PHG Blog

Although Subic is smaller than Manila Bay, this has been an important waterway for the Philippine Islands for hundreds of years. Unsurprisingly, there are many shipwrecks here, stretching back to the Spanish Colonial period. Four of these caught my attention, and I was able to locate them and add them to the Pacific History Guide Google Maps list. The history of these ships match not just the history of the Second World War in the Philippines but Pacific History more generall

The Tsushima Maru 対馬丸 was a cargo ship built for Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) by Russel and Co., Scotland in 1914. The night of the 22nd August 1944, Tsushima Maru was sighted and fired on by USS Bowfin, a Gato-class submarine, near Akusekijima around 10 PM. The ship sank quickly; none of the escorts came to the aid of the survivors in the water. Only 59 children survived the ordeal, they were quickly hidden away and the matter was kept under wraps throughout the rest of war.

Below the Korean-Britain monument is Busan Harbor, a waterway that saw 86,000 ships transit in and out in 2024.The traffic through Busan accounts for 97% of container throughput in the Republic of Korea; the other ports of Incheon (near Seoul) and Gwangyang (southwest of Busan) make up for the rest.

My favorite bit, however, was in the basement; the only First World War German tank in existence, Mephisto. This is an A7V tank, one of 20 produced by Germany during the Great War. It was brought to Australia in 1919, and has been in the Queensland Museum's ever since.

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 PHG fans! Two weeks ago, we revealed the Australia section of the guide. Since then, I've gotten some great feedback on places...

Greetings all! As some of you may have noticed, I recently transferred from Guam to San Diego, California. This is our first time living in the United States as a family, and my first time living in America in nearly nineteen years. We jumped into San Diego with a lot of excitement, and the city has not disappointed. There's a lot of great things to do here, and historical sites to see. I have just added a San Diego page to the Pacific History Guide website, and will continue

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....

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

The city itself traces its roots back thousands of years, and was an important location from the earliest records of record Japanese history. Uraga, a subdivision of Yokosuka, was home to the Tokugawa fleet due to its strategic location at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. In 1720, the Shogunate established the Uraga bugyo 浦賀奉行, officials tasked with administering the port of Uraga and policing the waterways surrounding it, primarily to ensure that Japan remained closed off to forei

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...

About an hour drive south from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture is Suo-Oshima Island. There are several places...

Mikasa Historic Memorial Ship and statue of Admiral Togo Heihachiro at Mikasa Park Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan. Back in November 2024, I...