Dear Red,
Nice to be able to talk about old times and Sakata. As I stated on your web site, I was there
from 1952 to 1954. During my stay there, the Occupation of Japan, ceased by treaty. When
occupation ended we no longer had to carry arms when we left the base and could go off base
in civilian clothing.
As to GI hangouts in town, the most favorite one was the Stateside located in downtown
Sakata, there was one other place, I can't remember it's name located down by the docks in
SW Sakata. At midnight we had a nightly 6X6 run which made the rounds to haul everyone
back to the base. The hardwood fold down seats in that truck bed were really rough riding on
the camp road with all it's pot holes.
The GI who ran our club was a real enterupneur, he sold the pine straw from
the trees on the
base to a local merchant, they used it to start fires in the Hibachis.
He tried to sell the honey
from the septic lagoon, I remember a local merchant out there with his
dipper ladling out the
stuff for inspection, only to hear the translator say, He
says he doesn't want to buy it because it
has too much paper in it. Funny what your mind
remembers.
Our day room was in the west end of the mess hall, we did not have the extra
huts you Navy
guys had, three times per week we had movies there at night. There was
a theather downtown
called the Green Room. You could go down there and see a movie with
sub titles in Japanese.
We usually had about 50 to 60 guys stationed there, we also had first three
graders living in 2
of the dependents houses, we also had 2 tents set up in the U of the main
building. To start
with they were heated with coal stoves, they sooted up and belched out
cinders which in turn
caught the tents on fire. Later they were converted to oil which was
much more comfortable.
Several times the tents broke from the weight of enormous
snowfalls. No one lived off base to
the best I can remember.
We did not have any other remote facilities, as you did on Mt. Chaoki, all
our sister sites were
located through out Japan. I do remember being up on the Mountain
looking for a crashed
aircraft, after being totally bushed from the long climb up, me met
about 100 Japanese women
carrying a bag of cement each, some with a baby also strapped
to their front, carrying the
sacks up to a new dam project, they were the strongest
women I have ever seen.
Our site was primarily a radar installation, we did have a 24/7 VHF DF site
on the beach as well,
many times returning planes from Korean operations would obtain fixes
from our station, each
of us station there then received the Korean Service Medal. If
they were shot up bad enough
the would land at Niigatta, another 528th site which had an air
strip.
My work at the site was mostly with the Japanese Civilians who were employed
at tradesmen
to maintain the base, I have nothing but admiration for those whom
I worked with, some really
skilled people in their individual trade, they all treated
me extremely well although they could
have been my father's age. It was a great learning
experience.
I recently e mailed a college student at MIT who had spent the summer
teaching English in
Sakata, she told me that it is a modern big city with pop vending machines on
almost every
corner. Also I see on the web there are many new building of multistory, a
far cry from my stay
there. I understand that after my departure there was a serious fire
that destroyed a large part of
the downtown district.
Apparently there is a new large Airport that has been built just south of
Sakata called the
Shonai Airport, it hosts many intl. carriers including direct flights to the
UK. Also as I read it,
there is a new Tohoku Odan freeway that connects Sakata to the freeway
that now runs up the
east side of the island. Another freeway is underconstruction which
comes up the west coast of
Japan. A far cry from the 6X6 trips to get supplies in 1952
with chains on all 6 sets of wheels to
get through then sometimes using the winch on the front
to pull ourselves from being stuck in
the mud.. Look under Sakata Port on the web,
as I read it, it must be constructed just south of
where the base was located, there are also
pictures on the web of it's location. It is used to ship
container to Korea and China., and
the port is even more active in coal tonnage than when I
was there. I remember the boats
coming into dock, with a ramp placed on the deck to the
dock, and hundreds of women with
a basket on their backs going in a circle loading and
unloading an entire shipload of
coal..
I remember the Japanese employees dinner at Christmas when they brought their
families, and
we put on a big dinner for them. Those were some of the cutest kids in
the world, but they
were very perplexed trying to figure how to eat with a knife, fork and
spoon. As bad as I did
with chop sticks I must say.
My son Randy was in Sakata some years ago and could find nothing of the old
site, wonder if
any of your group has been back there?
Thanks Red for giving an Old USAF guy a turn at Sakata remembrances, I would
so much like
to hear from my old USAF buddies who might just stumble upon your
site.
Roger Freeman