Station HYPO

Fall came early to the Kanto Plain that year. Winter’s cold bite was surely not far off. The new gymnasium, under construction since May, was progressing on schedule. The change of command ceremony held in July had been a success and the command was getting used to the new Commanding Officer – Captain James William Pearson. Kamiseya’s first Bon Odori festival, back in August had been a great success, twenty-one teams competed that year.

On July 28, 1917, the American Expeditionary Forces G2, Brigadier General Dennis Nolan, tasked Captain Frank Moorman, a Coast Artillery officer, to form a new Radio Intelligence Section under the General Staff. Moorman understood that the mission of the new Section was to read German code and decipher messages, but that was where his guidance ended.

By Thomas G. Sanders

I joined the Naval reserve at 17 and went to boot camp and CT school before I went on two years active duty. My assignment was Kamiseya, Japan. I arrived in September 1964. Later the Navy solicited volunteers for the Naval Security Detachment on Kyushu and I volunteered, which is why I wasn’t at Kamiseya during the fire. I left for my new assignment two months before the fire and I took Scott’s death very personal when I heard about the fire. I was still assigned to Kami but worked in southern Japan. I worked with the men that died and were injured but Scott (“Red”) was special to me in ways different than most of his friends.

Image: All photos this page courtesy John Pappone
Three pictures of Gregory Scott “Red” Williams
(December 1945 – September 1965)
at Kamiseya prior to the fire.
John Pappone is also pictured (left) in the upper left featued image.

Featured image is the only plane ever to drop a bomb on the United States during WWII was this submarine based Glen. September 9, 1942, the I-25 B1 type Japanese submarine was cruising in an easterly direction raising its periscope occasionally as it neared the United States Coastline. The B1 type was the most numerous class of Japanese submarines.  They were fast, long-ranged, and carried a seaplane behind watertight doors, which could be launched on a forward catapult.  Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor less than a year ago and the Captain of the attack submarine knew that Americans were watching their coast line for ships and aircraft that might attack our country.