Last Saturday we played Roblox together.
My nephew in the US. Me in Surigao City. Video call running,
game open on both ends, the usual Saturday arrangement we have kept for almost
three years now.
This particular session — WWII naval simulation (Naval 1945).
Battleships. Destroyers. Formations. The kind of game where you need to know
your history to play it well.
And my nephew, who is 8 years old, was explaining to me
the difference between a German destroyer and a Japanese one.
Unprompted. With confidence. Casually, the way someone talks
about something they grew up knowing.
I sat there and listened. Then I asked him: "Where
did you learn all this?"
He said: "From my Dad.."
Of course.
His dad is a US Navy veteran.
The Kid Who Carries His Father's History
The love for battleships, naval formations, WWII fleet
strategy — it did not come from a game. It came from his father. A man who
served, who knows this history personally, who raised a son surrounded by the
vocabulary and the respect for it.
When my nephew explains Japanese destroyer classifications
with the confidence of a kid who heard these things at the dinner table — I
think about his dad. About how some knowledge does not come from books. It
comes from presence. From the way a father talks about what he knows and loves,
and the child absorbs it without even realizing it is happening.
Then my nephew told me the news.
"Tito Mark, we are going to Europe in June. Family
vacation."
I felt two things at once. Joy for him — genuine,
uncomplicated, immediate joy.
How I wish I could go with you.
I Have Never Left the Philippines
Let me be honest. Not as a complaint. Just as a fact.
I am a Job Order government employee in Surigao City. I walk
2km home from work every day. I design product labels for MSMEs for free
because I believe in what I do. I pray my morning prayers, drink my
pansit-pansitan tea, and start my day with gratitude for what I have.
I have never been overseas. Not to a neighboring country.
Not to Europe. Not anywhere outside the Philippines.
Europe exists for me in books, in documentaries, in WWII
games played on a Saturday morning with an eight-year-old who knows more about
the subject than I do.
And that is okay. Dreams deferred are not dreams cancelled.
They are dreams with a longer timeline. I believe — I genuinely believe — that
if God permits, the day will come. Until then, I will live it through the
stories my nephew brings back.
What I Would Tell Him to Look For
If I could send one message before he lands in Europe, it
would be this:
Go to Normandy if you can.
On June 6, 1944, almost 156,000 men landed in Normandy —
mainly by sea but also from the air. 20,000 vehicles, 5,000 boats, 4,000
landing barges, 130 warships, and 12,000 aircraft were mobilized. [Normandy Tourism]
The boy who can explain German and Japanese destroyer
differences — he needs to stand on those beaches and understand what those
numbers actually looked like in the water.
The Normandy coastline is home to the five historical D-Day
beaches: Sword Beach and Gold Beach for the Franco-British sector, Juno Beach
for the Canadians, and Omaha and Utah Beach for the Americans. [Bayeux Museum]
Above Omaha Beach, the Normandy American Cemetery is the
resting place of 9,387 U.S. service members. Its immaculate lawns stretch
across 172 acres overlooking the sea. Only when you walk its length do you
truly grasp the scale — the endless rows of white crosses and Stars of David
seem to merge with the horizon. [Normandywarguide]
2026 marks the 82nd Anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of
Normandy. If his family's June timing aligns, the
anniversary ceremonies happen every year around June 6. Being near Normandy
during that week is something people remember for the rest of their lives.
The game we play together has ships that respawn. The real
ones did not. The real sailors on those vessels — some of them his father's
predecessors in the US Navy — did not get a second life. Standing in that
cemetery and understanding that difference is the kind of thing that changes a
person.
Even at eight. Especially at eight.
Now Let Me Tell You Something About My City
Here is the part that stops me every time I think about my
nephew and Europe.
He is going to stand near the sites of WWII naval history in
June.
And I live right next to where one of the most significant
naval battles of that same war happened.
The Battle of Surigao Strait, fought on October 25, 1944, is
particularly notable for being the last battleship-versus-battleship
engagement in history. [History Rise]
The last one. Ever. In the history of naval warfare.
U.S. and Australian warships assaulted the advancing
Japanese Southern Force with torpedoes and heavy guns during the night of
October 24, 1944. In the resulting battle, the Japanese lost the battleships
Fuso and Yamashiro and the destroyers Michishio, Asagumo, and Yamagumo. The
battle holds the distinction of being the last naval battle in which air power
did not play a part — and as such, it was the last U.S. Navy battle-line
engagement.
The U.S. Navy battleships participating were USS
Mississippi, USS Maryland, USS West Virginia, USS Tennessee, USS California,
and USS Pennsylvania. Except for Mississippi, all these battleships were
damaged during the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. U.S. Navy History
Pearl Harbor survivors. Coming back to fight — and winning —
in these waters. Right here. Outside Surigao City.
The Battle of Surigao Strait Memorial in Surigao City,
overlooking the strait, was opened by the city government and private partners
on the 75th anniversary of the battle — October 25, 2019. Wikipedia
I have been to that museum. I stood in front of exhibits
about formations, fleet movements, and the night engagement that unfolded in
the strait that is now just part of the view when you drive toward the coast of
my city.
I looked out at the water and tried to imagine 130 warships
in the dark.
The Full Circle I Have Not Told Him Yet
My nephew is going to Europe to see WWII history firsthand.
His dad — a US Navy veteran — carried that history into
their home.
And his tito in Surigao lives in the city overlooking the
strait where the last battleship battle in human history was fought. Where
Pearl Harbor survivor ships came back and finished the job. Where the end of
one era of naval warfare happened quietly, in Philippine waters, in 1944.
He does not know this yet. We have not had that
conversation.
But someday — when he comes back from Europe with
photographs and stories — I am going to tell him:
"The battle you studied from the US? Part of it
happened in my backyard. Come visit Tito Mark in Surigao and I will take you to the
museum."
And honestly — when I think about it — I look at it
differently too. Europe is a dream I am still working toward. But the history
my nephew loves is not only in Europe. Some of it is right here, in the strait
outside the city where I walk home from work every day.
That is not a consolation prize. That is something
remarkable. I just needed my nephew's enthusiasm to remind me to see it that
way.
System Disclaimer: Historical information in this post is
sourced from verified references — linked in the publishing checklist below. I
am not a historian, just a Filipino IT worker who played too many WWII naval
games with his nephew and went looking at what actually happened in his own
city.
Okay, Last Thing — I Promise
We finished that Roblox session and I told him:
"You know, the ships we were just fighting with —
the real ones had battles right here. In Surigao. Where I live."
He went quiet for a moment.
"Wait — really?"
"Really. There is a museum. The last battleship
battle in history happened in the strait outside my city."
Another pause.
"Tito, that is so cool."
Then: "Can we play again next week?"
😄
Eight years old. Going to Europe in June to see history in
person. Taking pictures for his tito who has never left the Philippines but
lives next to where the last battleship duel in human history took place.
Safe travels, bruh!. Look at everything. Remember
everything.
And when you get back — I have a museum to show you.
Site references:
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