PHG Blog

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

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

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

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

This week we mark the anniversary of the very first seaborne airstrikes in history, which took place near Tsingtao, China, during the...

On the 15th August 1945, the people of Japan dutifully turned to their radios. It had been announced the day before via all NHK stations...

The second and last use of atomic weapons in combat took place on this day, August 9 1945. A B-29 named 'Bockscar' took off from Tinian...

Hiratsuka suffered greatly as a result of all this. On July 16, 1945, 138 B-29's dropped 1,173 tons of incendiary bombs (447,716 in total). Only 5% of the bombs targeted the naval arsenal or aircraft plant, the rest were dropped on the civilian populatio

On this day July 12 1918, the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kawachi 河内 exploded and sank in Tokuyama Bay with the loss of more than...

The Goryokaku Fortress in Hakodate, Hokkaido was built by Takeda Ayasaburo 武田 斐三郎 between 1855 and 1866. The fortress is famous for being...

Greetings all, I'm back with another blog post on historic Japan, another step in my mission to connect you with history, where you are....

Good evening everybody, I'm back today with a short post on an auspicious event in Second World War history: the fall of Corregidor....

Greetings all, today we're going to look at a brief history of the history of Japanese expansion and wrap it up with a book...

Greetings all! Last week I took part in a discussion regarding ethical decision-making in my squadron's wardroom. My submission to the...

Historic Museum Ship Mikasa and Statue of Togo Heihachiro - Yokosuka, Japan Yokosuka 横須賀市is my favorite navy town. The city itself...

Greetings all, back today with another book recommendation. On this day April 28th in 1952, the Allied Occupation of Japan ended.  It’s...

On this day April 7th in 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy super battleship Yamato was sunk by U.S. Navy aircraft of Task Force 58 while...

On this day April 6th 1945, the ships of Operation Ten-Go departed Tokuyama. The mission assigned to the super battleship Yamato, light...

I sent the below text in email format to the Sailors of VRM-50, marking the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Okinawa. I...