He wanted to open a museum and his honor, here in the declined the offer, in 1965 every even the agreed long as the museum was made about the men and women who served under him and not about him. Sadly, he died. We have the flag that draped his coffin during his funeral. Almost one year after his death, the Museum Opened here in fredericksburg. Now we are going to go to the george w. Bush gallery and look at some artifacts that show we are true to the mission of making this about the men and women who served under admiral nimitz and not just about admiral nimitz. Welcome to the National Museum of the pacific war in fredericksburg, texas, the only museum in the continental United States dedicated to telling the human story of the war in the pacific. In here, we tell the story of world war ii in the pacific through the eyes of the men and women who fought that war. When america was attacked at pearl harbor, america was not prepared for war. Behind me, you will see a photo of pearl harbor right before the attack. This was one of five midget submarines used by the japanese in the attack on pearl harbor. This is one of the five midget subs the japanese used in the attack on pearl harbor. It was piloted by a two man crew and has two torpedoes at the front. The great thing about these was they could come into the shallow depth of the harbor, they could come in before the wind got back up, get in, launch a torpedo, and hope to get back out before they were noticed. This one, however, did not quite accomplish that mission. Inside here it was batterypowered. About 120 degrees on average. And they were hitting reefs, hitting sandbars, and that jarred the batteries loose, which cause the release of chemicals, causing the pilot in the copilot to go in and out of consciousness. The pilot and copilot exited through the top hatch inside. The copilot drowned in his attempt to get to shore, and the pilot made it to shore and passed out. When he woke up, he was surrounded by troops and became the First American prisoner of war in world war ii. The submarine was a new technology to the United States. We didnt have anything with this capability in our arsenal. It was another example of how unprepared the u. S. Was for world war ii. Next, we will look at a comparison of what a u. S. Summary wouldve had compared to the japanese in technology. From this picture, you can see inside a u. S. Marine. As you can tell, its a lot more than two people, but the layout is the same. Six torpedo ports at the front, the center how to control room, a galley kitchen and living quarters for the crew, which then led back into the engine rooms, much larger than the 1819 japanese midget sub. This is the number two torpedo door for the uss seahorse. This wouldve been on the inside. The crew would open the hatch and raise the fire. What you see here is what you see a lot on the sides of airplanes. Every time a torpedo from the number two hatch sunk a japanese ship, the crew painted a japanese flag to keep track. Here at the museum, we have over 900 artifacts on display. One of our prized possessions is the door of the uss arizona. Here you can see where the ship set in the water and the oil stains the metal. Here is the whole that welders cut to wholehole that welders cut to look for survivors. Admiral nimitz originally did not want to command the Pacific Fleet. There were a handful of admirals he felt were more qualified to take command. Fdr eventually called him and said get your to pearl harbor and get the job done. We think admiral nimitz was chosen by fdr for his leadership style and the kind of person he was, humble, down to earth. I think fdr saw that as a huge perk after such a massive blow to the u. S. Navy and u. S. Fleet, that that was the kind of leader who would take the pacific to victory. This is admiral nimitz taking command of the Pacific Fleet. This is one of the very last ships available for Something Like this. Keep in mind, this was not even a month after the attack on pearl harbor. Admiral nimitz was a submariner, and he always saw himself as one. Taking command of the Pacific Fleet aboard a submarine i think said something about the man, his leadership, and his ties to the summaries of the navy. Its important to point out that during the attack on pearl harbor, the japanese had a summering base and submarines ended up being a huge weapon during the pacific war. This is a stewart tank that was commanded by the australians on the island of new guinea. On Christmas Eve of 1942, this tank took a direct round from a japanese antiaircraft gun right here through what would have been the a driver gunner position. This gunner was instantly killed in the tank commander was telling his story with this exhibit. This knocks the tank completely out of position. It hit with such an impact, his watch stopped. He and his gunner were able to crawl out through the hole and survive. His legs were very badly mangled but he lived out the rest of his life after world war ii. Here at the museum, we have 5000 oral histories on collection from people who lived through world war ii. That brings this exhibit a little more to life, seeing the tank, hearing the story from the man who commanded the tank and survived the attack. [indiscernible], then a step down and discovered that my legs had been badly hurt. Another unique piece of the exhibit is a japanese gonna took the tank out is just down the hallway and we will go see that next. Now we are at the japanese three inch gun which is the same gun that took out the tank, this can was an anti aircraft gun and also used for defense, but the fact that if you go five degrees below horizontal and also taking out armored tanks like the anthony stewart, from here we are gonna look at one of the more unique artifacts, the japanese flow plane, less than 89 of these before production was canceled, this one however is the only one on display and theres only three left in existence that we know of, it was classified used for offensive maneuvers where it was not available, it could land and take off from the water but as you can imagine putting three on the bottom of the plane hindered its capabilities, you can see up in the wings it has to 20 millimeter guns and one on each swing and it also has to seven millimeter machine guns this is a single pilot aircraft from here we are going down to the specific combat joan and take in the torpedo bomber. This plane is similar to the one that george bush flew in world war ii in comparison to the plane we just saw this is just a much larger aircraft this is the largest that the u. S. Had in its fleet, you had a pilot the tail gunner, and a radio man on the crew as you can see below it could carry one or torpedo or multiple 200 or 500 pound bombs this is a torpedo bomber, it could bomb from the heights of up to 30,000 feet the unique feature was the fact that the wings could actually for rolled out allowing for more to be carried on top of the aircraft carrier, inside the wing were wheels i would talk up into the swing for hydraulic lift. When the victory exhibit of the george h. W. Bush gallery and behind me is probably my favorite artifacts on display the p. O. W. Flag and three individuals as the bases being overrun by the japanese to instead of doing so what they did is they took the stars off the American Flag and hit them on the persons, and the next 42 months on how ships and factories in p. O. W. Camps, the entire time keeping this if the stars would be found that would be an automatic death sentence for any of the individuals, what happened was so many times one morning they woke up and the japanese had left the p. O. W. Camp and the americans and the allies were stuck fending for themselves, using a sewing machine a rusty nail and some thread and of course the parachute silk, and they sold this back together and when they were freed this was the flag flying over the camp, this is an example, he wanted it to be about the men and women and what better artifact than an American Flag with the stars kept by three individuals and just to keep a little piece of america within as p. O. W. s and world war ii, it really speaks to the characteristics of the greatest generation