JAPAN

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MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan -- It was a normal August summer day in the year 1945 when the base was suddenly attacked.

Explosions could be heard from every corner of the base as bombs and gun fire caused mass destruction. After the bombings, more than 90 percent of the base was engulfed in flames. Panic struck the Japanese soldiers and families flooding the base hospital and morgue, now known as the Collocated Club. Some survived, however, hundreds perished. It is believed their souls have yet to leave and instead wander the halls searching for their loved ones.

Today, Collocated Club employees regularly report ghostly sightings. The most common being a blonde haired woman who sits by the doors of Magnums Restaurant. People ask if she needs help, but her only response is, “I'm waiting on my husband.” Other stories include a wandering male in the kitchen, which was the morgue, a young girl who wanders the halls trying to find her father and children’s voices and screams coming from the ceiling.

After our first experience at Leftwich Park, I didn’t really know how to feel about putting myself in another scary situation. But yet again, I did it, despite the pit in my stomach telling me not to.

The morning of our next big adventure was dreadful. I got so nervous and sick from all of the ghost stories being told on Facebook, I began psyching myself out.

As the hours crept by slowly, I knew what I had to do. I called the club manager and set up a time for myself and Jarrod to wander the halls with the very souls who have walked them for more than 70 years.

As we hopped in the car, this time it was different…it was silent. We hated the thought of having to do this. With our thoughts flooding our minds, we made our way to the club to meet up with our friend Nicole who joined our adventure.

Knowing the club was potentially more haunted than Leftwich, the three of us made our way to the doors, thinking, “Is it too late to turn around?”

We met up with the manager and he gave us the go ahead to make our way back to the officer’s side of the club where most of the ghosts reside. As we walked away, the manager started to say, “I should tell you before you go…” lingering, he continued, “Never mind I will tell you after you’re done.”

“WHAT! WHY? Is this real life? Am I going to die? I’m too young to go! This is how I die; going and looking for this kind of mischief.”

So we started the crazy nonsensical endeavor, and not even a second after opening the door to the (buffet? ballroom?), I jumped so high I could have touched the ceiling. False alarm, it was a stupid shadowy Halloween character sitting in the corner when you open the door…what a great start to the evening.

We walked toward the only light on this side of the club. An overwhelming amount of fear set as we made it through the empty, half-lit kitchen to Magnums door. That was it, time to swallow my fears and go. I look up at the doors as Nicole powered through. I was next and I started walking into an empty, pitch black dining room. Magnums felt as cold as an ice box. Even in a sweater and pants, the cold chilled me to the bone. The entire Officer’s Club turned out to be equally chilling. As I looked back, Jarrod was standing there stiff and pale, terrified, he said to us, “Something doesn’t feel right.”

This was the feeling we both experienced the whole night. Luckily we had Nicole, as I don’t think we would have made it past Magnums with just the two of us.

Walking through abandoned halls and rooms is mortifying. There are nooks and crannies everywhere. Each time we passed the windowed phone booths, I was sure an empty soul would appear behind the glass. It was a never ending battle between anxiety and wanting to run away.

We arrived at the only hallway that led to our destination: the O-Club Ballroom.

Conveniently for us, the club is undergoing renovations, meaning, this hallway is lined with plastic sheets from floor to ceiling. It was seriously a scene out of Dexter, once again, why are we doing this?

Pitch black and only armed with three tiny flashlights and an electromagnetic field reader, we finally made it to the ballroom.

I could see maybe five feet in front of me as we opened the doors. Stepping through the doors they slammed behind us. I jumped. My heart was on overdrive, racing and pounding so hard I could feel it reverberating throughout my whole body.

Nicole wandered away as Jarrod and I clenched the door, ready to run at any given second.

Once we’d entered the room, all sound ceased and it was just us against darkness. Almost immediately, we noticed a faint knocking sound coming from the stage. It would be a single knock, occurring randomly every few seconds. Nicole, the fearless leader, started making her way up to the stage, floor boards squeaking with every step.

Then it happened – a coin hit the wooden floor in front of her, echoing throughout the entire room with every clank it made. In the silence, this coin may as well have been a bucket of bolts. It didn’t sound like a dropped coin, but one that was thrown with force.

I yelled at Nicole, “DID YOU THROW A COIN!”

Jarrod echoed my words and said he saw it hit the floor and bounce. Nicole looked bewildered like we were crazy. How could she not see or hear what we just witnessed; she was five feet away!!

We ran. As I spun around and headed for the door, Jarrod’s light illuminated on my face blinding me. I screamed, “Turn it off! Turn it off!”

I thought I was going to die. I was scared… I was mortified.

We left the room, panicked. Jarrod and I could have raced in the Olympic’s power walking event. It was every man for themselves. We left Nicole.

Just as I thought we were in the clear, I hear the most blood curdling scream. Jarrod and I ran…again.

At a safe distance, we look back at Nicole standing there screaming. We froze. She just witnessed a spike in her EMF reader – a sign that the paranormal was knocking at our doorstep.

My feet felt like they were stuck on a magnetic plate, with no way to move.

Finally, the blood rushed through my body as I built up the stamina for another sprint. We ran, fast, weaving in and out of the hallways just trying to make it to the kitchen’s lights once again.

Running through the kitchen we turned the corner and BOOM!! Jarrod crashed into two buckets of water. Stumbling he caught himself and kept running soaking wet from the waist down.

Upon arriving back to the E-Club side, a plethora of British men and women lined the hallway as if welcoming us home…we were safe.

After finding a couch, I sat for 30 minutes trying to regain my sanity and calm down so my heart didn’t explode.

As we sat there Jarrod played back the video. There it was, a coin dropping out of nowhere.

How did this happen? Is it real? It had to be. No one threw the coin. The club manager was clear across the establishment, serving customers at the Fault Line bar, and he was the only one who knew where we were and what we were doing.

So the question is no longer, “Are there ghosts at Misawa?” Rather, “How many and where?”

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