C. Peter Chen

I am the founder and managing editor of the World War II Database, and I continue to research and write content for the site. This website came from a relational database originally designed to organize text clippings, photographs, and my own notes. On 28 Dec 2004, I decided to put a better presentation layer around the database, and from it came the website you see today. Aside from WW2DB, I am also on the staff of the website Imperial Japanese Navy Page on the topic of the WW2-era Japanese Navy.

I am a graduate of Rutgers Business School and I am currently working for a global audio/visual communications services and solutions provider. I currently live on the east coast of the United States.

What is it exactly about history that intrigues me so much? Perhaps this following quote from Eric Hobsbawn's book the Age of Extremes best illustrates it.

"For historians of my generation and background, the past is indestructible, not only because we belong to the generation when streets and public places were still called after public men and events, when peace treaties were still signed and therefore had to be identified, and war memorials recalled yesterdays, but because public events are part of the texture of our lives. They are not merely markers in our private lives, but what has formed our lives, private and public. For this author the 30 January 1933 is not simply an otherwise arbitrary date when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, but a winter afternoon in Berlin when a fifteen-year-old and his younger sister were on the way home from their neighboring schools in Wilmersdorf to Halensee and, somewhere on the way, saw the headline. I can see it still, as in a dream."

To our generations, that is exactly how we see World War 2. In 2006 while on vacation abroad I met a gentleman who spent part of his childhood years in Shandong Province of China under Japanese occupation. He did not remember the war as a world-changing event, but to him the war was when he and his friends hid in the rice paddies as Japanese fighters flew over them, naively thinking they were targets of a Japanese offensive. To my grandmother, too; she did not care that the conflict was a World War, rather it was the air raid that separated her from several of her children.

In addition to WW2DB, I also maintain other websites. Some of them include:

cpeterchen.org		My personal website
dev-notes.com		Database and application development
CougarDB.com		1999-2002 Mercury Cougar registry

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Visitor Submitted Comments

Kathleenb says:
20 Mar 2006 04:15:03 PM

Peter, great site. Im an American friend of Morgans (Mobadious) from Simaquian. Maybe when I feel like Ive mastered (or at least become competent at) Roman history Ill move back to US history and hang out here more. :-)
Roy Coleman says:
11 Aug 2006 06:22:17 AM

Rallis birthdate is unknown.
Filovs birthdate was Apr 10 1883 (ref Current Biography 1941)
Your take on the astute Boris III is a little biased.
Jack Costantino says:
18 Nov 2006 10:39:01 AM

Peter

The conundrum of war is alive and well. I am against war. Having said that if I truly believed a pre-emptive military action would permanently eliminate war and all enemies of sanity, I would close my eyes, grit my teeth, hold my breath and push the button. Unfortunately the historic evidence is that our current wars are inextricably connected to our previous wars the ones we have won and the ones we have lost.

In reality there has never been a permanent “military solution”. Rather there appears to be a series of temporary military cessations while the defeated rearm both with weaponry and elevated levels of hatred and vengeful intent.

Peter
The conundrum of war is alive and well. I am against war. Having said that if I truly believed a pre-emptive military action would permanently eliminate war and all enemies of sanity, I would close my eyes, grit my teeth, hold my breath and push the button. Unfortunately the historic evidence is that our current wars are inextricably connected to our previous wars the ones we claim we have won and the ones we have lost.
In reality there has never been a permanent “military solution”. Rather there appears to be a series of temporary military cessations while the defeated rearm both with weaponry and elevated levels of hatred and vengeful intent.
Your excellent site reminds us of the realness of war. I am touched by the number of people still looking for old friends, family members, commrads in arms and some possible answer to the unanswerable question of the efficacy of armed conflict from a vantage point 60 years removed. Keep up the good work. Jack C.
Glenn says:
13 Oct 2008 09:48:23 AM

There is a caption error on this Web page: http://ww2db.com/photo.php?sourceall&colorall&listsearch&foreigntypeO&foreigntype_id25

The caption states "WASP pilot Helen W. Snapp flying her SBD Dauntless aircraft over Washington, DC, United States, Jun 1944"

The aircraft is a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver.
You can verifty this at Web site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SB2C_Helldiver, among others.
Matt says:
24 Jun 2009 08:48:25 AM

Hiya Pete-
Your site looks great I am contacting you to make you aware of a new Yank Magazine article that I've posted - no WW II database is complete without it:
http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/article.php?Article_Summary2855

Cheers!

Matt
Monika Ehrentraut says:
3 Jul 2009 09:52:45 PM

Hallo Peter Chen,
can you for me in the US-Blogs or archivs informationen about Erhard Milch (German Luftwaffe)? I'm searching long time a woman from this family. She had living in the Russian occupation zone until 1954/1955. Than a German brought this girl at relatives in the USA. Today she is 70 year. I know here in Germany not privat live from E. MIlch.
Kindly Regards
Monika Ehrentraut