80 Years of Stars and Stripes Pacific

Black-and-white, 1940s-era photographs lie on a table depicting an aviator in a leather jacket and helmet and a man in a military dress uniform posing with his arm around a smiling woman in white.

Great-grandson of fallen B-29 pilot makes pilgrimage to WWII crash site in Japan

Tyler Smith, a recreation planner from San Francisco, recently climbed a forested mountainside in western Tokyo to honor the memory of his great-grandfather, one of five American airmen killed when their B-29 Superfortress crashed during a World War II bombing raid over Japan.

Scott Downing, 96, visits Ryuhoji, a Buddhist temple, in Kamakura on Dec. 7, 2015, along with four other former U.S. servicemembers taken as prisoners of war by Japan during WWII.

Former American POWs visit prison camp near Tokyo

The Buddhist temple of Ryuhoji lies down a pathway a few hundred feet from a quiet street, in a town an hour from Tokyo by train, but far more distant in character.

The centerpiece of the Japan Coast Guard Museum in Yokohama is a North Korean spy ship that was taken in December 2001 after a firefight in the East China Sea.

North Korean ‘ghost ships’ found off Japan’s shore present a grim mystery

Wooden ships filled with dead bodies have been washing ashore on Japan’s western coast — sometimes one boat, sometimes groups of three.

Children and family members of USS Benfold sailors await the crew as the 7th Fleet's newest addition arrives at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Monday, Oct. 19, 2015.

Upgraded destroyer USS Benfold arrives at new home in Japan

The Navy welcomed the upgraded destroyer USS Benfold to its new homeport Monday, bolstering the Asia-Pacific fleet amid calls for the United States to assert its freedom of navigation rights in the region.

A screenshot of a TBS broadcast shows a home being destroyed by raging floodwaters in eastern Japan on Sept. 10, 2015.

Japanese troops rescue residents trapped by raging floodwaters

Japan Self-Defense Forces teams carried out dramatic rescues from the air Thursday after a river broke through its bank and sent raging floodwaters pouring into a small city north of Tokyo.

Vehicles make their way along slick roads at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015. U.S. bases experienced heavy rains due to Tropical Storm Etau, which caused floods and mudslides elsewhere in Japan.

Tropical Storm Etau brings floods, mudslides to Japan

Tropical Storm Etau struck Japan’s Honshu mainland Wednesday, causing landslides in the west and drenching U.S. military bases near Tokyo.

The interior of Building 163-11, a storage warehouse at Sagami General Depot, that was the site of Monday's early morning explosion at the U.S. Army base in Sagamihara, Japan.

Explosion rocks US Army facility in Japan; no injuries reported

A blast at a U.S. Army depot outside Tokyo sparked a fire that burned for hours early Monday and set off secondary explosions. Officials said there were no apparent injuries.