Yokosuka cave network dug by Japanese during World War II sealed
European and Pacific Stars & Stripes
Monday, March 14, 2005
Yokosuka cave network dug by Japanese during World War II sealed
By Juliana Gittler, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Monday, March 7, 2005
A Shinto priest offers a purification blessing during a ceremony Friday to close the network of caves under Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. The priest's father gave the initial blessing for the caves' opening during World War II.
Jim Schulz / S&S
A Shinto priest offers a purification blessing during a ceremony Friday to close the network of caves under Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. The priest's father gave the initial blessing for the caves' opening during World War II.
Jim Schulz / S&S
Guests take a tour of the caves under Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, after a ceremony officially sealing the caves on Friday. The caves most recently were used for a command center for Commander, Naval Forces Japan.
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — More than 60 years after his father gave the blessing opening the labyrinthine caves under Yokosuka’s shipyard, a Shinto priest gave a blessing Friday to officially seal them.
The caves were dug into the hills with picks and shovels to fortify against possible American attacks during World War II. The system included rails for moving heavy equipment, a hospital and even a power substation.
After the United States took over the base, the caves — totaling approximately 16 miles — held the Navy hospital and several commands.
Safety fears from falling rocks caused the U.S. Navy to seal off much of the system of halls and walkways 30 years ago. The final area of caves still in use was vacated when the Japanese government built a new Command and Control Center nearby last year.
The Japanese military began building the caves in 1938. The cave system went on to swell as the military later ordered all commands on the base to build additional emergency shelters against air raids.
The patchwork system extended several levels and opened out into small holes dotted around the base.
Most of the caves were closed off after World War II and the remaining working areas were converted into rooms with metal walls and flooring.
“It’s hard to find exactly what went on in here,” said Cmdr. Tom Stith, from CNFJ operations, during a tour for visitors attending the closing ceremony.
Much of the cave’s history still is classified, so its functions before and after the war aren’t completely clear. During the Korean War, it was used as an emergency shelter. It also served for storage.
Fluorescent lights now cast an eerie pallor over the windowless room inside the main area, used as the Commander, Naval Forces Japan operations center. A yellowing map covers one gigantic wall, where in years past a sailor on a ladder attached to a rail would roll back and forth plotting coordinates.
Down a long hall, a locked door marks the entrance to the original caves, where the rounded rock walls still drip water.
Along the ceilings, bits of metal protrude where light systems once ran.
In the late 1970s, Senior Chief Petty Officer Harold L. Jarrell, operations chief for the CNFJ operations and plans department, spent his workdays inside the structure. A large glass apparatus called “the octopus” was heated and set before blowers to draw moisture out, to protect the sensitive equipment inside, he recalled.
During earthquakes he and his co-workers could hear rocks breaking off and hitting the internal metal walls the Americans added to the caves, which were used then for storage.
Jarrell said he remembered being joined at work by the mosquitoes that loved the damp, dark passages, and by giant wolf spiders.
“You’d come in in the morning, open the door and they’d look at you eyeball to eyeball,” he said.
Most of the entrances to the caves were cemented over in the 1970s as the Navy began gradually shutting down the structures.
With the last personnel vacating the premises, the Yokosuka facilities office now will take over the caves for safekeeping.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Yokosuka cave network dug by Japanese during World War II sealed
By Juliana Gittler, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Monday, March 7, 2005
Jim Schulz / S&S
A Shinto priest offers a purification blessing during a ceremony Friday to close the network of caves under Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. The priest's father gave the initial blessing for the caves' opening during World War II.
Jim Schulz / S&S
Guests take a tour of the caves under Yokosuka
Naval Base, Japan, after a ceremony officially
sealing the caves on Friday. The caves most
recently were used for a command center for
Commander, Naval Forces Japan.
Jim Schulz / S&S
A Shinto priest offers a purification blessing during a ceremony Friday to close the network of caves under Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. The priest's father gave the initial blessing for the caves' opening during World War II.
Jim Schulz / S&S
Guests take a tour of the caves under Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, after a ceremony officially sealing the caves on Friday. The caves most recently were used for a command center for Commander, Naval Forces Japan.
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — More than 60 years after his father gave the blessing opening the labyrinthine caves under Yokosuka’s shipyard, a Shinto priest gave a blessing Friday to officially seal them.
The caves were dug into the hills with picks and shovels to fortify against possible American attacks during World War II. The system included rails for moving heavy equipment, a hospital and even a power substation.
After the United States took over the base, the caves — totaling approximately 16 miles — held the Navy hospital and several commands.
Safety fears from falling rocks caused the U.S. Navy to seal off much of the system of halls and walkways 30 years ago. The final area of caves still in use was vacated when the Japanese government built a new Command and Control Center nearby last year.
The Japanese military began building the caves in 1938. The cave system went on to swell as the military later ordered all commands on the base to build additional emergency shelters against air raids.
The patchwork system extended several levels and opened out into small holes dotted around the base.
Most of the caves were closed off after World War II and the remaining working areas were converted into rooms with metal walls and flooring.
“It’s hard to find exactly what went on in here,” said Cmdr. Tom Stith, from CNFJ operations, during a tour for visitors attending the closing ceremony.
Much of the cave’s history still is classified, so its functions before and after the war aren’t completely clear. During the Korean War, it was used as an emergency shelter. It also served for storage.
Fluorescent lights now cast an eerie pallor over the windowless room inside the main area, used as the Commander, Naval Forces Japan operations center. A yellowing map covers one gigantic wall, where in years past a sailor on a ladder attached to a rail would roll back and forth plotting coordinates.
Down a long hall, a locked door marks the entrance to the original caves, where the rounded rock walls still drip water.
Along the ceilings, bits of metal protrude where light systems once ran.
In the late 1970s, Senior Chief Petty Officer Harold L. Jarrell, operations chief for the CNFJ operations and plans department, spent his workdays inside the structure. A large glass apparatus called “the octopus” was heated and set before blowers to draw moisture out, to protect the sensitive equipment inside, he recalled.
During earthquakes he and his co-workers could hear rocks breaking off and hitting the internal metal walls the Americans added to the caves, which were used then for storage.
Jarrell said he remembered being joined at work by the mosquitoes that loved the damp, dark passages, and by giant wolf spiders.
“You’d come in in the morning, open the door and they’d look at you eyeball to eyeball,” he said.
Most of the entrances to the caves were cemented over in the 1970s as the Navy began gradually shutting down the structures.
With the last personnel vacating the premises, the Yokosuka facilities office now will take over the caves for safekeeping.
posted by Tomorrows News Today at 3/14/2005 03:14:00 AM
1 Comments:
I was in a Microwave school for the FCC-17 multichannel equipment in Great Lakes, Il when Martin Luther King was assassinated in April 1968. The whole base was shut down because of riots in Waukegan. There was an immediate order for about a dozen of us to proceed to Yokosuka as there was a significant need. We were not allowed to take any time off and flew out a couple of days later to Tachikawa. When we got to Yokosuka nobody knew who we were, what we were to do, or we to report to; so they assigned us to sweep up floor/ground of the caves behind NAVCOMSTA for two weeks while waiting for a NEC Microwave Radio school outside Kawasaki to train us on the microwave radio. At that time there was a lot of old comm equipment: patch bays, R390s, etc. just laying piled up on the ground. Towards the end of the 2nd week we met Richard Bowhay ETN2, Chief Solomon and Warrant Officer Carlson who gave us some info on what we would be doing. We all could have taken a couple of weeks leave and seen our families/friends before we ever needed to be there (hurry up and wait). I met some great friends at NAVCOMSTA those two weeks: William Eutise Moore (died cancer 2012), Richard Hicks ETN3, Dave Pyle RM2 (murdered outside Zebra Club Dec 1968 a week after he married Junko), Jim Stanaway, Richard Decker ETN3 (died cancer Sept 2021), Gordy Boerman (died Cancer 2009), Dick Hoak, etc. Hicks, Gordy, Eutise and I went all over skin diving and exploring Japan on our motorcycles. They suggested I transfer to Yokohama so I requested it and worked there for 22 months and loved it the whole time I spent there. People called me Tiny. because I was 6'4" tall and 345lbs; plus an ETN2, when I lived there, but my name is Terry in case anybody remembers me--it would be great to hear from people I knew? Another guy I would like to contact is Max Steele who was a CT at Kamiseya. The USN was a good experience for me as I learned I wanted to be an engineer and ended up with a PHD working at both Honeywell and Boeing.
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