National Museum of the Pacific War — Attraction in Fredericksburg

This was my first visit to the museum, and I wasn't sure what to expect as far as size and content were concerned. Coincidentally, it happened to be on Memorial Day weekend.

At the beginning of the museum I was so excited to get started, I almost opted to skip the video at the entrance. Immediately after the video was over, I entered the first hallway which was filled with a daunting display of photos and text that consumed the better part of 30+ minutes. The end of this hallway was only about 150' into the museum, and I already felt overwhelmed.

The hallway entered a room with a miniature submarine, the first of many exhibits where I was left confused. I circled the room and read everything for more info as to what was sitting in front of me. A video played and text on the walls talked about the use of mini subs but nothing I saw was related to the specific display in the room. Was it real? a scaled down replica? I had no clue.

The next room had some models battleships, display cases with artifacts, and uniforms. A relief as this was much lighter reading and more to look at visually. However many rooms after this were filled with 20-30 minutes worth of reading material. I later commented to someone I felt as If I had walked thru a textbook where the pages has been stapled to the walls of a building.

There were two more rooms, one with a plane, and another with a tank, again poorly labeled, with not much explaining the display. I tried to discern if they were authentic, replica's or something else, and manged to find a small plaque in the plane room, in a dark corner that was barely lit. The plaque explained it was a similar aircraft model to those talked about in the texts, that it had been repainted to more closely resemble the actual aircraft. I later asked my friend if he had seen this.. he said no..

Over 2.5 hours into the building, I started opting to skip displays, skim read text, and at this point even skip videos and interactive displays. I passed people who had accidentally circled around and were lost. Many shortcut passages contained additional displays, which were either missed by visitors, or caused people to backtrack on accident.

My phone chimed at this point, the person I was visiting with, a veteran, was texting me, to let me know they had exited the building and that they were waiting outside. They had given up, as it was just too much info..

I skipped the entire last 3 rooms, where there were 2 more videos, displays of the atomic bombs and the final resolution to the war. Our group was so tired at this point, we didn't even go to the Nimitz museum. We walked around the outside of the building, and attempted to find the Chinese garden, but couldn't find it as the signs just seemed to point to a square grassy area filled with plaques. I later found out the garden was located behind the Nimitz building.

In addition to the frustration of information overload, there were numerous lights that continuously flickered, or faded in and out throughout the museum.. I assumed some of these were bad lights, while others were motion activated to save electricity. But when people are reading page after pages of text, they don't create much motion.

I rated this museum 4 stars because I felt the presentation of the materials needed much improvement. I'm not sure if the audio tour would have been much better, or better condensed, but I left the museum still confused about why Japan attacked America in the first place. I realized this info was somewhere in that first hall, but that I either missed something, or didn't process the information in a way that made it apparent. Which was puzzling since I had spent so much time there.

While the information was detailed, and plentiful, it also made it impossible to consume. To honestly read all the text, view all the displays, and watch all the videos, Id recommend at least 5 hours, and dont know if this would allow you to visit the Nimitz building as well. Even then, only someone who is fluent in English would be able to...

This museum is EXTREMELY detailed. What I realized at the beginning is that the movie in the entrance basically introduces you to what is in store for you. It shows you a little of what was going on within a few years and conflicts going on at the same time. As you enter, you really artifacts and read what started the Pacific War. This dates back to many years prior where they explain conflicts between China and Japan and opium trade and force of trade. There’s English and German conflicts and it goes on and on. The museum is a bit of a maze and you can quickly become confused on where to go next because while there are signs above explaining different conflicts, the only way you’ll know which way to go is looking at the dates of the displays. Even then, you can be confused because while you’ll be reading about one issue, it may backtrack and explain another issue going on in another country. So there’s a lot of back and forth and the timeline gets confusing. My husband is basically a historian and he knows all about WWII and nearly every war and conflict that has gone on and even he was getting really confused with all the details they added. At one point I needed to go to the restroom and found my way out. I went back into the door I went out but got confused where I left off and began circling around and around. No arrows on the ground to keep you going in the right direction. You’re basically just trying to place all the years and conflicts in your head. Was it worth the ticket price though? Yes. You’ll find yourself in there for quite some time and could easily be in there over an hour. There’s at least 3 planes, a bomb, lots of artifacts, a boat, and various other items. Continue on to the next museum where you enter a hangar and see another plane used in the war. That was really neat too. Children will find themselves bored unless you have an older kid who is obsessed with military museums.

One problem though, Marines are not capitalized in this museum which is the strangest thing. My husband can’t be the only Marine who noticed this and was very disappointed that over and over again, Marines wasn’t capitalized as if someone with no military experience wrote out everything. It was insulting to him and if you know a Marine,...

This is really quite a treasure, especially to be located in a sleepy (relatively speaking) setting like downtown Fredericksburg. A World War II buff could easily spend a whole day or more exploring all the nooks and crannies, but for the more casual tourist I'd suggest allowing 3-4 hours at least. The main building is where you buy your tickets, and has the primary exhibit space that takes you thru the war, with a particular focus on the Pacific theater as one would expect. It's an easy 10 or so minute walk from there down to the "battle zone" exhibits, or you could drive as there seems to be ample (and free by the way) parking in both locations. For us it was a nice walk on a beautiful spring morning, and the payoff was two-fold: one exhibit that included an actual plane from the era and focused on aerial combat; and another that had an actual PT boat from the era and focused on the action at sea. There was also a giant thought-provoking world map on the pavement outside the two indoor exhibits that might help one put into perspective the scale of the conflict and how different nations and areas were impacted. On the walk back to the main building we went thru the Japanese Peace Garden, which is not only lovely but I think meaninful for those who might be in a contemplative mood. There are other memorials on the grounds as well as we worked our way to the side door of the main building. Back inside, all I can say is, there is a lot! And again, the particular focus is the Pacific theater, with motivations of various countries and factions examined in terms of why the war happened and how it unfolded, and as you'd expect quite a number of exhibits on tactics and strategies employed on all sides. I'll leave it at that, and summarize by saying this is an excellent museum that lives up to its title, and if all that holds any appeal whatsoever for you, then I highly...