More than 6,000 years ago, what is currently the Ikego Housing Detachment in Zushi City, a housing facility for Sailors and their families stationed at Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka (CFAY), is thought to have been under the sea, or at least in a shallow water area, during the Japanese Paleolithic era.
It may be hard to believe that Ikego housing with its high-rise buildings and modernized utility facilities stands on top of multi-layered historical ruins, the oldest of which goes back to the Japanese Yayoi period (around the 3rd century B.C.). Artifacts discovered there also suggest that humans had already lived in the area more than 2 thousand years ago, when the sea level grew lower and the land became available for the habitation of land creatures.
The Ikego Artifacts Museum, located just a 5-minute walk from the Ikego Housing Detachment gate, showcases myriad remnants of antiquity from a variety of ages discovered in Ikego. The items discovered include earthenware, stone tools, bone tools, and wooden tools and each has a typical archeological feature of the pre-ceramic Jomon period (10th century B.C.), the Yayoi period, the Kofun period (from the 3rd century B.C. to the 7th century A.D.), the Nara/Heian period (8th to 12th century A.D.), and the Japanese middle ages (the 11th to 16th century A.D.). The discovery of these items reveals the previously unknown history of the Ikego area.
The reason why such precious relics were preserved is attributed to the fact that the area was located in hilly lowlands where rivers and floodplains compressed the soil surrounding the relics, protecting them from the elements, and leaving them preserved. The discovery of a dried river bed with the width of 5 or 8 meters and a depth of 3 meters further supports the idea that the area was formed by depositional, spanning a long period of time.
Over 240 items found and excavated in Ikego are designated as the Tangible Cultural Properties of Kanagawa Prefecture.
Interestingly, the discovery was a result of the excavation, research, and assessment of Ikego sites in preparation for the development of CFAY’s Ikego Housing, starting around 1989.
The research was conducted jointly by the Kanagawa Prefectural Archaeological Artifacts Center and Kanagawa Archaeology Foundation from 1989 to 1994, which culminated in establishment of the above-mentioned museum in 1999. It collected and stored more than 4,000 boxes full of archeological specimens. Preliminary research in 1986 discovered fossils of giant-white clams to the east of the Ikego area, not only providing evidence that Ikego was originally more than 1,000 meters below sea level millions of years ago, but further prompting the 1989-1994 investigation, assessment, and preservation of historical remnants.
Even though pieces of artifacts from the preceding ages were found in Ikego, “human footprints” were found in ruins of the Yayoi period such as pit-houses, dug-standing pillar buildings, and tombs surrounded by a square ditch, which indicated that the ancient humans had been in the Ikego area since at least the 3rd century B.C.
The U.S. military presence in Ikego goes back to 1945, when the U.S. Army seized Ikego’s munitions storage and a supply facility of the Imperial Japanese navy, which was originally established around 1938. Taking over the installation’s function, the U.S. Army continued to use it as a storage place for ammunition, where they would store, maintain, and dispose of live and dead bombs. It was said that a total of 50,000 tons of ammunitions were deposited in Ikego during the 1950s.
The 1950s also saw a rapid rise in Japan’s economic growth, and cities surrounding the Tokyo area were developed as “suburbs” of Tokyo, where many office workers commute to Japan’s largest urban area by trains.
Zushi was no exception and as the development of Zushi as a remote suburb of Tokyo accelerated, an opposition movement gained momentum. To keep a safe distance between the facility and the areas surrounding Zushi City, Ikego’s facility also minimized the amount of weaponry to 10,000 tons.
Ikego had been idle for a brief period of time even after it was placed under the control of the U.S. Navy in 1970. It was revitalized on a small scale in 1973 when it started storing torpedoes, shells, and ammo boxes, carrying them in and out between Ikego and the Urago Depot onboard Navy Munitions Command Pacific East Asia Division Unit Yokosuka, which utilized it as a temporary ammunitions dump. Again it was just a brief period of time and was back to being inactive by 1978.
Around 1982, Japan’s Defense Facilities Administration Agency prepared a plan to survey the Ikego area prior to its redevelopment into CFAY’s housing facility. In fact, the U.S. military had long been searching for a designated housing area near the Yokosuka naval base since the late 1970s and requested permission to build a residential area, preferably in Ikego, in which they would have a housing facility, so that service members could conveniently come to the Yokosuka Base.
The action also came after decisions were made by Japan’s Defense Agency in 1978 to share the cost of maintaining the U.S. Forces in Japan, which enabled the Government of Japan to cover the costs for U.S. military facility construction. At first, the Zushi community expressed opposition to the plan, as there were calls for its return to Japanese ownership based on the fact it had been practically unused for more than a decade.
Finding a mutually agreeable solution seemed difficult. It took a long time. Negotiations among Zushi City, the Prefectural Government of Kanagawa and the Government of Japan, which also involved the Zushi community group, were full of difficulties. Zushi City saw its mayors come and go, its council dissolved, and community’s expectations confounded or heightened.
Almost 10 years passed before every interested party reached an agreement to proceed with the project in 1994. It was a compromise, respectfully considering the friendly relationship between the U.S. and Japan, on the condition that Ikego’s forest and natural habitat area be preserved, which were untouched and undisturbed for far more than half a century due to its military uses.
Thus, the then-called “Ikego Housing Complex” opened April 2, 1996. In CFAY’s newspaper Seahawk an article quoted the words of the director of the Yokohama Defense Facility, which seemed to covey the feelings and thoughts of those in attendance at the opening ceremony as follows: “A child born after a difficult labor is often the best beloved.”
| Date Taken: | 09.30.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.24.2023 00:47 |
| Story ID: | 441097 |
| Location: | YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA, JP |
| Web Views: | 295 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Built upon time immemorial — CFAY Ikego Housing Detachment, by Ryo Isobe, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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