Hikarigaoka (Nerima Ward)


Hikarigaoka is a neighborhood of Nerima Ward in Tokyo, Japan. The residential address system has been implemented since 1983, and the current administrative names go from Hikarigaoka 1st Street to 7th Street.

History

Originally, the area spanned Tagara, Takamatsu, and Shimo-Doshida village in Toshima County, Musashi Province, and was a vast agricultural area.
In the center of the district, near the current Nerima Hikarigaoka Hospital of the Association for Regional Medical Promotion, the Tagara River and the Tagara Irrigation Canal flow from west to east, with rice paddies in the eastern part of the basin and Nerima daikon fields in parts of the north and south. The northwest part of the district was once the domain of the Morioka Domain and was home to a farm mountain known as Nanbuyama. This rural area, with winding farm roads and forests dotted with residential areas, was home to approximately 80 households just before the construction of Narimasu Airport.
During the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Army operated Narimasu Airfield in the area, as a base for the capital's air defense. At its peak, the earthworks were rushed, with 3,000 people working in day and night shifts each day. The Imperial Japanese Army's 47th Air Squadron, 43rd Airfield Battalion, and the Narimasu Detachment Maintenance Unit of the Tachikawa Branch of the Air Arsenal were based there.
Towards the end of the war, it became a place for the Southern Operation Squadron to regain its fighting strength, and the 48th and 231st Shinbu Special Attack Units were stationed here and used it as a training ground. In addition, the 101st, 102nd, and 103rd Air Squadrons were also relocated there.
Remnants of its wartime infrastructure can still be seen today. Concrete bunkers that once housed aircraft remain visible in Hikarigaoka Park, and the runway is now the main street in front of the IMA department store in Hikarigaoka.
During the occupation of Japan, the occupying Allied forces renamed the former Narimasu Airfield to Grant Heights on March 3, 1947. On April 5, the construction of family quarters for the United States Army Air Forces began, and was finished in June, 1948.