Both proxy and model studies seeking to understand anthropogenic warming have revealed historical variations of sea surface temperature (SST) since the Industrial Revolution. However, because of discrepancies between observations and models for the late nineteenth century, the timing and degree of anthropogenic warming is still unclear. Here we reconstructed a 228-year record of SST and salinity using a coral core collected at Bicol, southern Luzon, Philippines, which is at the northern edge of the western Pacific warm pool. The SST record showed clear volcanic cooling after the eruptions of Tambora and Krakatau in 1815 and 1883, respectively, but the pattern of change differed between them. Although there were discrepancies in SST variations among modeled, observed, and proxy SST data for the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, SST data from the late twentieth century show globally coherent anthropogenic warming, especially after 1975.