Akishima (Former Airfield) about 60 years ago and today

History of Akishima (Former Airfield)

Beyond a large commercial facility and its parking lots, apartment buildings stand in rows, and further north a grass golf course spreads east-west. Of this area extending north of Akishima Station, the part that became the golf course was the airfield area of a company that built airplanes, a place long requisitioned by the US military after the war. The aerial photographs show flat open ground without buildings being divided little by little into a golf course, a danchi (housing complex) and a commercial facility.

From mulberry fields to an airplane town

According to the history of the City of Akishima, there were nine villages in this area from the Edo period to the early Meiji era, and in 1928 eight of them, all except Haijima, merged to form Showa Village. From the end of the Meiji era silk-reeling factories began operating one after another, and in the 1910s and early 1920s the area became mulberry fields and was known as a sericulture village centered on producing silkworm eggs. But from the late 1920s the price of raw silk fell sharply, and as the wartime system tightened, munitions factories, mainly for aircraft, and army facilities were built one after another in this village close to Tachikawa Airfield. Showa Village, whose population grew suddenly, became a town in 1941.

One of these was Showa Aircraft Industry. According to the company's history, it was founded in 1937, and the following year, 1938, it began building aircraft at its Tokyo Works in what is now Tanaka-cho in the City of Akishima. After the war the aircraft business was banned, and the company repaired US military aircraft and fuel tank trucks. The company's facilities, including the airfield area, were requisitioned by the US military. In 1954 Showa Town merged with Haijima Village, and taking one character from each of the two names, it became the City of Akishima.

The eras when the open ground remained

In the 1961-69 photograph, a broad flat area without buildings northeast of the station takes up a large part of the center of the frame. The ground is uniformly pale, and a straight bright band runs long north-south through it. Along the west edge of the flat area, several buildings with large white roofs cluster, and further west a factory site with rows of long, narrow roofs is grouped together. North of the flat area, many bright, long, narrow bands lie between rows of woods in a wavy pattern.

The railway runs diagonally from the left of the frame to the lower right, and the station touches the southwest corner of the flat area. Between the flat area and the tracks there is only a thin band of houses, and the edge of the flat area comes down almost to the tracks. South of the tracks the houses are packed, and in the lower third of the frame lots of fields and houses are mixed together. At the right edge too there is a factory building and a corner with many rows of long, narrow buildings. The fact that only the area northeast of the station looks like a hole opened in the middle of the town is the feature of this era.

The eras after the return

According to the company's history, the airfield area was returned in August 1969 and the requisition was lifted entirely, and an 18-hole public golf course was opened there and began business in November of the same year. The City of Akishima's own description also says that, to make use of the former airfield and the land of natural woods, the company worked with the city on property development centered on "Showa no Mori".

In 1974-78 the flat area has become reddish-brown bare ground, and small squares line up regularly in its west half. In this era the colors appear different at the top and bottom of the frame. The north-south band has faded, and only the outline where the east edge of the flat area is cut diagonally toward the southeast stands out. North of the flat area, many bright bands of grass extend between rows of woods, taking a shape that looks like golf holes.

In 1979-83, several tall residential buildings stand at the southeast corner of the flat area, and to their north a row of mid-rise buildings drawing an arc is being assembled. On the northeast edge one long, narrow white building extends. The buildings with white roofs clustered along the west edge of the flat area remain in the same position as in 1961-69. Just north of the station is still open ground. In 1984-86, the east half of the flat area is almost filled with apartment buildings, and a large building surrounded by a wide parking lot appears at the northeast corner of the station. This is the position of Mori Town, facing the north exit of Akishima Station. North of the parking lot, a corner with rows of green roofs can also be seen. The history of the City of Akishima records that after the city was formed, the construction of large danchi went ahead alongside the attraction of factories, and that it became a city of 100,000 people in 1987. The photograph showing the rows of buildings that filled the east half of the flat area is exactly from the few years before that.

In the 1987-90 photograph too, the layout does not change much. The differences are that a long, narrow strip of brown bare ground running north-south remains between the commercial facility and the danchi, and that a square of blue water has been added at the north end of the golf course. North of the golf course, a band of dense woods crosses diagonally from the left to the upper right, and beyond the band lots of fields still spread. In the middle of the right side of the frame, factory buildings with white and blue roofs are gathered together.

What lines up north of the station

As of 2026, that strip of brown bare ground holds a building with a large white roof and a square building that looks like a multistory parking garage. Along its west edge, buildings with pink roofs line up, and a building surrounded by trees stands on the north side where it touches the golf course. The rows of apartment buildings to the east and the shape of the golf course to the north are almost the same as in the 1984-86 photograph, and the outline of the open ground survives unchanged as the boundary of the blocks. On the golf course to the north, bands of grass between rows of woods extend east-west, overlapping in shape with the bands in the north of the 1974-78 photograph. South of the tracks the houses are packed even more densely, and the lots of fields that were in the lower third of the frame can hardly be found.

In October 2020, the company split off its property, hotel, and sports and leisure businesses into Showa Aircraft Urban Development. Meanwhile Showa Aircraft Industry itself, as of 2026, still has its head office in the City of Akishima and continues to manufacture equipment for air transport and tank trucks. Through the five eras, the area that turned into town was mainly the flat area that had no buildings. If you overlay the outline of the flat area in the 1961-69 photograph with the combined area of the golf course, the danchi and the commercial facility in today's photograph, the two largely coincide.