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.

The effect of the atomic bombs, the collapse of Manchuria, and the general devastation on the Japanese mainland from constant Allied air raids all informed the decision to end the war. The following day, 10 August, the Konoe government informed the Allies that it would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration.

A B-29 named 'Bockscar' took off from Tinian in the Marianas, and finding the primary target of Kokura obscured by cloud cover and smoke, dropped its bomb on the secondary target, Nagasaki City. The bomb missed its target by approximately 3 km, exploding halfway between the naval arsenal and the Mitsubishi armament works.

On 6 August 1945, the first atomic weapon used in combat was deployed over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Dropped at 8:15 AM by a B-29 named the Enola Gay, the bomb destroyed much of the city.

Indy had started her final wartime cruise in Mare Island, California. Following service as Admiral Spruance's flagship for the Marianas Campaign in the summer of 1944, she was laid up in overhaul for the first half of 1945. In July, she loaded a secret cargo bound for Tinian, in the Marianas, arriving on 26 July. It was later revealed that she had transported parts for the atomic bomb that was to be used in the attack on Hiroshima on August 6th.

Greetings PHG Fans! For those of you interested in the military history of Saipan, check out this talk I gave on WW2TV, regarding the fight for the island in June 1944. I offered my perspective from that of the Japanese defenders on Saipan, specifically the 43rd Infantry Division under Lt. Gen. Saito Yoshitsugu. Having lived in the Marianas, and visited quite a few battlefields and historic sites throughout the islands, I was more than excited to examine the Battle of Saipan

During our time living on Guam, we were just down the road from the final battlefield in Yigo, where the South Pacific Memorial Peace Park now stands. Near here, General Obata Hideyoshi killed himself, shortly after organized resistance in the battle ended.

Last year I presented an analysis of the Battle of Leyte Gulf for WW2TV, speficially from the perspective of Admiral Kurita Takeo. This is my favorite story of the Second World War, and Kurita is my favorite Japanese admiral to talk about.

Here, the last Japanese organized resistance on Guam ended on August 10, 1944; at the site you can find a small remembrance chapel, a peace memorial, and several monuments and markers that commemorate both the people who took part in the battle of Guam, and those who came later to remember them.

Perhaps best known for his 'sleeping giant' comment issued immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he has been somewhat sanitized in recent scholarship as an anti-war figure (he was not). Yamamoto was fated to preside over a series of quick victories in the early days of the Pacific War, only to be caught up in his own complicated plans at Midway.

On 27 August 1944, Stingray made a secret drop near here of 15 Filipino guerrillas (trained in Brisbane by the Allies) and six tons of supplies.

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.

It was here, on 15 February 1942, that the British General Sir Arthur Percival surrendered Singapore to the Japanese under General Yamashita Tomoyuki.

The American reconquest of the Philippines ended only after the Japanese surrendered on 15 August of that year; the strategy of fighting a delaying retreat action across the entirety of Luzon resulted in an estimated 8,500 American, Filipino and Mexican deaths and an astonishing 192,000 Japanese killed.

Tropes and banners and slogans aside: could we do it again? Do we have the infrastructure, the know-how, frankly, the patriotism to rebuild a shattered fleet and take it to the enemy? Could we bring a broken DDG or LCS up from the mud and have it fighting in six months?

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 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

Seems crazy but nearly a year ago now we did a little Second World War history tour around Guam as a family and with the kids' friends. ...