On this episode of Our American Stories, in April 1942, just four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, sixteen B-25 bombers lifted off from the deck of the USS Hornet in a daring gamble led by James Doolittle. Their mission: to strike Tokyo and remind the world that America would not stay on its knees.

Weeks later came the Battle of the Coral Sea, a brutal contest fought entirely by aircraft, where courage, coordination, and sheer will stopped the Japanese advance for the first time. Our regular contributor, Anne Clare, revisits these twin moments of resilience, when a wounded nation began to rediscover its strength.

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