Pacific History Guide 18-month update!

Greetings Pacific History Guide fans! It seems absolutely crazy but somehow it's been 18 months since I started this website, and so its a great time to go over what's happened over the last year and a half. I first purchased the domain name and began work around the start of 2025. It took me quite some time to get the website built, fleshed out, and ready for traffic.

Since January 2025, Pacific History Guide has passed some fantastic milestones. We've had more than 2,500 unique visitors view 6,500 pages. Our blog posts every week, pointing visitors to a new and different part of the website, and since launching we've added four locations: Australia, Hawai'i, Singapore, and San Diego. Our reading list and resources page are updated monthly with new titles and sources, and the official PHG google maps has more than 4,100 locations, with more added every week! Here's an example: the Shunan City Kaiten Memorial Museum, about two hours' travel from MCAS Iwakuni. Here, men were trained to operate human torpedoes during the Second World War.

Somehow, while building all this and working on the various bits of the website that needed fine-tuning, we moved from Guam to San Diego, and then back to Iwakuni, Japan. We've been busy as hell, but finally things are slowing down and I'll be able to get back to what inspired me to start this website in the first place: connecting military members and their families with local and regional history, where they are.

Being back in Iwakuni, where I previously served from 2017-2022, is a gift to my family but also to the visitors of this website. I'm very much looking forward to visiting the Kaiten Museum at Ozu Island, the Immigration Museum and Mutsu memorial at Suo--Oshima, the shrines and temples of Miyajima, and the Naval Academy grounds at Etajima. Of course we'll also visit my favorite museum in Japan, the Yamato Museum in Kure, which recently reopened after an extensive renovation and improvement.

Of course, one doesn't need to travel that far to see some history in Iwakuni. There's an extant hangar near the main gate of MCAS Iwakuni that houses an A-6M Zero fighter. The Kintaikyo Bridge is a famous regional landmark here. On the grounds of Kikko Shrine, near the Bridge and at the foot of the hill that houses Iwakuni Castle, is this Torii Gate that was raised to commemorate victory in the Russo-Japanese War. A local monument honors Kamikaze pilots from the area.

This Torii Gate in Kikko Park, Iwakuni was raised in 1906 to celebrate victory in the Russo-Japanese War.

This week, I took some time to go back through older blog posts and location pages, adding links, buttons, and other navigational tools around the website. As always, the goal of Pacific History Guide is to connect military members, veterans, and their families with historical insights into their duty stations, TAD locations, and ports of call throughout the Pacific. No matter where you're going, we can help get you set up! I hope you've enjoyed the website so far, and this 18-month update. We're always looking for

Enjoy your travels,

Tony