LivingOurDream: National Museum of the Pacific War

Friday, October 20, 2017

National Museum of the Pacific War

Hi All,

Last Wednesday Millie, Sandy, Sandy & Carl drove to Fredericksburg TX, an old German immigrant community that has grown into a fascinating tourist destination with lots of neat shops, vineyards and a great museum. Since Carl writes and photographs these emails, you get to see the museum.

It seems like an unusual place for a museum commemorating the war in the Pacific until you learn that this town is the home of Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander of US forces in the Pacific during WW2.

Visitors are greeted by this submarine conning tower. It is not a replica but the actual conning tower and periscope assembly from the USS Pintado, launched in September 1943 in Portsmouth, NH.

Not visible in the photo is how the lawn undulates like ocean waves.

This is an extraordinary museum with a mix of static displays, videos, computer graphic sequences of major battles and actual pieces of equipment from the war.

Not surprising a large portion of the exhibit was devoted to Pearl Harbor. The centerpiece is this Japanese midget submarine that was part of the attack.

When the USS Arizona was sunk, her superstructure was salvaged. This hatch is an actual part of the Arizona.

There are several extraordinarily detailed ship models. This is the Arizona.

In early 1942 the Pacific war was not going well. To boost moral at home and give the Japanese a sense of vulnerability, a plan was developed to launch B-25 medium bombers from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. Sixteen of these planes took off on April 18, 1942 and most dropped their bombs on Tokyo.

The US mounted a huge submarine warfare campaign to cut off Japanese supplies and sink warships. This is the actual #2 Torpedo tube door from the USS Seahorse. Every time a torpedo from this tube sank a ship, a flag was painted on the tube door.