PHG Blog

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.

The mission of this website remains unchanged: we aim to connect military members, veterans, and their families with historical insights into their duty stations, TAD locations, and ports of call throughout the Pacific. We're here for you, and here to stay.

The Meiji Emperor, in whose name the Meiji Restoration took place and Boshin War was fought, was on hand to witness six Japanese ships and one french vessel sail together on 26 March 1868. This was the first of 18 fleet reviews, the last of which was in 1940 in Yokohama.

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.

The earthquake, the strongest in recorded Japanese history, set off a series of tsunamis that killed 18,000 throughout the northeast coast of the country. Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures had all but a hundred or so of the casualties. The tsunami that struck Fukushima knocked the power out in the Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which led to a partial meltdown.

I have not read every book on the First World War; nobody has or ever could. There are tens of thousands of works written on the subject. The WW1 Museum and Memorial in Kansas City lists over 1,100 titles in English on their website.

Enomoto Takeaki 榎本 武揚 is one of the founding fathers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and a pivotal figure in the history of Japan. Enomoto was born in Edo, near what is now Taito-ku, Tokyo, in 1836.

Australia sent over 416,000 men to fight in the First World War, out of a population of less than 5 million people. Over 60,000 were killed and 125,000 wounded from Rabaul to Gallipoli, and Kut to Flanders.

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.

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 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.

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 Spanish American War.

After a series of modernizations that saw her add an angled deck and increased flight deck space, the ship served during both the Vietnam and Gulf Wars. Midway was the first carrier to be forward-deployed to CFA Yokosuka, Japan, and embarked CVW-5 from nearby NAF Atsugi. She was relieved by USS Independence in 1991.

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.

My stated goals at the beginning was to end 2025 with ten locations; I checked that off on November 1, with the addition of Hawai'i, having already added Singapore, Australia, and San Diego to the location pages.

As a historian and writer, I'm always looking for primary and secondary sources to assist in my research; being on the go or otherwise physically far away from a given collection can slow things down and impairs my ability to meet deadlines. If this sounds like you, then the resources page is built with you in mind as well.

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?

Whether or not Momotaro was born from a peach, or from a woman who ate the peach, is one area of disagreement. His age is another; some sources have him at 30 years old at the time of his expedition to defeat the oni; others have him at 15.

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.