PHG Blog

Hello PHG fans, this week we're taking a trip to Australia to look at this lovely memorial just across from the Royal Botanical Garden on the south side of Sydney Harbor. My first and only visit to Sydney was in 2007, when I made port there aboard USS Kitty Hawk. Seeing the harbor bridge and opera house in person was a moment I'll never forget, and I cannot wait to get back to this beautiful, vibrant city again. Australia sent over 416,000 men to fight in the First World War

Greetings PHG fans, this week we're marking the anniversary of Operation Hailstone, the Allied attack on Truk Lagoon in the Second World War. From 17-18 February 1944, the US Navy's Task Force 58 engaged Imperial Japanese Army and Navy units and destroyed most of the infrastructure, ships, and weapons located there. A Japanese freighter in Truk Atoll is hit by a Mark XIII torpedo dropped from a Grumman TBF Avenger of Torpedo Squadron 17 (VT-17) from the aircraft carrier USS B

Hello readers of Pacific History Guide! Today we're going to take a brief look at a historic site in the center of Singapore - the grounds of the Ford Motor Company factory. It was here, on 15 February 1942, that the British General Sir Arthur Percival surrendered Singapore to the Japanese under General Yamashita Tomoyuki. The capture of Malaya, the fall of Singapore and Hong Kong, and the subsequent defeat of ABDA all came to define Japanese superiority in Southeast Asia du

Greetings PHG readers, today we're visiting the Japanese Friendship Bell here on Shelter Island in San Diego . This 6 foot tall, 4,600 pound bell was gifted to the city from the citizens of Yokohama in 1958, marking the centennial of that port's opening. The bell was tolled for the first time on 10 December 1960, with civic leaders from both San Diego and Yokohama on hand to witness it. The Japanese Friendship Bell, with "The Girl in Red Shoes" statue to the left, and floweri

Greetings PHG fans, I hope the new year is treating you all well. This week, I was checking out the World War II in the Philippines Facebook group and read about the Dalton Pass Memorial. Although I've been to the Philippines several times, I've not made it into the provinces. Balete/Dalton Pass Memorial, Luzon, Philippines Previously called Balete Pass, Dalton Pass is the only overland route into Cagayan Valley from Central Luzon. A highway crosses the pass from north to so

Greetings PHG fans, today we mark a solemn occasion that seems prescient against the backdrop of this week's headlines. On this day 17 January 1893, the Hawaiian Monarchy was overthrown. A group of 13 men calling themselves the ‘Committee of Safety’ ended the rule of Queen Liliʻuokalani and abolished the monarchy, which had ruled Hawai'i for 98 years. A Hawaiian Republic was declared, and the country was annexed by the United States five years later, in the midst of the Spani

Greetings PHG fans! Over the holiday break, my family and I had a chance to visit the historic USS Midway , a cold-war era aircraft carrier that is now a museum ship here in San Diego. Named for the battle that took place near Midway Atoll in 1942 , the ship was commissioned eight days after the end of the Second World War. My family at the USS Midway (CV-41) in San Diego, California After a series of modernizations that saw her add an angled deck and increased flight deck sp

Throughout my career, Korea has been a frequent stop for 7th fleet ships from Jeju Island to Pyeongtaek, and squadrons throughout the Western Pacific frequent the U.S. Air Force base at Osan, near Seoul.

Greetings PHG fans! As we wind down 2025 and head toward the new year, I think it's worth it to take a moment and recap the last year for Pacific History Guide, and where we hope to go in 2026. I came up with the idea for Pacific History Guide after the collapse of Twitter and just as the AI-fueled demise of social media began in the fall of 2024. I had always been active on social media posting insights about history and attempting to share some knowledge about current event

Greetings PHG fans, today I come to you with another guide to the guide; the resources page . This is different than the reading list , which contains only books. The resources page captures public library and museum collections, online databases, news articles, and other materials that can be used in research, with the intent being that as folks read the PHG blog and visit sites listed in the locations pages they'll dig in to the reading and resource pages to expand their

On this day, December 7th 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy and its Air Service attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Using dive bombers, torpedo bombers, and fighters launched from six aircraft carriers, the Japanese damaged or destroyed all eight American battleships in the harbor. 2,403 people were killed, the majority of whom were Sailors, and most of them were in the USS Arizona. We talk a lot about Pearl Harbor, and most Americans know at least a littl

Greetings PHG fans! One of the things I enjoyed about living in Japan was the abundance of local culture. From the shrines and religious festivals to monuments to legends and folktales, Japan has no small amount of important cultural sites alongside their historical ones. One of the more famous Japanese legends is that of Momotaro, the Peach Boy . The last thing I'd want to do here on PHG is oversimplify a complex topic, but it feels like the right time to discuss it as a sta

G'day PHG fans! I was recently going through some old photos on my phone and saw some shots taken during my most recent deployment in 2023. The USS America made port in Brisbane , Australia, as so many ships have, during an international exercise that took place off the coast. My previous visit, in 2013, didn't offer as much free time as I'd hoped and so I didn't do much by way of searching for history. Luckily, this time I was able to make my way to quite a few museums, mon

As many of you know, getting folks connected with local and regional history is the primary focus of Pacific History Guide. This effort is effectively a list of locations in the form of clickable links that point toward official websites, and another part is the official PHG Google Maps . The links have been added to the site in no particular order, and while some of you may have found a pattern to the way they've been added, it may not make sense to everybody. To solve this

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, an armistice went into effect in the First World War. Extended several times until the peace was finally signed in June 1919, the armistice nevetheless held, and the Great War came to an end. In time, November 11th was celebrated as Armistice Day, with statues, Unknown Soldier memorials, and monuments being erected or dedicated around the world. In the ensuing years, Armistice Day has given way to Veteran

Hello PHG fans, we're back today with another Japan post. I recently watched a YouTube video from the fantastic NaruMasa Travel youtube channel . One of the many reasons I watch their travel videos (aside from the beautfiul photography) is that they typically look for historic sites that are easily accessible but not necessarily well-known. In a recent video , they explore Tsumago-Juko, the 42nd of 69 stops on the Nakasendo Road. This town, and neighboring Magome-Juko, have b

Greetings Pacific History Guide fans, today I'm happy to unveil our newest location, the beautiful state of Hawai'i . The Hawaiian Islands are comprised of 137 volcanic islands stretching across 1,520 miles of ocean in two separate groups, the Windward Islands in the southeast and the Leeward in the northwest. The state of Hawaii includes both island groups, but for the sake of simplicity, nearly all state maps (and this guide) capture the Windward Islands only; these include

Greetings Pacific History guide fans! This week we're marking the 81st anniversary of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which reached its climax on this day with the Battles of Surigao Strait, Samar, and Cape Engano. Taken as a whole, the battle is a complex, multi-faceted series of events that reaches from Brunei to the Philippine Sea, from the tip of Luzon right down to the Sulu Sea. Described as the largest sea battle in history, the Battle for Leyte Gulf featured the first U.S. a

Greetings Pacific History Guide fans! This week has been a whirlwind for me, with a lot of prep work going into upcoming projects, in addition to the regular battle rhythm with work and family. This week's blog post is a short one, but I'm hopeful that it will be worth it; later on this week I'll be launching a new location on the website. I'm very excited to announce on the next week's blog post; I'm sure some of you all may even have guessed what's coming! I'll also be pres

Aichi Prefecture 愛知県 in the Chubu Region of Japan is home to a wide variety of things to see and do. From iconic Mt. Fuji to snowy Nagano and the rice fields of Niigata, there's incredible food, outdoor activities, and charming villages to see and visit. The cornerstone of this prefecture is Nagoya, the fourth-largest city in Japan by population and one of the more diverse of Japan's many urban sprawls. I've been to Nagoya a few times; it's one of my favorite large cities fo