{"id":3046,"date":"2009-09-26T10:06:23","date_gmt":"2009-09-26T17:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/?p=3046"},"modified":"2012-10-08T14:50:41","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T21:50:41","slug":"atsugi-naval-air-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/atsugi-naval-air-facility\/","title":{"rendered":"Atsugi Naval Air Facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"douglas<\/a><\/p>\n

As previously mentioned<\/a> I ride the Odakyu Line a couple times a week down to the Atsugi area to teach a course for the University of Maryland University College Asia on a military base. The Atsugi Naval Air Facility (\u539a\u6728\u6d77\u8ecd\u98db\u884c\u5834) has an interesting history. The first time Douglas MacArthur set foot in Japan was here.<\/p>\n

The history is far more intriguing than just that though. This was a kamikaze training center. 33 of the pilots refused to give up with the rest of the country and went on a final mission rather than hang around for MacArthur’s entrance. Where they went was never known. Nor have their planes ever been found.<\/p>\n

The Japanese expected this area to be bombed by American B-52s, so extensive underground caves were built. I haven’t seen them, but I guess that was the point.<\/p>\n

Lee Harvey Oswald was stationed at Atsugi, as was the infamous U2 spy plane.<\/p>\n

\"\u65e5\u672c\u306e\u6c11\u4e3b\u3005\u7fa9\u306e\u751f\u307f\u306e\u89aa\u30de\u30c3\u30ab\u30fc\u30b5\u30fc\u3000statue<\/a><\/p>\n

This statue of MacArthur in the MacArthur Garden is a fairly new addition (1990s I think). Under the statue it says \u65e5\u672c\u306e\u6c11\u4e3b\u3005\u7fa9\u306e\u751f\u307f\u306e\u89aa\u30de\u30c3\u30ab\u30fc\u30b5\u30fc which translates to something like “MacArthur parented the birth of Japan’s democracy.” <\/p>\n

\"atsugi<\/a><\/p>\n

Another strange thing about this facility is the church. It looks Buddhist from most angles but is not. Four congregations meet here–all different and none Buddhist. One is Catholic; another is “Traditional Protestant”; the others are “Contemporary Protestant” and “Word of Victory Protestant”. I’d be interested to know the history of this building if anyone knows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As previously mentioned I ride the Odakyu Line a couple times a week down to the Atsugi area to teach a course for the University of Maryland University College Asia on a military base. The Atsugi Naval Air Facility (\u539a\u6728\u6d77\u8ecd\u98db\u884c\u5834) has an interesting history. The first time Douglas MacArthur set foot in Japan was here. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[175],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3046"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10133,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3046\/revisions\/10133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}