Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

Hi Joe, I was in Yokohama from
June 1967 until October 1969 so I had a good long run there. I was newly married and lived in a couple of places which were Japanese apartments. I did not qualify for dependant support so we were pretty much on our own which was fine for us.
We did a lot of traveling and immersed ourselves in the culture extensively, learning Japanese [ as well as one could given the time] making great friends and generally having a good time given the overtones of what was happening, war wise.
We climbed Mt. Fuji on the day of the moon landing, camped out on a island with orchids in Matsushima, spent a week in Kyoto, hiked the island of Sado, stayed on the island of Oshima, "lived" in Kamakura, got lost and wandered into a Buddhist monestary, made friends with a Japanese rock band, learned ikebana, visited the Ainu in Hokkaido ,hunted yama-imo, danced the Bon odori, sent back tons of stuff, and being a food inspector, helped process thousands of tons of supplies. We "did it all" except that there was not enough time to do it all, but we tried. Retrospectively I owe a lot to my ex wife who planned trips, read guide books, met tour guides who would then set up short and long term plans for travel and other experiences. We would spend some time almost every night planning our next journey and figuring out trains, language skills ect. It is hard to figure what ifs', however If I had been single I know that I would not have been as forthright in doing what I did and probably would have hit the Peanut Club every night and done little else. Also, as a couple we were able to do things that a single man or woman might not be able to. We kept each other focused and cancelled out otherwise tempting negative influnences that otherwise would have been a detraction. No regrets.. well.. might liked to have a Japanese girlfriend.. but.. we did a lot! Every night, every weekend and as many days off as I could squeeze. Our little apartment seemed like only a base from which we would sleep, plan, pack, and go forth from. We silently realized that we would never have this type of oppertunity ever again, and that our age and good health was in our favor. We were very fortunate but in a way helped make that good fortune, by really working at it and not just letting it happen to us.
Over the last few years i have been on this forum starting on,, omg page 15. So if you really want to get board you could "scan that". Nice to know you, where are you living now ? I am in Southern New Hampshire

I'm glad you all enjoyed the old Honmoku pictures. I don't know the exact timeframe but the area looked pretty much the same in 53-54 when it was Area 1 & 2 and the Navy Exchange was the Army PX. In 54 we only spoke of Honmoku as being the area in the back streets behind where Avenues A & D intersected across the street from Area 1 & the PX complex. What we referred to as Honmoku in 54 was a red light district frequented by GIs. When I returned in 65 that area had become strictly residential and today looking at it in Google Earth Street View it looks pretty much as I remember it in 65.
There are photos of present day Navy housing at http://housing.cfay.navy.mil/on_base_housing.htm#negish...
Photo 7 is the same design as the house I lived in on the bluff in Yokohama in 54 although we did not have storm windows or air conditioners. Our windows were wood and made a terrible racket during earth quakes. We were in the single story end unit with nothing between us and the edge of the bluff except our front yard. I didn't appreciate it at the time but we had one of the best locations imaginable. We had a panoramic view of Yokohama from our front yard and we could see Mt. Fuji from the our back yard. Today that area has become Yamato Hill Italian Garden but it was Army housing in 54 and the buildings that are there now were not there in 54.
Peter-san - I don't know the date of the map but I would guess around 1950. There are similar maps dated 1953 on the YoHi site, http://yohidevils.net/kanto/maps.htm The original US presence in Yokohama was concentrated in a small area of the city but it was a large presence. The Army originally took over buildings that could be used immediately and built in other areas that were open and available. There is a great explanation of the occupation on the YoHi site, http://yohidevils.net/schools/schhist.htm
At the end of WWII Japan was largely intact except for the Navy which had been pretty much destroyed in the Pacific campaign. In my opinion the military occupation was successful because the US kept the Japanese government intact and immediately started working with the Japanese to restore normalcy. Had our policy been to immediately destroy the Japanese infrastructure as we recently did in Iraq, I'm sure the result would have been much different.
Dave-san

I see you kept busy while you were there. It took me a couple of months before I ventured out. What bothered me most was the language and the inability to read anything.
I presently reside in Las Vegas.

I hit the streets the day I got there not even thinking about it and fumbled and stumbled my away around, when words fail.. smile ! and act stupid..[ easy for me]. I couldn't wait to walk all over town and see the sights and smells.
And Dave.. Honmuku-Dori.. is somewhat better known in slang as Hunky-Dori.. hows that for trivia. You have already shown that you know why. "How was your trip to Yokohama ?" It was "hunky Dori [wink wink"] But you Marines wouldn't know anything about that stuff.

Peter-san,
As you said, I didn't know much about this hunky dori stuff so I had to look it up.
Here are a few references
http://www.answers.com/topic/hunky-dory
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hun2.htm
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hunky-dory.html
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1495/whats-the...
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=hunky-dory&s...
All the references seem to point to the fact that unlike the clean living Army and Marines, sailors had worldly vices that enriched our language.
Dave-san

Leave it to Dave san to completely document the phrase.. looks like I was [mostly] right. and Dave be careful who you accuse of being clean living, some of us could take offence to that. I'm still trying to live down my boy scout persona. Memo to me.. Dave san might cross check everything so got to be more precise. Remind me to hire this guy.

Dave-san. Have to compliment you on your research skills - very interesting sites. I have another possible research question for you, if you're interested: are you familiar with the Amer Red Cross women's billets which were located on the Bluff? My Mom worked there from 45 to 48. I had always thought that the main building, which was a beautiful old mansion, had once belonged to the British. Do you happen to know anything about their present address, or who may now occupy them?

The following site shows some of the houses on the Bluff - it may have been Berrick Hall, but I'm not positive, since it was so long ago -

http://www.welcome.city.yokohama.jp/eng/tourism/topics/...

Steffi-san,
Re: Questions for Dave-san.
You were in Yokohama 45 to 48? Wow!
Here's what I found.
ARC Billets at 7:o'clock below Olympic Pool
http://yohidevils.net/kanto/maps/15ympcty.jpg
If you go to Google Earth Street View you can see that Berrick Hall matches the ARC Billet location on the map. I ran across a bunch references to Berrick Hall.
BERRICK HALL Yokohama 1930
http://www.japan-photo.de/e-mo-a37.htm
BERRICK HALL
http://www5.big.or.jp/~otake/hey/ykindexe.htm
Yamate walk
http://www.yoke.or.jp/articles/0301/01.html
Yamate Seiyokan Residences
http://www.japan-i.jp/explorejapan/kanto/kanagawa/yokoh...
foreign settlement "Bluff"
http://www.japan-photo.de/e-yokohama08.htm
I found a few other things while I was web crawling. This picture is interesting. I'm pretty sure I recognize the building in the upper left. It was the Octagon Theater and was an Army theater when I got there but became a Japanese theater shortly thereafter. It was on the corner of Isezaki (5th) St and Ave. G.
Street in Yokohama, Japan, in 1945
http://library.uncg.edu/dp/wv/results167.aspx?i=2310&s=...
I had a friend, John Sasuke, that went to St. Joe's. I ran across these while searching the bluff.
St. Joseph College 1
http://www.sjcalumni.com/news/20070911.html
St. Joseph College 2
http://www.sjcusachapter.com/Yokohama01.html
St. Joe's over the years
http://www.sjcusachapter.com/sub08.html
Dave-san

Dave-san - thank you so much - I am very impressed and thankful, since this is the only part of Yokohama that I remember pretty clearly. The first picture, the map, is a little hard to see - I have to study it further - have not located the pool, but I remember walking home from this pool, so it couldn't have been very far from Berrick Hall, and with St Joe's, which I attended, being across the street, and also the Foreign Cemetery, where my Dad was buried. I did save some other map and pictures which I will post when I can locate them. I am still going over the pictures and info you sent.

Wow !
I have been inside this house, back in 1958 or 59.
I was there with some other kids for a girl's birthday party. The young lady was Danish or Norwegian. We were all students at Yokohama International School at the time.

Steffi-san,
The pool is between St. Joe's and the cemetery, about a block from Berrick Hall.
Dooitashimashite.
Dave-san

Yes - I have found the pool. Thanks once again, Dave-san, for the rich and interesting sites - I am still plowing through them.
I also found some other sites on my own that have interesting material on St Joseph's for those who might have attended this school - this one has pictures and history:

http://www.sjcusachapter.com/sub08.html

St Joe's gymnasium and auditorium:

http://www.iris.dti.ne.jp/~nickey/jj_st_j.htm

The following has a couple of other pictures of the school, and the Foreign cemetery, and also has a map of the area:

http://yohidevils.net/schools/stjoseph.htm

The following has is of Yokohama International School, and some other pictures:

http://yohidevils.net/

I have some more which I'll post next time.

I have finally gotten a good look at the sites you posted for my benefit and realize I haven't added much that wasn't already on yours - I jumped the gun. Thanks again for the posts - I appreciate anything you put up since it helps me fill in some puzzles of my early life, and also because I wanted my son to see some of the places I lived in that still exist as they were then. This also allows me to share some of my early life with relatives and friends who actually have little idea of what Japan looked like at the time.

In other places, the areas that look familiar to me seem to be designated as "historical" areas.

I am so delighted with what you found, and particularly to learn that Berrick Hall was the correct place, and to know that it's still there - I don't think any of us actually knew the name of this building - it was just ARC Billets for women - actually white women, since the military was still segregated according to my recollection. Did you say I could look at this building through google? I'm not quite sure how to do this. Anyway, I admire your skills in finding all this material.

Did you say you were in Japan during the Vietnam era? What branch of the military were you in, and did you have specific work assignments? Were you familiar with the Bluff? I assume that you were a fairly young man at the time. Peter has spoken about his food inspection work, and Wally worked with the wounded returning from Vietnam. Eric and I went to school, he a few years later than me and as a military dependent, me as a wartime refugee from Europe. Also, have you ever been back? I regret not having done so years ago, and now it would be difficult, but maybe I will still go sometime. We'll see.

I'm glad that you found the information I posted useful. I too have been on a quest to rediscover my early life in Yokohama. I was an Army dependant in 1953-4 and attended 6th & 7th grade at YoHi. I lived on the bluff in quarters 8-599, http://yohidevils.net/kanto/1956yoko/56yoko06.gif, down the road from St. Joe's.
I returned to Atsugi, twenty miles from Yokohama, in 1964 when I was in the Marine Corps and was able to spend some time in Yokohama until I left Atsugi to go to Vietnam in July 1965. I got back to Yokohama for a few hours in 1973 when I flew into Tokyo in transit and had some time between connections. I haven't been back since but may visit one of these days.
To look at Yokohama in Google go to http://www.google.com/ and click on maps at the top of the page. You will get a map of North America. Left click your mouse on the map and drag the map to Japan. Then click on the + to bring up a larger scale map and use your mouse to center on Yokohama and navigate to the area where Berrick Hall is located. To make it easy, start at the pier and follow the green expressway to the left until before the split and look for Motomachi below and the Olympic Pool. Then click on the orange man and move him to the street (Yomate-cho) in front of Berrick Hall. That will give you a street view that you can control with the four arrows in the circle above where the orange man was. The man points toward what you see. The right and left arrow will rotate the orange man and the upper and lower arrow will face him up or down. The + will zoom in and the - out. It takes some practice. This only works on streets that have a yellow line. Clicking on the arrows on the street will allow you to move along the street. This will be very slow if you don't have broadband.
If you have problems ask your kids or your grandkids for help.
Dave-san

Dave-san
I remember reading about Atsugi. It was the airfield where General MacArthur landed to start the occupation and also was the last holdout of the Kamikaze. Also that they dug huge caves to protect themselves from US bombers. Dis you see any of these? What did you do at Atsugi ?

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I just followed your very excellent google earth directions - and "walked" down the street I haven't seen in 60 years! Amazing experience. My son was over and helped me, and I was able to share this experience with him and Ron. We saw Berrick, the street and buildings/houses in the area, the park, and the cemetery down the block. Wow! It is truly beautiful. Question: how do they do this? I think I understand how they do the birdseye views (by satellite??), but how do they do the side-ways down-the-street views? Do they photograph every inch of the street and all that's on it and then somehow paste it all together for us? Obviously this is done in the past, and is not in real time. Sorry for what is probably a very ignorant question - but I really want to know. Again - thanks so much, Dave. You have given me a gift. By the way - we are playing with the idea of maybe going to Japan ourselves in the fall - we'll see.

Steffi san saw a program on this. They [ google] equip a car with an array of digital cameras on top and then drive down a street and the camera takes shots of the houses people ect, then they process it into the program somehow. Street maps are not without some criticism. There are shots showing drug dealers on street corners, "friends" cars parked in driveways while the husband is away, people climbing out of windows, shops closed when they should be open ect.
A small village in England saw a google car in the area and blocked it from photographing their town as they felt it was an invasion of their privacy. I don't believe this practice is unlawful as the "plain View doctrine" applies. IE: if you can see it from a privilaged place then its ok to photograph, not tresspassing.

Thanks for the info. It is amazing to think of people filming even moderately sized or small streets, getting both sides, etc. How do they do the 360 degree angle, where you can look in all directions. And how do they get the back yards - I was able to see my Rochester cousins' house from all sides, even her swimming pool in the back?

From what I understand, this works pretty much as described by Peter-san. Google drives down the street with a digital video camera that shoots at three levels, stops at places corresponding to the arrows you see on the streets in Google Street View, rotates the camera 360 degrees, transmits the video to the site where Google Earth is maintained, and synchronizes it with the Google Earth data for the same location. They also add a few local pictures to go with it. This is one BIG data base! The beauty of it is that it's practically free along with almost everything else on the Internet.
One thing I have to take exception to, as someone retired from the practice of law, is the explanation that the "Plain View Doctrine" gives Google the right to do this. The "Plain View Doctrine" gives police in the US the power to confiscate evidence in plain view without a warrant. It has nothing to do with anyone but the police and the criminal courts and has no legal standing anywhere outside US jurisdiction. In the US anyone can film just about anything except where national security is involved or where criminal statutes apply or in some instances where privacy may be violated. If privacy is violated you can go to court for an injunction to prevent filming and publication and in some instances you can sue for damages. Certain places on Google Earth are censored such as the roof of the White House. Outside the US it is up the local government to determine where Google Street View can film and what Google Earth can show.
Dave-san

I aggree that this doctrine applies only in the US where our laws apply and other countries may have other regulations. I suppose google has the "right" unless its challenged. I also agree the plain view doctrine applies to evidence gathering by police and subsiquent admisability issues. Yet it seems logical that if its ok for the police to take property without a warrant then the average person can take a photograph [ not a taking of property] from a place where they are privilaged. Like walking on the street. Would this apply to a person in a helocopter hovering over my fenced in swimming pool to photograph me naked? No, that is with the intention to violate my privacy not just incidental to driving down the street. Don't you love a good discussion !? Sorry about the graphic. Where is that bathing suit??