More than 36 bags of trash, equaling 180 gallons of debris, were collecting during an annual Fussa city beautification project sponsored by enlisted airmen at Yokota Air Base, Japan, May 3, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan – More than 100 U.S. and Japanese airmen and their families spared a recent sunny afternoon to tidy up outside this U.S. airlift hub in western Tokyo.
Volunteers at the May 3 event ended up collecting more than 36 bags of trash, equaling 180 gallons of debris, according to assistant organizer Yoko Suganuma. They also gathered about 15 gallons of recyclable items.
The annual cleanup is sponsored by Yokota First Four, an organization that serves as a voice for the junior enlisted ranks on base, in collaboration with the Fussa City Hall.
Japanese airmen volunteered for the first time since the 374th Communications Squadron began organizing the event in 2012, said lead organizer Tech. Sgt. Eladio Arce.
“I reached out to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and they were quick to respond,” he told Stars and Stripes ahead of the cleanup.
Volunteers received protective gloves and bags for trash and recyclable items such as plastic, metal and glass.
They patrolled Route 16, a major highway that parallels the length of Yokota and passes three of its gates, and onto city streets toward Fussa Station.
Along the way, they picked up debris along curbsides, streets and small parks and rendezvoused about two hours later at Higashicho Park near the station. Their collected debris was separated into piles to be counted and taken away by the city.
More than 36 bags of trash, equaling 180 gallons of debris, were collecting during an annual Fussa city beautification project sponsored by enlisted airmen at Yokota Air Base, Japan, May 3, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
More than 36 bags of trash, equaling 180 gallons of debris, were collecting during an annual Fussa city beautification project sponsored by enlisted airmen at Yokota Air Base, Japan, May 3, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
More than 36 bags of trash, equaling 180 gallons of debris, were collecting during an annual Fussa city beautification project sponsored by enlisted airmen at Yokota Air Base, Japan, May 3, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
More than 36 bags of trash, equaling 180 gallons of debris, were collecting during an annual Fussa city beautification project sponsored by enlisted airmen at Yokota Air Base, Japan, May 3, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
More than 36 bags of trash, equaling 180 gallons of debris, were collecting during an annual Fussa city beautification project sponsored by enlisted airmen at Yokota Air Base, Japan, May 3, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
Senior Master Sgt. Naoki Tomiyama was one of several Japanese airmen at the event, held during Golden Week, a busy and important Japanese holiday that lasts from the final week of April into the first week of May.
“I was excited for today as this was the first time for me and we are happy to participate in this event,” said Tomiyama, first sergeant for the Air Self-Defense Force’s Aviation Intelligence Squadron.
Suganuma, a civilian working for the communications squadron, has been picking up trash for the event since its start.
“The purpose, of course, is to clean up, but I always do things and introduce to the airmen that this is not only just to volunteer but to have fun outside the office and base,” she told Stars and Stripes.
Suganuma said the event also gets airmen out into the community to meet locals.
She recalled how the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed the cleanup last year, but she was glad to see it resume this year.
“I thought it was like the whole communications squadron came out and supported,” she said. “This was great.”
