CAMP MCGILL ADMIRALTY HEIGHTS NAGAI HEIGHTS

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

As you will see below the three schools are one in the same but over the course of time and reorganization within the school system there were 3 names involved.   We know that Camp McGill Elementary existed in the late 40's with grades 1 thru 6/8.  High School students living in the Camp McGill area were at that time "bussed" into Yokohama on Sundays for "dormitory type billeting", and returned on Fridays.  Later as road and traffic conditions improved that was changed to daily bussing.  Later the name was changed to Admiralty Heights and then later to Nagai Heights.

Stuart Sibitzky, Class of 1959, gives us an insight to the area where these 3 schools existed -- as follows:

"The three schools are one and the same.

I attended the last part of  8th grade there in 1956.

The military establishment was Camp McGill and was approximately 3 miles down the hill from the housing area.   Camp McGill was an Army Post with a Naval presence.  My Dad was the Navy Commander on the post. 

The base had been an aircraft repair station for the Japanese during the war.  The housing area constructed by the U. S. Army was built on the old Japanese airdrome (fancy name for an airport).  There was still half of one runway left that was used by the U. S. Marines and U. S. Army for liaison aircraft and also by helicopters.  The balance of the runway (about 1500' or so) was an incredibly wide street through part of the housing.  Not a street as we tend to think of them today but rather an area of old asphalt  about 100' wide, crumbling at the edges and gradually transitioning to grass.

The housing area was known then as Admiralty Heights and was run by the Army when I moved in.  By the time I left in 58, the housing was under the Navy at Yokosuka.   When I returned for a visit in 1968, I made local inquiries about "Admiralty Heights" and was met by blank looks.   Then we established that the name had been changed in the ensuing years to Nagai Housing.   Nagai was the little fishing village located just to the West of the housing area.

During that visit in 1968, the end of the school building seen in the picture below had burned and all that was left was the slab.  The other end of the school was saved by the firewall."

GENERAL LOCATION OF CAMP MCGILL - NAGAI/ADMIRALTY HEIGHTS

COZY COTTAGE - What could be finer than living in this snug two-bedroom dwelling in the Admiralty Heights Housing area?  There are 83 two-bedroom units, 13 three-bedroom units, and 4 four-bedroom units at Admiralty Heights.  Breathing Space -- Beautiful rolling lawns abound at Admiralty Heights affording plentiful room for children and giving the area an atmosphere of rural serenity.

SCHOOL DAZE - This modern school located in the center of Admiralty Heights provides schooling for children in grades 1-6.  High school students attend the American High School in Yokohama.

The two photographs were provided by Stuart Sibitzky, Class of 1959, with coordination by Gene Moser, Class of 1961.  They were extracted from a 1956 Yokosuka paper.