Yokota History Part 4: Yokota and the Cold War, 1952-64

  • Published
  • By Dr. John Treiber
  • 374th Airlift Wing History Office
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan --  The Cold War is an amorphous event that historians date variously as having started at the end of WWII, from the president's articulation of the policy of "containment" in 1947, during the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49, or myriad other turning points in that epic struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The Korean War should probably be lumped into the Cold War as well, though when examining Yokota's history it is worth analyzing Korea as a distinct event. At the other end of the spectrum the Cold War concluded in 1991 with the opening of the Berlin Wall, but at Yokota the Vietnam War was so dominant that it marked an end, or at least a pause in typical Cold War activities.

Therefore, this article shall periodize Yokota's Cold War era as the thirteen years between 1952 (about half-way through the Korean War) through 1964 when the Vietnam War was ramping up.

The variety of missions and aircraft that called the base home during this timeframe is almost overwhelming, and for those stationed at Yokota during the 1950s and into the mid-1960s the ever-looming threat of a conventional or nuclear attack was very real.

After all, Russia -- at that time the Soviet Union -- is Japan's closest neighbor, and combined with the establishment of communist China in 1949 and the aggression of North Korean toward South Korea in 1950 showed that Japan was surrounded by hostile states.

As a result during the 1950s and into the early 1960s, before the Japan Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) was fully operational, the US Air Force provided for Japan's air defense with various types of fighter jets and early warning radar systems.

As we learned in the previous article fighters from the 35th Fighter-Interceptor Wing (35 FIW) were stationed at Yokota for about three months prior to the Korean War, only to be rapidly replaced by heavy bombers for the duration of that conflict.

For a little over a year following the Korean War armistice Yokota remained almost exclusively a B-29 base. However, in August 1954 the mission changed radically with the return of the 35 FIW and three fighter squadrons.

Now flying North American F-86D "Sabres," these squadrons were part of a larger defense network with operations out of Air Force bases from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the west. 35 FIW remained at Yokota until 1 October 1957 when it was inactivated.

The air defense mission was scaled back but continued under the 40th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron "Red Devils" that upgraded to F-102 Delta Daggers in 1960, and the unit was a mainstay at Yokota until 1965 when that mission was fully handed off to JASDF.

Perhaps symbolic of Yokota and the F-102's place in the Cold War, Japanese filmmakers from Toho Movie Corporation came to the base in April 1961 and filmed the jets for the monster movie Mothra. The final cut the movie only showed footage of JASDF F-86s, but it is important to note that the F-102s were originally going to play a large effort in the battle against Mothra as it devastated Tokyo.

Air defense was just one piece of the Cold War puzzle at Yokota. Along with the fighters in 1954 came the 6007th Composite Reconnaissance Group which flew RB-57A Canberras into Soviet and Chinese airspace on highly sensitive photographic missions.

This kind of important work continued at Yokota well into the 1960s under the 67th Tactical Recon Wing and other organizations, the story of which can found in the excellent history Asia from Above.

Perhaps most significantly, the Strategic Air Command or SAC -- America's dominant symbol of the Cold War -- made its appearance at the base in the mid-1950s when it established Detachment 1 of the 3rd Air Division to handle B-50, B-36, B-47, and B-52 bomber deployments to Yokota.

SAC's arrival at Yokota was facilitated by the lengthening of the runway north from 6,000 feet to its current 11,000 feet starting in the mid-1950s, a construction project that required rerouting highway Route 16 as well as the Japan National Railway's Hachiko line around the north end of the runway. This extension project was essential for the newest and largest jet aircraft being developed in the 1950s such as KC-135s, B-47s, and B-52s, followed by C-141s and C-5s in the 1960s.

The constant churn of Cold War missions and aircraft at the base continued. Along with SAC's heavy bombers Yokota also hosted a refueling squadron during the Cold War years, while the 56th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (56 WRS) staged out of Yokota and hunted for typhoons throughout the western Pacific from the early 1950s through the 1960s using WB-29s, WB-50s, and later WC-130s, WB-47s, and WC-135s.

These weather aircraft also flew a much more sensitive but equally important mission of sampling air in the region for signs that the USSR or China had detonated a nuclear weapon. That was an unmistakably Cold War mission! Various airframes continued to make their appearance at the base during the Cold War, and of particular significance the first C-130s were stationed at Yokota in April 1961, used by the 6091st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron.

Life at Yokota during the 1950s and through the mid-1960s, which in many respects was typical of American bases everywhere, was overshadowed by Cold War concerns. For instance, in mid-April 1952 the base hosted a very serious lecture entitled the "Big Lie" about the nature of Communism presented by Dr. M. Ernest Hall from the USAF's Japan Air Defense Force.

A filmed version of the lecture was shown in late April with a Japanese soundtrack for Japanese National employees working at Yokota. In spring 1954 fallout shelters were dug in certain parts of the base in the event of an "atomic" war, and some of these shelters were located in front of the old Yokota West Elementary School and along the fence shared with the Hachiko rail line.

The official base newspaper, at that time called the Afterburner, published numerous articles with such Cold War titles as "Communism and You" and a "Primer on Communism." The papers also ran regular quotes by General Curtis LeMay, Air Force Chief of Staff, about staying the course of freedom in the face of the Communist menace. Yes, the atmosphere at Yokota was imbued with Cold War anxieties.

By 1964, however, the Vietnam Conflict began to merge with Cold War operations at Yokota and following the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in August 1964 Yokota became fully embroiled in that seminal event. Of course the Vietnam War was also part of the Cold War, but it took on a life of its own in which Yokota was to play an outsized role.

Next article: Yokota and the Vietnam War.