Pacific War Historians Chat with John McManus - Episode 546

The Unauthorized History of the Pacific War

Captain William Toti, USN

Naval History And Heritage Command, History, Imperial Japanese Navy, Sam Cox, Admiral King, Cruisers, Spruance, Fargo, Seth Paridon, Fighters, Pacific War, Stavridis, Cactus Air Force, December 7, Station Hypo, William Toti, Bombers, Bill Toti, Navy, Halsey, Submarines, Society & Culture, Education, Us Navy, Mush Morton, Cincpoa, Documentary, Guadalcanal, Imperial Japan, World War Ii, Midway, Aircraft Carriers, Cryptology, Wake Island, Nimitz, Cincpac, Macarthur, Pearl Harbor, Wahoo, Courses, Battleships, New Guinea

4.9 • 872 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2026

⏱️ 105 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week Seth Paridon and Jon Parshall welcome their good friend John McManus to the show to talk research. Jon and I get stacks of emails every week asking where to look, how to look, what to look for, etc when it comes to researching a subject, person, photo, what have you. As we begin the wrap-up of Season 5, we thought it would be a good idea to have our buddy on to discuss that very topic. Hope this helps those budding historians and writers. #wwiihistory #ww2 #usnavy #usa #usarmy #medalofhonor #enterprise #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #cv6 #midway #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #worldwar2 #usnavy #usnavyseals #usmc #usmarines #saipan #usa #usarmy #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #battleship #battleships #ussenterprise #aircraftcarriers #museum #essex #halsey #taskforce38 #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #usnavy #usa #usarmy #medalofhonor #enterprise #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #cv6 #midway #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #worldwar2 #usnavy #usnavyseals #usmc #usmarines #saipan #usa #usarmy #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #battleship #battleships #ussenterprise #aircraftcarriers #museum #hollywood #movie #movies #books #mastersoftheair #8thairforce #mightyeighth #100thbombgroup #bloodyhundredth #b17 #boeing #airforce wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #usnavy #usa #usarmy #medalofhonor #enterprise #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #cv6 #midway #wwii #wwiihistory #ww2 #worldwar2 #usnavy #usnavyseals #usmc #usmarines #saipan #usa #usarmy #aircraft #aircraftcarrier #battleship #battleships #ussenterprise #aircraftcarriers #museum #hollywood #movie #movies #books #oldbreed #1stMarineDivision #thepacific #Peleliu #army #marines #marinecorps #worldwar2 #worldwar #worldwarii #leytegulf #battleofleytegulf #rodserling #twilightzone #liberation #blacksheep #power #prisoner #prisonerofwar #typhoon #hurricane #weather #iwojima#bullhalsey #ace #p47 #p38 #fighter #fighterpilot #b29 #strategicstudying #tokyo #boeing #incendiary #usa #franklin #okinawa #yamato #kamikaze #Q&A #questions #questionsandanswers #history #jaws #atomicbomb #nuclear #nationalarchives #nara #johnford #hollywood #fdr #president #roosevelt #doolittle #doolittleraid #pearlharborattack #salvaged #medalofhonor #tarawa #malayalam #singapore #guadalcanal #china #burma #oil

Transcript

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0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The Hello. Hello and welcome to episode 546 of the Unauthorized History of Pacific War podcast.
0:45.6	My name is Seth Peridon, historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum.
0:49.1	And with me as always is my co-host, author historian, Good Buddy, wearing a rather subtle shirt today.
0:57.5	John Partial, how are you?
0:59.1	I'm good, you know, hanging in there.
1:02.1	Coming into the tail end of book design.
1:04.9	So, yeah, that's all good.
1:07.5	And we have with us a special guest, our good buddy John McManus.
1:13.4	He's going to be here with us today. John, how are you? I am doing swimmingly because it's
1:19.1	getting warmer here. So as you know, John, when it gets warmer, Johnny here gets happy. So that's
1:24.1	good. You're not a fan of the cold, are you? I am not. I am really not.
1:29.3	So most of our snow is melting, so that's a good thing in my book.
1:33.3	Meanwhile, we Minnesotans are like, I like it cold.
1:36.8	So today, I wanted to have just a little bit of a different discussion in that instead of looking at archival
1:45.9	film or talking about a battle, I just had this notion last week and I have tossed it at Seth.
1:51.8	I get a lot of emails from people who are like, I'm thinking about writing a book about this,
1:58.7	or I would like to research my dad or my grandfather or my uncle's
2:04.1	role in that. How do I go about doing it? And that sort of led to just a general notion around
2:12.6	how do historians do what we do and wanted to kind of have a just a back and forth conversation about
2:20.4	where are the various treasure troves of goodies to be found if you want to get serious about doing
2:28.1	some of this kind of stuff how would one you know go about approaching that and and i'll be honest, I am not as much of an archives rat as both of you guys are.
	...

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