I want 1/2 my money back
- By DPM on 08-11-20
By: Dan Hampton
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Midnight in the Pacific
- Guadalcanal -- The World War II Battle That Turned the Tide of War
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 525
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 474
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Story5 out of 5 stars 471
Published on the 75th anniversary of the battle and utilizing vivid accounts written by the combatants at Guadalcanal, along with marine corps and army archives and oral histories, Midnight in the Pacific is both a sweeping narrative and a compelling drama of individual marines, soldiers, and sailors caught in the crosshairs of history.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Don't start here or you'll be confused.
- By Doctor Bob on 08-13-17
By: Joseph Wheelan
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Four Hours of Fury
- The Untold Story of World War II's Largest Airborne Operation and the Final Push into Nazi Germany
- By: James M. Fenelon
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 77
On the morning of March 24, 1945, more than 2,000 Allied aircraft droned through a cloudless sky toward Germany. Escorted by swarms of darting fighters, the armada of transport planes carried 17,000 troops to be dropped, via parachute and glider, on the far banks of the Rhine River. Four hours later, after what was the war’s largest airdrop, all major objectives had been seized....
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5 out of 5 stars
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personal and powerful.
- By TXcustomer on 07-09-19
By: James M. Fenelon
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I Will Run Wild
- The Pacific War from Pearl Harbor to Midway
- By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Lance C Fuller
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
In many popular histories of the Pacific War, the period from the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor to the US victory at Midway is often passed over because it is seen as a period of darkness. Indeed, it is easy to see the period as one of unmitigated disaster for the Allies, with the fall of the Philippines, Malaya, Burma and the Dutch East Indies and the wholesale retreat and humiliation at the hands of Japan throughout Southeast Asia.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very informative
- By dexter on 09-20-20
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Utmost Savagery
- The Three Days of Tarawa
- By: Colonel Joseph H. Alexander United States Marine Corps (Ret.)
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 784
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 691
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 685
On November 20, 1943, in the first trial by fire of America’s fledgling amphibious assault doctrine, 5,000 men stormed the beaches of Tarawa, a seemingly invincible Japanese island fortress barely the size of the 300-acre Pentagon parking lots. Before the first day ended, one-third of the marines who had crossed Tarawa’s deadly reef under murderous fire were killed, wounded, or missing. In three days of fighting, four Americans would win the Medal of Honor and six thousand combatants would die.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Definitive Battle History of Tarawa
- By Iain on 02-23-11
By: Colonel Joseph H. Alexander United States Marine Corps (Ret.)
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The Fleet at Flood Tide
- America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945
- By: James D. Hornfischer
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 23 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,341
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,193
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,188
With its thunderous assault on the Mariana Islands in June 1944, the United States crossed the threshold of total war. In this tour de force of dramatic storytelling, distilled from extensive research in newly discovered primary sources, James D. Hornfischer brings to life the campaign that was the fulcrum of the drive to compel Tokyo to surrender—and that forever changed the art of modern war.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Hornfischer's Philosophical Summary Up to VJ Day
- By Hollywood Dave on 01-08-17
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Churchill's Shadow Raiders
- The Race to Develop Radar, World War II's Invisible Secret Weapon
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Nigel Carrington
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Story5 out of 5 stars 57
In the winter of 1941, as Britain faced defeat on all fronts, an RAF reconnaissance pilot photographed an alien-looking object on the French coast near Le Havre. The mysterious device - a “Wurzburg Dish” - appeared to be a new form of radar technology: ultra-compact, highly precise, and pointed directly across the English Channel.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Listen
- By 3D RWC on 05-13-20
By: Damien Lewis
What listeners say about Turning Point
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J.Brock
- 11-19-20
Amazing Aussie Valor
The Battle of Milne Bay is completely overlooked in WWII history. And it's rarely even mentioned as the first Japanese land defeat largely because it is completely dwarfed by Guadalcanal. And lest we forget, it was the RAAF that saved the day here. All credit goes to the bravest of brave Australian warriors. The Allies were prepared for the Japanese onslaught, which secured the victory. However the losses were absolutely devastating. But as with so many of these stories, the untold men battled through malaria, the oppressing weather, and countless other atrocities. And they never grumbled or wavered in their duty. Oh to have these men today. Thank you Michael Veitch for writing this book about this little known battle and win for the RAAF and the Allies in the Pacific.
Michael Veitch is a wonderful narrator. Again, this is one of the rare times where an author is as good of a narrator as a writer. That's not very common. Wonderful all the way around.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 03-05-21
a battle outside of Australia nobody was ever taug
the victor usually writes the history except in the case of Japan. and as an American we're never told about victories of other countries even Lennon graph we're taught was barely a victory. this is why learning history is so important so that we never repeat it. knowing the crimes and mistakes of your country for that reason
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