Life's Little Adventures

"Oji Campu," Page 5

Does anyone remember the ASA Star? I don't, but this post newspaper of ASAPAC at Oji may have ceased publication before I got there — or else I was oblivious to it, being stuck in a far corner of the camp. Anyway, Noel Garland of Texas sent me some copies of two editions, both from 1956. Here are excerpts from them, more to follow. Enlarging the images will make them much clearer.

This edition of March 3, 1956 has a story about the Personnel Processing Detachment, of which I became the Assistant Detachment Clerk upon arrival in Japan in July, 1957. The two photos on the left of the above image are of the place, headed by Lt. William Russell. This is the man who arranged for me to stay in Tokyo instead of the place I was assigned to, Korea. By that time he was a Captain, and was soon replaced by Lt. Edwin Hutchins. Click here to read all about it.

The story continues in the text above. We of the cadre had our own room across from the Orderly Room, and our own bathroom, but it was still crowded. That's the post motor pool behind the men in formation in the above photo.

ANYWAY, here's some more for that trip down Memory Lane. Enlarging the pages will make them much more readable. OR, download desired pages (each page is a separate JPEG file) into any picture editor program and blow them up there. 

More later. If you yhave anything to add, please contact me through the Comments thingy below.

More photos and anecdotes are coming in from guys who were there — CLICK HERE to view page 6.

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My Army Experiences, Part XI

Previously on this thread...

One of the great things about being in the U.S. Army stationed in Japan in the 1950s was the opportunity for some really neat Little Adventures. I've already posted about our trips to Kyoto, Nikko, Mount Fuji, and a few other places. Here's another one:

It's August 1958 and I'm assigned to JCRC-J, an ASA communications unit located at North Camp Drake, just outside Tokyo. I've got a week off, and so does an old high school friend named Carl Rice who was stationed on the southern island of Kyushu. So we decided to meet at his post near Fukuoka and then travel by train and boat around both Kyushu and Shikoku.

I made the long journey from Tokyo to Fukuoka by train, and slept most of the way. There was, however, one startling sight. As we passed through Hiroshima I happened to look out to the right just in time to see the infamous A-Bomb Dome, the ruins of a former commercial building that was the only structure left partially standing after the devastating attack of August 6, 1945. Some 200,000 people, mostly civilians, perished on that fateful day.

Arriving at Fukuoka, I met Carl and we took off by train for a few days of exploring.

First stop was Nagasaki, which had been destroyed by an atomic bomb just thirteen years earlier — almost to the day. Surprisingly, much of this city had survived the devastation, protected by steep hills that reminded me of San Francisco. We stayed at an old inn in one of those narrow valleys, and visited several historic buildings, including the so-called "Madame Butterfly House." Built in 1863 for a British merchant named Thomas Glover, it is said to have inspired the setting for Puccini's tragic opera. The view of the harbor from here is breathtaking.

Another nearby site we visited was the Oura Catholic Church of 1865, the oldest Gothic building in the country. It was dedicated to the Christian martyrs who were crucified by the Japanese government in 1597 for their religious beliefs.

No trip to Nagasaki would be complete without a visit to Peace Park, which marks the very epicenter of the atomic bomb blast of August 9, 1945. A black column points up to the exact spot where the bomb detonated, while a rather hideous huge statue (photo, left) of a man pointing to the sky sends the same message. A nearby museum displays artifacts of the event, including a disturbing section of a bridge into whose concrete side entire bodies of humans were burned.

From Nagasaki we took an old steam train (photo, right) through the countryside to the hot-spring resort of Beppu on the Inland Sea. At that time steam trains were still very common throughout Japan, so we quickly learned to close the windows every time we came to a tunnel.

Arriving in Beppu, we checked into a ryokan inn that had its own hot springs and gardens. Getting into the restful spirit of the place, we quickly changed into yukatas (a type of lightweight cotton kimono) and replaced our socks and shoes with geta, a kind of wooden sandal that makes you two inches taller and raises you above the muddy footpath. It is very easy to trip while wearing these, but we eventually got the hang of it. After a stroll through the bubbling hot springs and an encounter with a fierce devil of a statue (photo, below), we had a sukiyaki dinner and a few drinks before taking baths in the healing waters and going to bed on futons.

The next day we boarded an overnight steamer for the voyage to Takamatsu on the island of Shikoku, which took us right through the heart of the legendary Inland Sea. A band played as the boat pulled away from the pier, and everyone waved sayonara to Kyushu. Feeling flush, we had opted for a first class cabin in lieu of the steerage hold, and spent several hours in the top deck lounge. With the dawn came some fabulous views, and a somewhat hungover me (photo, left) hanging onto the railing.

Arriving at Takamatsu in the morning, we checked into a hotel and made arangements for a guided bus tour of the sights. This went well as we visited the world-famous Ritsurin-Koen Gardens, begun in the 17th century as a summer retreat for a ruling clan. Another stop was at the 16th-century Tamanojo Castle (photo, below), home of that same clan.

Then we were taken to a hilltop plateau with nearly a hundred temples. I thought we would just visit one or two, but no — the tour kept going on and on, in Japanese of course. The extensive views across the Inland Sea made it all worthwhile depite the boredom of one temple after another. The photo below shows Carl having his picture taken by the tour guide, with others in the group standing around.

The next morning we took a ferry to the main island of Honshu, where Carl got a train back to Fukuoka and I headed north on another train to Tokyo.

NOTE: Some of the photos were taken on a dubious local film that faded badly after nearly fifty years of improper storage. I tried to repair the damage as best I could in Photoshop Elements, but they are still much less than perfect.

 

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North Camp Drake, Page 4

MORE PHOTOS OF THE GUYS FROM JCRC-J

Previously on this thread.

John Jubb just sent me a bunch of photos from JCRC-J at North Camp Drake taken in 1958 and possibly 1959. John worked down the hall from me and for a while was a roomate.

The building above is the JCRC Headquarters Offices and Billets. Offices and other administration rooms were on the first floor, billets on the second and third. I worked in the Orderly Room to the right of the main entrance, about where the car is parked.

Modeling the new optional summer uniforms! Did we look like Boy Scouts?

That's John and two friends at the NCO Club. You can tell that it's on post from the Becks Beer, which cost a ridiculous 25 cents served with live entertainment.

And here is John and his boss, Sergeant Hicks. They worked in the Supply Room Office.

This is the Supply Room Office, which looked just like the other offices including mine. The lady is Katy, their secretary, and that's John on the right.

Below are pictures sent by others:

JCRC Orderly Room, CQ desk, after I left.

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MORE COMING! If you have any photos or stories to add, please send.

Here are two photos from Roger Glubka of Hawaii, who was there in the ASA successor unit in 1965-67. The first is his car, bought & sold for $50 at the time. The other apparently shows the building across the parking lot from our living quarters, which in our time was used as offices for ACRAPAC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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North Camp Drake, Page 3

A NEW MAP OF NORTH CAMP DRAKE:

This map was made by scanning an old 1958 Engineers TOPO map of the entire area that Glenn Kunkle found online and sent me. I layered the new drawing on top of it using CorelDraw, then deleted the base and converted the image to a JPEG. The base map did not show the boundaries of the post, so I took a guess at that, and it was not very clear about buildings, so I only included ones that I have photos of. If you know of any corrections or additions that should be made, please let me know in the comments section below.

None of this exists anymore. A recent search on Google Earth by Glenn yielded an aerial photo in fairly high resolution that showed only the footprint of the "Little Pentagon" building, apparently under demolition at the time the survey was made. There was not even a trace of the other buildings.

Do you remember those chrome metal nametags we had at JCRC? Here's mine, all scratched up and a little worse for wear after these nearly 50 years. I'm finding all kinds of this stuff in old boxes, will post what's interesting here.

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"Oji Campu," Page 4

NEWLY DISCOVERED AERIAL PHOTO AND MAP OF OJI CAMP, CIRCA MID-1950s.

At last we can make a definitive, scaled diagram/map of Oji Camp as it was in the mid-to-late 1950s. Glenn Kunkle addressed the problem in the most logical way — he contacted the Tokyo city government and asked for the material. And they sent it! So, for the moment, here are three views. When I get time, I'll consolidate these and draw a scaled layout map, then we can argue about what each building was used for.

The map above is cropped and enhanced to show only the post layout in 1960.

Above is a 1960 map of the entire neighborhood.

And here is the 1954 aerial photo from which the maps were derived.

The aerial view above is from the early 1960s, after Oji Camp became a hospital. The Headquarters Building is still prominent.

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"OJI CAMPU" Page 3

TODAY'S OJI

For those of you who were wondering what Oji Camp looks like today, here it is! These photos were taken on February 18, 2006 by Teri Bryant, www.nambuworld.com, and sent to me on a CD by Noel Garland of Mesquite, Texas. The ONLY structure that still survives is the Headquarters Building, now used as a local cultural center and library. The Officers Club was torn down just a few years ago. The rest of the post is now Chuo Park, according to Wikipedia. Enjoy!

This is the layout of Oji Campu today. The blue at the bottom is the creek that went to the station.

The surviving Headquarters Building, and another view of it — this from the street. The guard shack was on the far left.

This is the rear of the Headquarters Building, which has not changed much.

And here is looking from the Headquarters Building to where the Comm Center was. Not a trace of that is left.

 

Who can forget the charms of that dingy street that led to the train station? This is what prosperity does to a place. More to come later.

And here is an aerial view of today's Oji, apparently taken in 2005. This was forwarded to me by Glenn Kunkle. You can clearly see the old U-shaped Headquarters Building near the center right. Compare this with the map at the top of this page.

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CLICK HERE for Page 4, new maps of Oji in the 1950s.

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North Camp Drake, Page 2

Here are some photos of Asaka, the village just outside the rear gate of North Camp Drake, in 1958-59.

This is the main street.

And this is the train station.

Here is the platform where we boarded the train for Ikebukuru. From there we would go by subway to Ginza, the heart of downtown Tokyo.

This is a pachinko parlor, sort of a pinball game that was very popular. Players with skill or luck could win small prizes.

Finally, this is the countryside just outside Asaka.

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North Camp Drake

A

In May 1958 I transferred from HQ ASAPAC, "Oji Campu," in Tokyo to JCRC-J (an ASA communications center) at North Camp Drake on the northwest border of the city. For anyone who served in the army there or in its successor unit USASACU-J, this thread is for you. If you have any stories or photos to add, please contact me and I'll be glad to put them on this thread. Click here for my personal story about life in JCRC-J. The photo above is of the "Little Pentagon," a building that housed our operations, among other things.

The organization was actually formed a month earlier, in April 1958, at "Oji Campu." At that time it consisted of exactly three people: Major Edward Meares, 1st Lieutenant Edwin Hutchins, and PFC Me. We had desk space in the personnel office next to the headquarters building. They planned, I typed.

In May, sections of the Communications Center at Oji were reassigned to North Camp Drake, as HQ ASAPAC was moving to Hawaii. For technical reasons part of its mission had to remain in the Tokyo region, thus the creation of JCRC-J.

The Joint Communications Relay Center - Japan (JCRC-J) was originally to be a joint venture with the Air Force Security Service and the Naval Security Group, both of which were also affiliated with the NSA. This never worked out very well, although we did at times have some Air Force and Naval personnel. A year or so after I left in late 1959 the name changed as they finally realized that the fly-boys and sailors had departed for good. The new name was ASA Communications Unit - Japan, or USASACU-J.

When we first moved to Drake, we had no billets of our own and were housed with another army outfit, ACRAPAC (Army Command Reconnaissance Activity Pacific) (upper right corner on photo above, behind the motor pool, seen from the 3rd floor of our new quarters). This was a disaster, and we quickly moved into a modern building that was previously used by counterintelligence.

The new home (photo, above) was much better suited to our needs as our operations went on every day, around the clock.

Just for laughs, here's a view of how we lived in those luxurious surroundings. Well, not everyday — just weekends.

And here's a corner of the room I shared with one or two other guys. The stereo is mine, as is the shirt hanging on the right.

This is another scene from the 3rd floor of our living quarters. It wasn't far to the movies.

 

This is me in the entrance hall of our building, taking a picture. I had hair then.

And here is a photo of a highly contrived scene that I took to decorate our annual report. The girls are from our office.

This was my bunk at JCRC-J. I think the guy on the left was named Paul, and the other one might be my roomate Boylan.

CLICK HERE for Page 2, views of Asaka, the village just outside North Camp Drake. AND HERE for Page 3, a new map of North Camp Drake. AND HERE for Page 4, photos of the guys at JCRC frolicking.

And please, if you have anything to add, Contact Me.

And for memories of "Oji Campu" CLICK HERE.

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"OJI CAMPU" Page 2

More photos and stories are coming in from fellow ASAers once stationed at ASAPAC in Tokyo in the late 1950s. Here are some:

The above view of "Oji Campu's" front gate was sent by Glenn Kunkle.

Looking away from the front gate. Click here to see what it looks like today.

 

Noel Garland sent information he received from John Milmore, author of #1 Code Break Boy - Communications Intelligence in the Korean War. This book provides insights into the history of the post, from which the following is derived:

What we and the locals called "Oji Campu" was officially known as the First Tokyo Arsenal by the Imperial Japanese Army as far back as the 1880s. Its Headquarters Building was erected in 1930 for the Japanese Ordnance Corps and survived the heavy bombings of World War II. During the Occupation, in 1947, a section was taken over by ASA and the "Technical Intelligence Detachment," but the name First Tokyo Arsenal was kept for security reasons so as not to advertise the secretive ASA. In fact, ASAPAC's athletic teams competed under the name "Arsenal."

During the Korean War, a sign bearing the name HQ ASAPAC was put on the building, and a third flagpole was added to fly the UN flag, under whose auspices that conflict was fought. This was removed after the fighting stopped.

As the name Arsenal fell into disuse, the locals began calling the place "Oji Campu" after the neighborhood it was located in. HQ ASAPAC made no sense to them. Soldiers stationed there soon picked up on the new name, and it stuck. Apparently, an historical marker at the corner of Hongo and Meiji Dori streets still bears the Oji Campu name.

FIND OUT MORE about the book by clicking on its title in the box below, or on the Buy button to purchase.

Some more photos:

View of a distant Mount Fuji seen across the adjacent Topo installation, sent by Glenn Kunkle.

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"OJI CAMPU"

Its correct name was Headquarters, U.S. Army Security Agency Pacific, but both the locals and the soldiers called it "Oji Campu" after its location in the Oji section of Tokyo, Japan. I, and hundreds of other guys, was stationed there in 1957-58. Now, fifty years later, some of us are reminiscing about our experiences with the idea of putting together some sort of an unofficial history. The first goal will be to reconstruct from memory, old photos, and some saved scraps of paper just how the place was laid out. Here's my diagram, aided, corrected and enhanced by dozens of e-mails exchanged between several of us. It may still have errors, so if you were there in the late 1950s and have anything to add, please contact me.

This diagram was modified in April 2007 but is still tentative and will need correction. Until then, the numbers represent:

1) Headquarters; 2) Theater; 3) Communications Center; 4) Machine Aids; 5) Officers' Club, BOQ ?; 6) Personnel & Chapel; 7) Fire Station; 8) Mess Hall & Billets; 9) Gym; 10) PX & other functions, Billets upstairs; 11) (not shown); 12) Hq. Company Orderly Room & Billets; 13) Ham Radio Shack; 14) Supply; 15) Motor Pool; 16) EM Club; 17) Personnel Processing (Casual) Detachment; 18) Hobby Shop; 19) NCO Club. The tiny building by the main gate was the guard shack.

FLASH! New Map and Post Diagram Material on Page 4, Clicky.

Here are some photos to start with:

   

Mess Hall (left) & Personnel/Chapel (center) Feb. 58, sent in by Glenn Kunkle.

Ball game, Summer 58

Old EM Club, top floor of billets, Aug. 57

A picnic at Oji, late summer 57

View from Building 12, the car being pushed is the Evil Studebaker.

In the new EM Club, early fall 57.

Another view of the new EM club, late 57

The CQ desk at Personnel Processing Detachment, late summer 57.

Jim Webb, chief clerk at Personnel Processing Detachment, late summer 57.

Me living in the lap of luxury, 3rd floor, Building 12, spring 58.

And here is the outside of that Building 12, sent to me by Noel Garland. It apparently was taken in the mid-1950s, before I arrived. My room (photo above) was in the upper left, in the dark section above the white part of the buildings, the first two windows before the 3rd floor of the white building on the left.

Image above is from a World War II Strategic Bombing Survey made in 1945. Some parts of Oji Campu are quite clear, especially the Headquarters Building. See if you can find it. This image was sent in by Noel Garland of Texas.

 

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SO, just what Little Adventure am I up to now in 2013? Why, just the most challenging one of them all! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT.

 

CLICK HERE for more "Oji Campu" on Page 2. If you have pictures or stories to share, please send.

CLICK HERE for Page 3 and what Oji looks like today.

CLICK HERE for Page 4, new Oji maps.

CLICK HERE for Page 5, the ASA Star.

CLICK HERE for Page 6, More photos of the guys.

CLICK HERE for The Beers of Oji.

And CLICK HERE for memories of North Camp Drake and JCRC-J.

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