National Museum of the Pacific War

Fredericksburg's Main Street holds the most complete account in the country of the Second World War in the Asiatic-Pacific theater. It began small: the Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial Naval Museum opened on February 24, 1967, Nimitz's birthday, with relics of old Fredericksburg and of his career. When Nimitz agreed to lend his name, he asked that it honor not only him but the two million men and women who served with him in the Pacific, and the museum has kept that promise in its mission.

It grew into a campus. The George Bush Gallery, 23,000 square feet, holds exhibits and walk-through dioramas with the personal effects of combatants and pieces of ships and planes. The Pacific Combat Zone, a block away, holds dive bombers, tanks and guns. Behind the old hotel lies the Japanese Garden of Peace, a gift of the Japanese government designed by Taketora Saita and built by Japanese craftsmen with money raised by popular subscription in Japan. It includes a replica of the study of Admiral Heihachiro Togo, whom Nimitz admired, and was dedicated on May 8, 1976, the town's 130th anniversary.

The state owns the galleries through the Texas Historical Commission, and the Admiral Nimitz Foundation runs the museum. It is a Smithsonian Affiliate.