Comments on: Relics of WW2- the Negishi Grandstand replaced by Yokosuka Navy Base

By: joe macri

joe macri — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:56:14 +0000

Wow! Does this ever bring back memories. Our family lived in the Bayview housing area (65-69) only a couple of miles from Nigeshi Racetrack. Spent many hours there taking Special Services classes and using the slot-car track. My friend’s father was the head of Security for the base and he had an office there. I do remember a 9-hole golf course located in the infield. It’s too bad that it has been allowed to fall into such disrepair because it is so architecturally significant. Thanks

By: MJG

MJG — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:53:40 +0000

Thanks for the comments everyone. Great tip Bob about Iwo Jima, maybe someday I’ll get out there. Tamy- if you ever find a way back n, please let me know! And John, yes I knew about Nara Dreamland, closed down in 2006. I heard it has a security guard, but maybe he’d turn a blind eye. If I get out to Kansai area it’ll probably be on my shopping list, thanks.

By: John

John — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:49:51 +0000

I have just discovered your site recently, and was wondering if you had heard of a theme park called Nara Dreamland. It is a rip off of disneyland and is probably as close as one can come to seeing disneyland in disrepair. Might be worth checking out if it interests you, I suppose.

By: Tamy

Tamy — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:56:27 +0000

Thanks for all your photos, video! Yo-Hi class of ‘78 here. I took many art classes in the Grandstand. Spent a lot of time exploring it after it closed down. Someone asked earlier about the golf course. The golf course is no longer and a park is in its place. Part of it, past the little fire station, is an equestrian museum. The American houses leading to the base have been gutted (I used to live in one) and as of late last summer, they have done nothing in that area, you can see the concrete slabs.

I will have to find the back way in, Mike! I know they were working on it a couple years back but I was not aware that it has been completed. Thank you again!

By: Bob Bonn

Bob Bonn — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:38:21 +0000

Enjoyed your pix of the racetrack grandstand. I lived in Negishi Hts military housing area (near where Byrd Elementary was located (in the pix above)). I hung around the grandstand alot–the shuttle bus to the other base areas below the Negishi bluff turned around there and I caught it there while it waited. I went to Jr and Sr high school at Yokohama High School (later named Nile C. Kinnick H.S.) from 1958-64). Jim Becker was correct (I remember him)–there was a golf course in the area inside where the oval track was. There was a road that went around the oval where the track was. Across the “street” from the grandstand area where the ground dipped downed into the bowl inside the track was a club for teenagers called the Neet Nac Club (“canteen” backwards) that was dedicated by Gen Douglas MacArther’s wife during the occupation. It was later moved to the “community center” area below the upper bluff, not too far from the HS. I saw one of the first space capsules in the Friendship Seven series of astronaut launches in one of the grandstands. Emporer Hirohito attended a race or two at that racetrack prewar. I never knew about the tunnels under–not surprised they exist though–I went to elementary school grades 4-6 at Yokosuka US Navy base in the 1950s and the base was full of tunnels dug by the Japanese navy for bomb shelter and as a place for operations and construction. I climbed through a few until they were mostly sealed off for safety (some were used by the USN as cold war bomb shelters and for storage) after a classmate of mine found an old grenade and decided to see if it worked. It did. Another classmate died when he fell off a cliff exploring old caves and WWII sites on Yokosuka Naval Base. Then they really clamped down and put up a lot of chain link fences. If you really want to do some fascinating exploring, try to wangle a visit to Iwo Jima. I did some exploring there when I was in the AF and flew Learjets there to support the then US Coast Guard Loran C station. Their small base was located at the final-stand area for Gen Kurobayashi, whose remains were never found. Lots of interesting stories to tell and places to find that still haven’t been discovered. Also quite dangerous since the honeycomb caves have toxic fumes and a tenency to collapse. Be careful out there! Bob

By: nick eberle

nick eberle — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:31:49 +0000

I lived in Yokohama from 1979 to 1989. I remember when they tore down the one side of the Grandstand.We used to sneak in there when I was a teen .Lots of memory.