World War II ended and the United States became the most powerful nation in the Western world. American history effectively explains America's participation in the international arena, but when it comes to the domestic arena much is left out. History has deprived new generations of the ability to recognize the essential changes that occurred in the United States during the post-war period. The most common struggle during this period was the return of American veterans to their homeland. Millions of men returned to their hometowns and newly developed cities to settle down and raise families. However, these men were pre-war soldiers and students, but had no permanent place in post-war society, thus creating distress and struggle. Additionally, within the country's borders over one hundred thousand Japanese-Americans were liberated from internment camps and prisons. These Japanese immigrants and descendants had been imprisoned for two years or more due to an anti-Japanese movement that occurred during World War II. In general, after the war American society as a whole found itself in a transition to new demands, and this, like any other period of change, is “interesting” (Goulden 6). In this post-war period we can see how identity for a new era is created. According to the Oxford American Dictionary, identity is the fact of who or what a person or something is. Therefore, a person's identity is relative to what a person finds themselves able to do or be in their surroundings. Identity, which constitutes a character of society, is the initial foundation of society as a whole. Because the individual is the primary foundation of so... middle of the paper... that took place in that era, we would not have had a presidential election in which a woman and an African American battled for control of the American nation and its colossal power. Clearly, America rose like a phoenix from the ashes thanks to the post-war years. Works Cited Goulden, Joseph C. The Best Years 1945-1950. New York, NY: McCellan and Stewart Ld., 1976. Henthorn, Cynthia Lee. From Submarines to Suburbs: Selling a Better America, 1939-1959. Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2006. Print.Hayden, Dolores. Redesigning the American dream: The future of housing, work, and family life. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 1984. Kaplan, Fred. 1959. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009. Print.Okada, John. No-No boy. New York: University of Washington, 1978. Yates, John. Revolutionary road. New York, NY: Vintage Contemporary, 1989.