(Transcribed from The Torii
Teller Vol 44 No 29, July 30, 1999 with permission from the author,
Staff Sergeant Michelle Smith)
Where waves of the Inland
Sea once crashed against a rocky shore, aircraft now roar into
a cloud-streaked sky.
Where fish once swam, blaring bulldozers tear into the earth and
construction workers
alter the landscape.
Positioned on a triangular
delta of reclaimed land bordered by the Nishiki and Monzen
Rivers, Marine Corps
Air Station Iwakuni celebrates 37 years since its designation as an
air station.
The history of MCAS
Iwakuni goes back years before July 20, 1962. Its past is a capsule
of history and a reflection
of the course of world events.
At the beginning of
World War II, the Japanese built a Naval Air Station here, which was
used as a training
and defense base.
That same year, 1940,
the city of Iwakuni itself was created by the combination of two
small towns and three
villages. The largest town, with a recorded history dating back to
1600, gave its name
to the new city-Iwakuni.
The base, home to 150
Zero Fighter planes, was attacked only once during the course of
the war, in July 1945.
With the close of the war, Marines were the first allied forces to hit the beach at Iwakuni.
The Marines, however,
were followed by a succession of allied forces from the United
States, Britain, New
Zealand and Australia, who called Iwakuni home.
With the kickoff of
American involvement in Korea in June 1950, military activity on base
moved into high gear.
Iwakuni, under U.S. Air Force control, became known as the
"Gateway to Korea."
Daily, U.S. jets flew combat missions in support of the frontline
troops and B-26s flew
strikes against North Korea.
Years later, during
the Vietnam conflict, Iwakuni again played a vital role in support of
American combat forces.
In 1958, the Marine
Corps took charge of the base after four years as a U.S. Naval Air
Station.
Four years later, the air facility was designated as a Marine Corps Air Station.
The 1960s, dominated
by the Vietnam conflict, were a decade of rapid change at MCAS
Iwakuni.
From 1965 until August
1969, the air station's population fell from more than 6,000 to a
low of about 2,700.
But the late '60s and
'70s witnessed the partial withdrawal of U.S. Marine aviation units
from Vietnam and an
ever increasing number of 1st Marine Air Wing units being deployed
here.
In fact, during a six-month period in 1970, the station population more than doubled.
Today, behind the protection
of the seawall, spread over 1,411.85 acres and crisscrossed
by more than 26 miles
of paved roads, more than 2,500 Marines and Sailors carry out the
mission of the station
and its various commands.