The horrific casualty toll of World War II in Asia, especially China, helped determine the important decisions about how to bring it to an end.

The Soviets inflicted terrible brutality on their Japanese captives.

Although a decision to continue the war would mean national suicide, members of the Japanese military came close to refusing Emperor Hirohito’s surrender order.

Japanese military leaders debated Japan's possible surrender up to the last moment. Emperor Hirohito's intervention was critical.

Mike Mervosh describes his experience with the flag raising on Iwo Jima.

Misguided Japanese diplomacy in 1945 helped to ensure that the war would not have a peaceful end.

American strategic options for ending the war against Japan in 1945 offered a choice of horrible possibilities.

Australian forces, backed by American artillery, assaulted Japanese positions on Bobdubi Ridge in one of World War II’s bitterest campaigns.

Maynard David talks about a particularly harrowing mission he and his crew flew to Tokyo, Japan in May 1945.

The bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki with the Fat Man plutonium bomb device on August 9, 1945, caused terrible human devastation and helped end World War II.