Yokota HS History
Opened: 1973
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Yokota High School derives its name from the Yokota family that reportedly owned most of the land that stretches from Fussa station nearly to Tachikawa station. According to legend, the family provided this portion of its holdings to the Imperial Japanese Government, which transformed the cornfields and pine groves into a military base in 1938. Finished with construction in 1940, the Japanese Army called the facility Tama Army Airfield, while local residents called it Fussa Airfield. The Japanese Army used the area primarily as a test flight center during World War II, and the base remained fully operational until the end of the war. The base sustained only minor damage during the war, and US forces began operations on September 4, 1945. American dependents arrived shortly thereafter.
Qualified teachers and administrators were recruited in the spring of 1946, and the first dependent school opened September 7, 1946, at Johnson Army Base in Iramura, about twenty miles from the present location of Yokota High School. Johnson High was one of several schools whose students were absorbed when YHS opened in 1973. Other schools in the area were Tachikawa, located on what is now Showa Park, Chofu High near ASIJ, and Yamato High which is about five miles away from YHS and Narimasu.
Yokota High School was located on Yokota Air Base. The high school was opened in September 1973 and consisted of approximately sixty acres. The facilities were comprised of four main areas: the gymnasium, the cafeteria, the North Campus, and the South Campus comprised of eleven modular buildings. New construction replacing these modular buildings with permanent buildings was to be completed in the early 1980s.
The buildings and outdoor facilities provided adequate space for the 650–700 students in grades seven through twelve. Special instructional areas were provided for music, art, physical education, industrial arts, science, data processing, home economics, business education, and drama. A little theater, a large lecture hall, and the gymnasium were in the North Campus in order to accommodate a flexible schedule. For the 1981-82 school year, there were over 100 courses offered by the staff of fifty educators.
By the mid-eighties, the over 770 students had thirty-seven extracurricular activities offered. The school staff consisted of fifty-two educators. Ten years later the staff and enrollment remained constant.
When Yokota first opened, the concept was a “school with open doors.” Students had a modular schedule that offered as many as twenty-seven “mods.” The principal was very progressive and wanted a wide-open campus. At one point in these early years there were 103 different English classes offered. That modular schedule continued under the next two principals. Now, the schedule consists of fewer classes which meet for longer periods, and includes classes offered over the Internet. Panthers trace their roots over a half century.
Information from internet sites, school yearbooks, DoDDS School Information Guides and DoDDS Pacific Region, 1946-1986