Atsugi and The Secret War

[Pat Speer]

As many here know, I'm constantly skimming through old books looking for fresh pieces of information. I recently found one of the first books on the CIA "The Secret War" in a used book store just outside Twenty-Nine Palms military installation. President Bush had been there for church services just a few days before.

Anyhow, while Oswald was reportedly a radar operator while at Atsugi in Japan, and while many suspect his presumed knowledge of secret U2 flights from that base played a role in his subsequent trip to Russia, this 1962 book mentions Atsugi in a different light, which might also have meaning. On page 181, while discussing a CIA operative named Downey held captive in China, it claims "After training in Washington, he was sent to Atsugi, a small town about fifty miles southwest of Tokyo. There the CIA ran a camp for Chinese nationalist volunteers who were dropped into Manchuria on guerrilla missions. The camp was opened with the agreement of the Japanese Government in July, 1951, as a result of the Korean war. It was reportedly shut down recently."

So, is it a coincidence that the CIA ran a camp for behind-the-lines penetration of communist countries in the same facility where Oswald worked, and that, after leaving this place, he "defected" to the Soviet Union? Or is this just another one of those incredible coincidences?

[Shanet Clark]

Atsugi was also a base for MK ULTRA.

[Robert Howard]

Atsugi was also a base for MK ULTRA.

Another book to consider, more in the context of Post World War II Japan and MacArthur [and his little Fascist] Tschippe Weidenbach aka General Charles A. Willoughby, is Yakuza -The Explosive Account of Japan's Criminal Underworld -David Kaplan & Alec Dubro.