Atsugi Naval Air Facility, located two hours south of Tokyo, may very well be haunted. There have been numerous reports of "supernatural occurances" in and around the base. Are they true?
That cannot be proven. However, the land on which the installation sits upon has been very exposed to death.
Here is a small list of what is known: the area served as a battleground for many feudal conflicts; a village burned down nearby; a very large cemetery is lying hidden somewhere beneath the countryside; and more recently, a multiple stabbing murder was committed in one of the military housing towers. There is also a tree that is thought to be haunted because anybody who tries to harm it is punished. To read an article I wrote about the tree for the base newspaper, click here!
In one tower, cabinets were seen to open by themselves and close again late at night. A stereo mysteriously turned itself on when nobody was nearby. Locked doors where found to be unlocked less than ten minutes after they were closed. Also, the elevators sometimes stop at floors without any apparent reason.
Another story tells of a playground, in which the swings seems to swing as if an invisible child were playing on it. It was swinging wide and steadily in little or no wind. Nearby, some time afterwards, a little girl was seen jumping rope facing away from the viewers. Very peculiar, since it was almost 1:00AM. Soon afterwards, she disappeared.
A number of stories also involve the flightline. A couple of noted stories include a lady in white, a headless woman in red, and a ghost jogger who has no reflection in your rear-views after you pass by in your car.
School children also tell of mysterious happenings at the Shirley Lanham Elementary School. They believe that Shirley haunts the school and watches after the students. Of course, this story may or not be made up do to the fact that it comes from a group of third and fourth graders.
Whether or not Atsugi is haunted cannot be proven. But then again, neither could O.J.'s murder of his wife.
As for the infant room, my mom told me about how some infants would just stare at the walls like something was there. There head would move around like they were watching something dart back and forth on it. Of course, the caregivers didn't see anything on the walls. This happened quite frequently. One day, an infant was playing with a mirror. The mirror reflected the sun onto the ceiling, and the infant was staring at it. This time, my mom saw that the reflection looked like a face. A grinning face. She told the other caregivers about it, as well as the center's cook who happened to be passing by. They all saw it as well. The face didn't come back after someone picked up the mirror and moved it around.
An older story about the daycare happened around 1994. Near the end of the day, the children are brought into one room for pick-up. The lead-caregiver at the time noticed a parent pass by the room headed towards the end of the hall. She called to him, but he obviously didn't hear. She thought he'd eventually come back after he realized the other rooms down the hall were empty. After 15 minutes, the figure passed by again. She went out to the hall to get him, but when the figure turned around it had no face! She also claimed it was floating and had no feet. She quit shortly afterwords.
The daycare center you read about above moved to a new facility that was just built across from it. The building above was an old barracks that was used since the early 50's. I moved away from Japan in the beginning of 2000, so I don't know what it's being used for anymore. I doubt it was torn down though. The top floor is still being used for the base computer club.