Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

Quote- �gI've never believed any of the conspiracy theories on Pearl Harbor or any of our other great historical events.�h-unquote. I have one word for you, �gGulf of Tonkin!�h Well, three words.

Try the movie Das Boot [ The boat] if you want a taste of what WW2 sub life was like. There were not enough bunks to go around so they "Hot Racked" it when one shift was up the off duty shift slept in the same bunks.
Cozy hun ? This practice existed up to the 60's perhaps. Or later ?

I saw former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura rattle off this line on TV the other night, promoting his new conspiracy TV show.

Jesse's entire world view is through the lens of being a Seal in Viet Nam. Except that it isn't and he wasn't.

Ventura was a UDT frogman in the Philippine Islands his entire Navy career.

Here's a website to check into:

http://www.nps.gov/valr/planyourvisit/index.htm

For those who can't make it to Pearl Harbor, there's an interesting little naval museum in Buffalo, NY. Among other vessels, there's a WW 2 submarine there that you can board. I agree that it is extremely tight - people must have been shorter and slimmer in those days. Not for claustrophobia prone people like me. The air quality must have been horrible. Come to think of it - how did they have enough air if they were submerged for weeks at a time? Did they carry oxygen cannisters, or air containers.

Of course, we also have the Intrepid museum here on the Hudson in NYC, with several battleships and planes - have never been but always wanted to go.

There is a maritime museum on Lake Michigan that has a submarine on display. The USS Cobia was built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and is open for tours.
I'm not sure how many boats were built at Manitowoc but the little community certainly did its part for the war effort.
The same company now makes Manitowoc cranes.

Gulf of Tonkin conspiracy? Nah, another military blunder. The LBJ administration acting like Keystone Kops and overreacting to false information so LBJ could be a wartime president. Reminds me of the more recent GWB move in Iraq for the same motive. Neither administration was smart enough to pull off a conspiracy. I'll leave the conspiracy theories to Jesse Ventura and the gullible, to which I will add, the word gullible is not in the dictionary.
I saw Das Boot about twenty years ago. Great movie! One of the ironies is that they played a British tune when they were heading home. Tora! Tora! Tora! is my favorite Pearl Harbor movie. Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima are two of my most recent WWII favorites. I generally like seeing the point of view of the guys on the other side. Still, Sands of Iwo Jima will always be my all-time favorite.
Long ago, when I was a kid living in Yokohama, I went to a Japanese theater on Isezaki-cho, the Octagon, to see a Japanese war movie because the poster outside looked interesting. I didn't know what the movie was about but the Japanese kids all cheered whenever it looked like the Japanese were winning so my friends and I all cheered whenever they showed the Americans (who looked like the evil bad guys) and everybody in the theater took it pretty good naturedly, kind of like watching fans of two rival sports teams. Looking back, I can't ever remember any trouble between us and the Japanese even though we really deserved the title of military brats.
Several years ago I was in New York and went aboard the USS Intrepid. I had been aboard the Intrepid briefly in the Mediterranean in 1962. I was appalled at the condition the ship was in compared to when I'd been aboard while it was in service. Dirty and poorly maintained doesn't even begin to describe it. It was disgraceful! There are probably garbage scows in New York harbor that are better maintained. More recently I went aboard the USS Midway in San Diego expecting the same thing. I'm happy to report that the Midway still looks like a US Navy ship. I guess I should have expected that because San Diego is still a Navy town and wouldn't put up with anything less. Maybe it's time to move the Intrepid to Norfolk.
Eric - You've mentioned the Scouts several times. What troop were you in and when?

I had the pleasure of going aboard the USS Nautilus, the first atomic Submarine. It is in the water at Groton Conn. It is kept in first class condition and the museum is wonderful. And free. I went with my college roomate who served on boomers for 20 years and became "master of the boat", the highest ranking enlisted position. At the museum he showed me a large photo on the wall of a bunch of young kids in formation on the deck of a submarine, yup.. there he was. He told me he was involved in "oobie-doobie" stuff..ie hush hush. Later he told me to read a book called " Blind Mans Bluff" which I did. It is about US subs "tapping" the undersea phone lines of the Russians during the cold war. Very hairy.
There is a bar in Groton Ct called " Roseies. Where he and I would go. He and his buddies would sometimes have their beers paid for by a guy called Tom Clancy.. who was there to pick their brains. He later wrote a book called the " Hunt for Red October". He also gave me a set of this " dolphins" the submariners pin, which I treasure. Cool hun ?

Just read your last post about the USS Nautilus, and only detected one typo. So, what I want to know is: Who are you, and what did you do with Peter?

No Wal-san its me. Perhaps I'm getting more oxygen to my brain. The typo was the name of the bar .. its Rosies Cantina.. it must double for a fire house because there was this pole in the middle of the dance floor..
I wouldn't know about such things.

Hello!
Thought I should stop simply lurking this thread and join in. Took a week or so to read all the posts; quite the conversation, aye.
My dad was stationed at the Dispensary in Yokohama from '72-'74 (he was at Yokosuka prior to that), and we lived in Area II; first at #357, then later at #376.
Spent my first summer in Japan sweating in the NEX Mailorder Warehouse, down on the docks. I understand that all those brick warehouses have been renovated into trendy shops and the like.
In '73 I got hired on part-time at the main Yokohama store where I worked in the Shoes Dept. and the small stockrooms in the back of the building.
Attended Yo-Hi in Yokosuka and recall the LONG bus rides twice a day, inching along through the chokepoint known as Sunny Mart.
Met my wife at the Yokohama International Baptist Church (the folks didn't care at all for the hollowness of what the Chapel offered). She was an exchange student from Everett, WA, attending school at Yamate Gakuin.
Came upon this forum while researching the locations of where I lived back then. Gotta say the links have been a great sourch of helpful material! Thanks!
My wife & I are planning a return trip in 2010, mostly to hit our old stomping grounds. Finding that even the street I lived on is gone was a bit of a shock, to say the least. :)

It's nice to know our long-running thread and links can be used as a resource. Our knowledge has evolved over time and the information available on the internet continues to grow . Google street view is a resource you should become familiar with. Go to http://www.google.com/maps, enter Yokohama Japan in the search box and press Search Maps. Then click on the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse block and you will get a bunch of current pictures. Move the little orange man to the street in front of the warehouse and you can take a tour of the neighborhood. Street view now works on pretty much all of the streets in Yokohama.
I was a dependant in Yokohama in 1954-5 and Marine at Atsugi 1964-5. The change since then is unbelievable.

Glad you with us.
I worked on the piers too, just north of the red brick warehouses at center pier. Hot in the summer..oh yea ..swim in the harbor..not on your life.. yuk.
Thanks for joining in..took a week to read all of this..what else does one do in the winter??
Remember the Navy "dispensary"..our office for food inspections was right next to it..
is a empty lot now. I envy your going back but I have been told to not get your hopes up as all has changed.. but you know that.

Google Earth and me have gotten to be very much aquainted over the past month or so, aye, while I've slogged through this search.
Yeah, those warehouses were something. I can remember one day looking out ans seeing row after row of little pickup trucks with no beds (turns out they were Chevy Luvs) on the pier next to ours, wondering what in the heck they were, and then they were gone the next day when I came in. The native Japanese guys that worked there with us took a liking to me, probably because I was so darned tall to them (6'3"), so they introduced me and a couple of the other summer hire kids to the nearby Worker's Kitchen. You could only get in if you were vouched for by a "regular". I had my first taste of Tonkatsu there. For 100 yen you could get 2 Katsu and all the rice and o-cha you could consume. I could really tuck it away back then, so getting my money's worth wasn't a problem, aye.
Dad had several Corpsmen working for him at the Dispensary and most of them came to dinner at our place, especially during the Holidays, even though Dad's CO used to give him grief about fraternizing with the Enlisteds. Since Dad had started out in the ranks, he didn't give that idea much weight. He never was good at being "Navy" like that.
As far as hoping to find anything familiar, I gave that up weeks back. The only landmark I could find in Area II from back in the day is the big, long staircase that runs from Bayview to (Nasugbu) Beach. Climbed THAT things far too many times when I'd walk home from San-Keien or the koushuu that would let me bathe after I'd convinced them I wasn't a "rude" Gaijin.
No, my hope is just to find the building sites of the quarters we lived in (probably have to GPS them) and take "now" pictures.

The trucks were no doubt shipped offovernight. Working at the pier, the "conga line" of new care would come screaming around the corners with crazed young Japanese drivers delivering them for shipment. If you were near the road, you were dead, no prisoners.
So.. you have gone through our little blab fest.. give us your impressions of what you have gleened.
How long were you there ?

I was there from Summer of 1971 to summer of 1974.
Yeah, no doubt that's what became of those trucks, but it was sure a shock the first time.
What have I gleaned from this forum? Aside from the many links that routed me to either maps or other pertinent data for my quest?
I gather that the majority of the participants are Brats, Prior Service, or, as in my case, both. We've all experienced what an outsider would probably call many different Yokohamas, judging by the recollections.
I've a hunch that, at 52 I'm probably the youngest one here, though I'm willing to be wrong on that, aye.
The politics that I've seen presented match up my own well enough to be comfortable.
The sense of, perhaps, "family" or "community" I get from the posts ("so and so's sick, keep them in your prayers", general banter that's not "flaming" anyone) is pretty neat, too.
The forum may have begun life as a landmark quest, but I think it's evolved into something far more, in a good way.

It's good to have another voice on the page with both Brat and post-Brat perspective. I do remember the Dispensary in Area 1 where we got our shots, visited the dentist and received emergency care. Two incidents from my 50's experience;
I had a big package of 'caps' in my right hand pocket, purchased at the local toy store up the street from our house. Caps were a sheet of little lumps of gunpowder that fit inside my toy six-gun. Dropping the hammer on a cap would make the sound of gunfire...
I recall talking to my parents as they were about to leave for a function and being asked if I had money to buy my lunch. I shoved my hand in my pants pocket and the big ring on my finger ignited five sheets of of caps, frying my hand. I had a cast on my hand for about a month, courtesy of the doctor at the Dispensary.
Another time, I stepped on a rusty nail that punctured my foot. This resulted in daily shots in the hip for about 30 days. Boy was my butt sore!
I came to hate going to the Dispensary...

You can still find those rolls of caps, though I think they don't pack the punch they did back when we were kids. Most recently I'd buy them to fabricate my own percussion caps for shooting blackpowder. Usually took 2-3 dots to have enough fire to set the powder off.
30 days of shots for Tetnaus?!?! Good gravy! I'd be shy of the Dispensary, too!
I remember Dad coming home one day, laughing like anything. They were doing Family Sick Call that a.m. and a Sailor rolled into the building, demanding to be treated for the clap...loudly demanding and he was still drunk enough that a bellowing, detailed litany of his symptoms (I quote:"I got the C-l-a-p, an I got it BAAAAD! I mean it's a-dripping an burnin like all hellfire!...."), in front of a bunch of wives and kiddoes didn't faze him a bit. Since he wouldn't shut up, Dad grabbed him and hustled him off to a room. One of the Corpmen, by the name of Benchemer (we called him "Bench" and he was built like a short Linebacker), poked his head around the coner and practically begged Dad to let him have this patient.
Dad told him to give the guy 2 bolus' of Pennicillin, now, and get the jerk on his way.
Bench got two syringes out of the fridge, had the guy drop his drawers and grab the exam table. He had an injector in each hand and gave them both the the guy at the same time. Held him down with the syringes as he s-l-o-w-l-y emptied one and then the other. Told me later the sailor's fett both came off the floor.
They slapped a couple bandaids on his arse and sent him off with the warning to not come back until he could remember how to ack in front of women and kids.
dad and Bench got a round of applause from the Waiting Area for that.

I really gotta remember to spell check before hitting "send"!
Sorry about all the typos, especially near the end there. That's what I get for trying to story-tell so soon after work.

Enjoying your dispensary stories, Eric and Misopup. I was never in a US dispensary, but do remember when antibiotics weren't available, and it was normal for absolutely anything to get infected, from scraped knees on upward - they told us it was "something in the air". I once fell on my chin as I was barrelling down the driveway of Berrick Hall in a homemade wooden cart with no stearing that hit a bump - I have the scar to this day.

Welcome to this site, Misopup. You have a way with words and we hope you'll tell us many more of your experiences in Japan.