The United States enjoyed free reign in the strategic bombing of Germany and Japan in World War II. The US was largely able to bomb and reduce those countries’ cities to smoldering ruins without fear of retaliation. While the Germans could bomb the United Kingdom to some degree, the United States was beyond the reach of Germany and Japan. However, Japan tried to build a long-range bomber that it could use to bomb the US and bring the war to the American homeland. It was the United States and the United Kingdom (plus Germany to some degree) that dominated heavy and medium bomber production in the war.