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1: Midori-cho was a desolate plain.
Let's recall the old days in Midori-cho of Musahino-city where
ECL is now located.
Because there are many references in the old chronicles to Kokubunji
and Huchu and much earthenware has been found there, the history
is understood to some extent, but that of Musashino which has
no river is hardly known. At that time Musashino must have been
a desolate plain.
The city has little literature or material evidence left over
from the old days, because the land lies on the 'Kanto' loam stratum
called 'Musashino-daichi' and there was no river.
After the Tamagawa brothers laid the course of waterway called
the 'Tamagawa-josui', and the village chief Hachiroemon Kawasaki
laid the branch course of the waterway called 'Senkawa-josui'
then the village people began to cultivate the land. It was not
until about 1696 that many people started to settle down here.
2: Kichijo-ji village was formed by enforced evacuation.
In the area of present day Musashino city there were four
villages, Kichijo-ji, Nishikubo, Sekimae and Sakai village. Kichijo-ji
was named after the Kichijo-ji temple, (ji:temple, ji means temple
in Japanese.) Kichijo-ji was a huge temple in Edo (old name for
Tokyo), that used to be at Hongo-motomachi (machi:towns) which
corresponds to the north side of present day Suido-bashi in central
Tokyo.
There was a big fire called the "Furisode-kaji" (furisode:long
sleeve kimono, kaji:fire) in Edo in January of Meireki 3rd (1657).
Almost all of the city including the main building of the Edo
castle were burned. The population of the temple town suffered
greatly from the fire. The next New Year there was another big
fire called the Great Kichijo-ji fire, and this time the Kichijo-ji
temple also burned. As a result the temple was moved to Komagome.
After the "Furisode-kaji" and the Great Kichijo-ji
fire the shogunate forced the population of the temple town to
evacuate to a village in present day Musashino called Kichijo-ji.
The Nishikubo village is also named after Nishikubo shiroyama
cho (cho:town) of Edo which is present day Nishikubo Tomoe cho
in Minato-ku. Many farmers moved here from there because of a
big fire in Keian 3rd (1650).
3: The 'Gomonso' demonstration; part 1
The Musashino area was under the control of Shinagawa prefectural
government in year 2 of Meiji era (1869).
Although people hoped their lives would improve after Meiji Ishin
(Meiji Restoration when the shoguns were overthrown), but there
were few changes.
Ippei Koga, the prefectural governor at the time, decided to
force the farmers to deliver an allotment of rice to the government
ostensibly to be used as a food reserve for farmers in times of
famine. This was called the 'shaso' system. There was also a 'shaso'
system before this, in the older days, but mainly large-scale
farmers contributed while small-scale farmers were except.
The new 'shaso' system, however, was different. This time even
small-scale farmers were forced to contribute, and what was worse
the rice was sent to the Shinagawa prefectural government which
was unlikely send it back even in a famine. In other words, this
was a new tax--- a back-handed way of increasing the land tax.
A movement against the new share system began and spread rapidly
over 13 villages.
Table 1
Villages where the farmers took part in the 'Gomonnso' demonstration
against the shaso system.
(from "The Musashino city history")
village name at that time present day
city name
Niiza Country Kami-Hoya-shinden Hoya city
Tama Country Sekimae-shinden Musashino city
Tama Country Kajino-shinden Koganei city
Tama Country Sekino-shinden Koganei city
Tama Country Suzuki-shinden Kodaira city
Tama Country Ohnumata-shinden Kodaira city
Tama Country Naka-shinden Kodaira city
Yozaemon group
Tama Country Naka-shinden Kodaira city
Zenzaemon group
Tama Country Naka-shinden Kokubunji city
Rokuzaemon group
Tama Country Tokura-shinden Kokubunji city
Tama Country Naito-shinden Kokubunji city
Tama Country Yanagikubo-shinden Higashi-
kurume city
(Tanashi-shinden dropped out at the stage of gate appeal.)
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4: The 'Gomonso' demonstration; part 2.
Village officials proposed a modified shaso which decreased
the burden on small-scale farmers, but their proposed was rejected
by the government. The government seemed to be afraid that the
farmers would gain too much self-confidence if it granted their
request under pressure.
Upon the news that a village officer who went to negotiate with
the governor was not allowed to return and was detained in the
governors house, the farmers made up their minds to fight. They
wrote "The fact that the officer has not been allowed to
come back until now, means that the government has betrayed the
people. So we are going to appeal directly to the governor."
The number of the demonstraters was said to be between 500 and
1000. Since the number of the houses in all the 13 villages at
that time was recorded to be only 533, in fact virtually all the
people in the villages must have taken part in the struggle.
On January 10th of Meiji 3rd year (1870) the front yard of the
prefectural government filled with farmers.
They came in their farmer's clothing and hats and petitioned.
"We are the farmers of the 12 villages, in Musashino-shinden,
please allow us to speak to you. We have suffered bad harvests
for several years, and barely have enough food for daily life,
so please have pity on us, and excuse us from contributing to
the "shaso" (food reserve)." The governor invited
the farmers to enter the gate. If the farmeres had appealed within
the gate, they would have committed 'goso'(petition by force)
which was a severely punishable offense.
5: 'Gomonso' demonstration; part 3
The farmers realized it is a provocation and didn't enter
the gate. The governor said to farmers, "Then do you ask
the governor to come out here?" "Yes, we do sir,"
the farmers replied. As soon as the governor received this answer,
he shouted, "You are insulting the governor!" "Slaughter
them as far as a sword lasts." Thereupon mounted soldiers
and infantry with swords, who were waiting within the gate stormed
out and attacked the farmer demonstrators. Even a cannon was fired.
Of course the farmers tried to scatter in all directions, but
it was night and they were unfamiliar with the area, so 51 farmers
were caught. In the melee the vice governor happened to die and
a sickle was found stuck into his stomach, so the authorities
severly punished the demonstrators, and many farmers were died
in jail.
The new 'Shaso' system, however was not established.
Although the sacrifice was grave the farmers' demand was thus
realized. In the Sekimae district of Musashino city a farmers
memorial was built.
6: The Seikei Gakuen (Academic Park) and the Nakajima aircraft company move to Musashino.
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7: Nakajima aircraft company; part 1
All the present land of ECL, the Midoricho housing complex
and Green Park (present day Musashino Central Park ) used to be
an engine factory of Nakajima aircraft company.
Airplanes had played important role in the World War I and the
aircraft industry expanded rapidly. Kiyoichi Nakajima, the younger
brother of Chikuhei, the president of Nakajima aircraft manufacturing
company began to build the engine factory here in Musashino in
July of Showa 12th year. He chose Musashino because he could get
a spacious site near Tokyo. The land on the Musashino loam stratum
retained too little water to be useful for farming, and a much
of the land was left unused, luckily for Nakajima.
The total number of airplanes produced here numbered more than
26 thousand.(Cf. table 2)
| Army planes: | 40 models including Hayabusa, Shoki, Donryu, Hayate etc. |
| Navy planes: | 65 models including Gekko, Rei-sen (Zero fighter:Original design was by Mitsubishi, engine was by Nakajima, Nakajima also constructed 6000 bodies). Tenzan, Saiun, Ginga, Renzan etc. |
| Commercial planes: | 21 models including Nakajima version AT, Nakajima version DC-2type, Douglas DC-3 type etc. total 26868 |
| Engine: | more than 20 models including Sakae, Homare(same type as ha-45), ha-109 etc. total about 50000. |
8: Nakajima aircraft company. part
2;An aerial photograph of the factory complex.
The Nakajima aircraf company was a big enterprize having nine
factories with one in Ota city, Gunma prefecture, and otheres
in Tokyo, Musashi, Koizumi, Handa, Omiya, Utsunomiya, Hamamatsu
and Mishima. The company had 250 thousand employees and a capital
fund of ｴ3600 million. The Musashino factory occupied area of
182 thousand square meters (55 thousand 'tubo') at present site
of ECL. The factory worked twenty four hours a day with two shifts
25 thousand members each.
I have an aerial photograph of that shows a complete view of the
Musashino factory. This photograph was taken at the B29 pilot
during the first air raid on the mainland of Japan. After the
end of the war a US Air Force commission of inquiry on the effects
of the bombing on Japan visited the ruined Musashino factory.
Mr. Hassaku Shiino, who guided the commisson at the factory found
the photograph among the check sheets and was given it. By the
way this photograph was used when the ECL buildings were designed.
9: The Nakajima aircraft company;
part 3; The underpass and the gingko tree
The Nakajima aircraft factories were all connected with each
other by underpasses. There are said to have been 6 main underpasses
from north to south, and 4 from east to west, with 1 connection
between the Tama-factory and the Musashino-factory. No small number
of people must have seen the underpass when building No.1 was
constructed and when building No.4 was removed at ECL.
There are many theories about why they made so many underpasses:
to enable the factory workers to reach to their work station quickly,
for protection from bombing, or for the removing trash from the
factories.
There are several large gingko trees south of the ECL main gate
and on both sides of the road through the Japan Housing Corporation
apartment. The trees, which have many nuts in autumn, are said
to have been there since the Nakajima days. Since gingko trees
are known to be resistant to fire, the trees was able to survive
the air raids and the fires of the war. During the transitions
from a munition factory, to a baseball stadium and to the present
housing complexes, the environment changed drastically, but the
trees survived. If they had a mind, I wonder what they would think.
10: The Nakajima aircraft company;
Part 4.
In Showa 19th U.S. air force began full-scale B29 bombing raids
on Japanese mainland using Saipan Island as a base. The first
air raid on the Nakajima factory was on the 24th of November.
On the 3rd of December intensive attacks by 10 squads of 70 planes
took place and 220 people were killed.
At first the bombs were rather small, 250kg or 500kg, and only
light damage was inflicted. Later, however, bombs as large as
1 ton were dropped and the buildings were badly damaged. The scene
of destroyed buildings surprised the construction crews at ECL,
and was astonishing even five years after the end of the war.
11: Short lived the Green Park baseball stadium.
There used to be a baseball stadium named the Green Park in
the neighbourhood of ECL on the land presently occupied by the
Japan Housing Corporation apartments since Showa 27th year(1952)
till 35th (1960).
The baseball stadium was one of the facilities planned for the
land of Nakajima airplane factory by Shigeyoshi Matsumae, who
used his influence to lure ECL to its present site.
A track was even laid by the National Railways Corporation from
Mitaka station, and night lighting was installed. The nominal
capacity of the stadium was 70 thousand and said to be the biggest
in the East after the Jingu baseball stadium, which was requisitioned
by U.S. Army.
Although the Green Park stadium was named as the home stadium
of Kokutetsu Swallows, actually it was used only two or three
times for professional baseball games, but many high school baseball
games were held there.
Dust and wind. The Giants were invited for the opening game but
an early spring wind caused a dust storm and the players were
unable to keep their eyes open and the game was ruined. The stadium
was not very popular and audiences were small so it was pulled
down and a housing complex was built. The housing complex has
a circlar shape and in the center is a little hollow reminiscent
of a baseball stadium.
12: Get off at Mitaka to go to Musashino
The Chuo Line, which used by about half of the ECL people,
used be a private line called Kobu-Tetsudo. The company first
applied for a permit to establish a horse carriage railway (in
Meiji 17th year (1884)), but later changed the application to
permit a steam engine railway. It was granted in March of Meiji
21st year (1881). With a capital fund of ｴ900 thousand they started
construction in June of Meiji 21st and began service between Shinjuku
and Tachikawa. The Mitaka station did not exist so people bourded
trains at the Musashi-sakai station. The Kichijoji station was
not built until 32nd (1899).
The inhabitants of both Mitaka and Musashino petitioned to have
local stations built. After a competition between the two sites,
it was finally decided to build a station at Mitaka, which opened
Showa 5th(1930), July 15th. The main reason why the Mitaka site
was chosen is that no south entrances to the train line existed
till then. It was not until Showa 16th(1941) that the north entrance
of Mitaka station was opened, when Nakajima aircraft factory was
built.
13: The U.S. lodging plan was altered.
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A plan to build lodgings for 4 thousand U.S. soldiers on the
land of the Nakajima aircraft west factory at Musashino was unveiled
in August of Showa 27th year (1952).
A housing complex had already been planned for Japanese, so people
petitioned the mayor to scrap the U.S. plans. It turend out that
neither the mayor nor the joint Japanese-U.S. committee had been
informed of the U.S. plans to build military lodgings. Sinceone
thousand million yen of the expences were to be paid by U.S. and
two thousand million yen by Japan, many people firmly opposed
the U.S. military lodging plan. They were disturbed by the prospect
of a base like that in Tachikawa in the middle of the town, and
worried about bad influences on their children. Sekimae Jutaku
Shinwakai, Kitatama teachers union and the PTAs decided to oppose
the base. The Musashino-Mitaka regional labor union conference,
also organized an opposition movement together with many citizens,
democratic groups and parties. A rally of inhabitants was held
at the Musashino No.1 junior high school.
A famous Kabuki actor Kunitaro Kawarazaki ran to the rally in
his stage costume and liven up them.
The ECL labor union adopted a resolution to oppose the plan at
on early stage of the movement and requested the president of
ECL to send an objection appeal to the mayor. At last the plan
was altered from lodgings for 4 thousand soldiers to lodgings
for officers' families. A market, a school, a barber and even
a beauty shop were planned inside the institution in order to
avoid friction with the local inhabitants. The construction was
completed in the next year Showa 28th (1953).
14: How many times did B29 bombers come to Musashino?
How many times did B29 bombers visit the Nakajima aircraft
factory here at the present ECL location? Some recall, "They
came almost every day" but other said decisively, "It
was every three days."
In the Musashino city records, eleven air raids are officially
recorded. Around seven of these air raids were probably carried
out by B29s. Six raids are officially recorded in the "Records
of the Great Tokyo Air Raid and Fire", Volume 3. On the other
hand, according to reports from the pilots who carried out the
air raids, ("The operation of strategic bombing on Japan
by B29 units") there were 11 air raids. This record list
"3 air raids under a bad weather conditions" and "3
times with insufficient results," so we conclude that there
were about 5 effective raids from this source. Comparing these
three sources, the 6 times noted in the table seems about right.
The first raid occured on the 24th of November, the next time
(November 27th) a B29 came but did not drop any bombs. The memory
"every 3 days" is correct to this respect. As an air
raid alarm was issued on both Nov. 25th and 26th, "It was
almost every day", is also reasonable.
| date | B29s | bombs dropped | napalm | dead | seriously injured | injured |
| Nov. 24th in 1944 | 88 | 408t | 17t | 73 | 56 | 28 |
| Dec. 3rd | 75 | 99.3 | 42.3 | 55 | 58 | |
| Dec. 27th | 250 |
26 of 500kg 244 of 250kg |
5 | 32 | ||
| Jan. 9th in 1945 | 48 | 42 | 4 | |||
| Apl. 7th | 103 97fighters | 175 of 1t | 4 | only building was broken | ||
| Apl.12 | 100( including P51) | 65 of 100kg |
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15. source
This booklet was translated from the article " Tsuken
shuhen sono mukashi (The old days around the ECL) " on a
weekly newspaper of Japan Communist Party ECL branch: "Impeadance"
Nos.317-344 (Feb. 2,1976 ~ Aug. 16,1976). Photos are
copies of several published documents of NTT. Illustrations are
drawn by the editor. Michio Wakamatsu.
Though this booklet tells only the story of bomberdment of American Air force out of many aspects of the World War II, Editor think it is also important to remember that the war is the aggression by Japanese emperor government.