Year in Review: 2025

Greetings PHG fans! As we wind down 2025 and head toward the new year, I think it's worth it to take a moment and recap the last year for Pacific History Guide, and where we hope to go in 2026.

I came up with the idea for Pacific History Guide after the collapse of Twitter and just as the AI-fueled demise of social media began in the fall of 2024. I had always been active on social media posting insights about history and attempting to share some knowledge about current events and their historical context, but had a hard time understanding how to reach people outside of my own friend circle. I read a post by the very talented and opinionated Alfie Goodrich who confirmed my suspicions by pointing out that the Twitter refugees who were watching 10ish years of hard work on the app go down the drain would have been better served with their own website, or at least their own blog.

I knew that a simple blog, or a newsletter via substack, was not for me. I wanted to reach people using first-person real-world experience in order to make a strong connection. I'd spent years giving lists of things to do and places to see to my friends and peers when they asked me about an upcoming trip to this place or that; it felt right to keep moving in the direction. A November 2024 conference with then newly-created ASPEN helped me to make up my mind. That day, I met a great many smart people who I thought would be talking way over my head; instead I found that my military experience overseas allowed me to fit right in. In early January, I had a talk with Woody over at WW2TV about a tour I was about to give on Guam on behalf of YCAPS, and realized what my target audience and format should be.

In January of 2025, I talked to my cousin and mentor Rita J King about my ideas, and she graciously provided her time, insight, and even financial support to get my idea off the ground. I settled on Pacific History Guide for the name, and got to work fleshing out the website. I started with the locations list, and of course with Japan, with which I had the most amount of experience. Each location started out as a single page, but after building a few I realized that Japan would have to be several pages in one, while other places, such as Palau or Guam, could be done on one page. Some locations have pages that are far too simple for my taste, and while I'm always looking for input across the entire website, when it comes to Korea and the Philippines it's a must-have. I'd like to get to multi-page setups for those larger countries.

I set a launch date for the end of March 2025, and after discussing the matter with my wife, decided that an official logo would be the right move. I asked our very talented friend, Yuki Hayashi Bibb, to help design this, and using my inputs and suggestions, she created the incredible image you see now. The PHG logo shows the three sites that inspire me the most; the Yamato Museum in Kure, Japan, the Suicide Cliffs on Saipan in the CNMI, and the Pacific Aviation Museum in Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i. The sun is both rising and setting, and the seas are calm, allowing for a smooth trip. I really, really love this logo. It was finalized the week before we went live. I formally published it on March 29, 2025.

Since the launch, I've added roughly 1,600 locations to the official PHG google maps list, and several hundred links to the webpages. In addition to BlueSky and Facebook accounts, I launched a subreddit in order to reach more people. I'm cautiously eyeing other social media platforms to expand into, although I'm undecided and therefore will not set a goal in that area. 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. Pacific History guide continues to grow, not least because the good people at the Great War Group, WW2TV, YCAPS, ASPEN, and others who have helped spread the word.

The three guiding principles of PHG were and remain:

1. Connect service members, their families, and military civilians with history where they are

2. Make history relevant and interesting

3. Simplify the website to ensure loading on slow and unstable connections

I believe we've achieved every goal set out in 2025. In 2026, I aim to:

1. Continue following the guiding principles of Pacific History Guide

2. Host four guests on the blog

3. Add two more location pages

4. Add complexity to the pages dedicated to large countries as previously mentioned

5. Continue to grow a social media presence

I look forward to hearing some more feedback on Pacific History Guide, particularly from those of you who are newcomers to overseas travel. Feel free to reach out on social media, email, or in the comment section of the blog to let me know what you think!

That's our year in review! From the Boccia family to you and yours, best wishes on a happy and healthy 2026, and thank you so much for coming along on this journey with me.

Tony

Aboard the Star of India, at the San Diego Maritime Museum