In the bloodiest  battle in Marine Corps history, 27 Marines and sailors were awarded the Medal of Honor for action on Iwo Jima. No other campaign surpassed that number.

Rod Serling, the creative genius behind The Twilight Zone and other memorable film and television productions, was both haunted and inspired by his experiences as a US Army paratrooper during World War II.

The groundbreaking 1952 television documentary "Victory at Sea" and its magnificent musical score marked an enduring tribute to the US Navy’s role in winning World War II.

The US 79th Infantry Division led the way in assaulting Cherbourg’s Fort du Roule on June 25, 1944, and two Americans would receive Medals of Honor for their heroic conduct.

Alberta Hunter was already a seasoned performer when she and the “Rhythm Rascals” traveled to the “forgotten” China-Burma-India (CBI) theater as the first African American entertainers to visit there, and she later sang for Eisenhower himself. Her service in World War II, however, is but one of many extraordinary stories of this highly regarded woman’s life.

Thousands of men and women wrote memoirs detailing their experiences in World War II. Here are four lesser known examples that merit a second look.

Every aspect of the Japanese surrender on board the USS Missouri was carefully choreographed, with one eye on the past and another on the future.

Severely damaged by Japanese torpedoes at Pearl Harbor, USS West Virginia returned to service in October 1944. When the Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945, she was in Tokyo Bay, a symbol of the resilience of the United States Navy.

On V-J Day, MacArthur invited two unexpected guests to witness the signing.

The combined force of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings was minuscule in comparison to the Tsar Bomba, the most awesome nuclear weapon ever detonated.

In 1945 the American intellectual, Norman Cousins, was one of the first to raise terrifying questions for humanity about the successful splitting of the atom.

One of the Museum's longest-serving employees reflects on one of the most trying times in the institution's history.