Yokota History Part 3: Yokota and the Korean War, 1950-53

  • Published
  • By Dr. John Treiber
  • 374th Airlift Wing History Office
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan --  Among the periods that shall be covered in this Yokota Air Base history series, the Korean War era is the shortest. Yet its length belies its significance as it not only bridged the transition between the Occupation and post-Occupation periods, but also the period between the post-WWII era and the Cold War. From 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953Yokota was at the heart of the Korean War bombing campaign, hosting the Far East Air Forces (FEAF) Bomber Command headquarters and serving as the Air Force's main B-29 bomber base.

For three years the population ballooned creating the need for more on and off-base housing, while development of the base's east side began and new flying missions arrived. If there was ever a question about Yokota's strategic importance during the late 1940s, the Korean War cemented the base's reputation from the 1950s into the present.

In the months leading up to the outbreak of the Korean War Yokota was already undergoing a transition, though in ways unrelated to the impending hostilities on the Peninsula. On 1 April 1950 the 3rd Bomb Wing and its fleet of A-26 light bombers departed Yokota after five years at the base, replaced by the 35th Fighter Interceptor Wing (35 FIW). This was the time before the Japan Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) had been formed, so the US Air Force was responsible for Japan's air defense. Yokota was therefore absorbed into that important role, albeit for an extremely brief period.

Examining the flow of units and airframes in and out of the base following North Korea's invasion of the south in late June 1950 shows understandable scrambling on the part of the Air Force.

The 35 FIW remained as base operating unit through 14 August 1950, though two of its four fighter squadrons had already left Yokota in early July to fly missions in Korea. Meanwhile, the FEAF Bomber Command activated at Yokota on 8 July under Lieutenant General George Stratemeyer, directing B-29 bombing operations for the duration of the war.

The 92nd Bomb Group and its three squadrons also arrived at Yokota on 8 July and immediately began flying missions to the Peninsula. Those units were followed by the 98th Bomb Group and three more B-29 squadrons, while the 512th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron arrived in June and the 31st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron arrived in mid-July only to be absorbed into the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron which arrived on 19 December.

These weather and recon units also flew variations of the B-29, so it can safely be said that Yokota had become a completely B-29 base. Oddly, the entire 3rd Bomb Wing returned to Yokota as base operating unit from August through December 1950, only to be replaced by the 6161st Air Base Wing on 1 December. With the activation of the 6161 ABW a steady state had finally been achieved at Yokota following the chaos of the first five months of the Korean War.

On the other hand such a massive build up at the base required infrastructure that did not yet exist, leading to the initial development of Yokota's east side with the construction of dozens of B-29 hard stands, some of which are still in use today. Tent cities and temporary structures for deployed personnel popped up in some of the base's open areas, and the base commander went to local landowners requesting the construction of off-base housing units in the empty fields across from the base.

Those landowners complied, building hundreds and hundreds of tiny, single-family houses that eventually ran the entire length of the base along what is now the four-lane highway Route 16. The housing areas had such memorable names as "American Village," "Japamer [Japan-America] Heights," and "Fussa Heights," and were called "paddy houses" by Americans and "Beigun hausu" [American houses] by Japanese.

They were quite primitive, often with gravel roads and at first lacking even phone service, but overall these sprawling housing areas played a significant role in not just supplementing scarce on-base housing during and after the Korean War, but also by shaping the local off-base built environment in ways that are still felt today.

The Occupation of Japan ended in April 1952 even as the Korean War continued to rage on, and it was at this moment that Yokota's leadership began actively cultivating positive relations with the local Japanese community through open houses, participation in festivals and friendship societies, supporting charities such as orphanages, and assisting nearby communities in times of drought and other natural disasters.

Furthermore, official relations with local leadership can be traced precisely to this time period. That is not to say that there were no local relations before the Occupation ended - there most certainly were -- but starting in 1952 the United States once again had to deal with Japan as a sovereign nation, and as such the relationship with our Japanese friends naturally began to change. Everyone stationed at Yokota in the 21st century is heir to these positive community relations that got underway during the Korean War.

Yokota Air Base in the early 1950s had a major impact on the local community in other ways, not only through the afore-mentioned housing rentals, but also by providing menial, skilled and managerial jobs to Japanese nationals.

Furthermore, its residents and deployed personnel frequented shops, tourist sites, and off-base bars which pumped money into the local economy. At the same time the communities surrounding Yokota in the early 1950s were still very rural and agricultural, so noise from aircraft and base activities was not yet a significant issue.

Yet the operations tempo and wartime conditions did result in occasional accidents that impacted local relations. One significant crash occurred upon takeoff on 18 November 1951, and though the crew of the fully loaded B-29 escaped unharmed the fire-rescue crews were not so lucky as the bombs exploded killing ten men, blew out on-base windows, and damaged nearly 100 houses right outside the fence.

The Air Force paid for the houses and other damage, while a monument called "Last Alarm" was dedicated in 1972 and now sits in front of Yokota's main fire station. It is a memorial to the sacrifice of the seven Japanese and three American firemen who lost their lives in the disaster.

Another B-29 went down during a snowstorm in February 1952 just north of the base in the tiny hamlet of Kaneko, and the entire crew was lost. Yokota took care of the Japanese civilians who had lost their homes in the tragedy by providing meals and building temporary housing on the grounds of a nearby school, another example of the kind of ways in which the Air Force was interacting with the Japanese population.

The Korean War ended in an armistice on 27 July 1953, thus ushering in the Yokota next era - the Cold War.