, is a

Japan Air Self-Defense Force The , , also informally referred to as the Japanese Air Force, is the air and space branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, responsible for the defense of Japanese airspace, other air and space operations, cyberwarfare and electronic warf ...

base located in Chitose, Hokkaidō, adjacent to

New Chitose Airport is an international airport located south-southeast of Chitose and Tomakomai, Hokkaidō, Japan, serving the Sapporo metropolitan area. By both traffic and land area, it is the largest airport in Hokkaidō. It is adjacent to Chitose Air Ba ...

. It is the

JASDF The , , also informally referred to as the Japanese Air Force, is the air and space branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, responsible for the defense of Japanese airspace, other air and space operations, cyberwarfare and electronic warfare. ...

's primary base in northern Japan and tasked with monitoring Japan's maritime borders with

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. It was also Hokkaidō's primary civilian airport until the opening of New Chitose Airport in 1988. Together, these two jointly operated and connected airports create one of the largest regional airports in Japan.

History

US military service

Chitose's first flight came in 1926, when the ''Otaru Shimbun'' newspaper sponsored the "Hokkai One" (''Hokkai-ichigō'') flight, originating at a 10-hectare air field donated by the villagers of Chitose. In 1939, the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

took over the field. After Japan's surrender in 1945, ending

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...

took over the base, being primarily under the control of the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

, and later the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

Fifth Air Force The Fifth Air Force (5 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). It is headquartered at Yokota Air Base, Japan. It is the U.S. Air Force's oldest continuously serving Numbered Air Force. The organizat ...

. Major USAF occupation units assigned to Chitose Air Base were: *

3d Air Commando Group 3-D, 3D, or 3d may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Relating to three-dimensionality * Three-dimensional space ** 3D computer graphics, computer graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data ** 3D film, a ...

(

309th Bombardment Wing 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

), October 1945-March 1946 *

49th Fighter Group The 49th Fighter Group was a fighter aircraft unit of the Fifth Air Force that was located in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater during World War II. Activation and training The group was constituted as 49th Pursuit Group (Interceptor) on 20 November 1 ...

(later Wing), February 1946-April 1948 The base was used largely as a maintenance and logistics facility in the late 1940s prior to the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, under the operational control of the

314th Air Division The 314th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Pacific Air Forces at Osan Air Base, South Korea. It became inactive in September 1986. The unit's origins lie with the World War II 314th Bombardm ...

, Johnson Air Base. Chitose was operated as a sub-base to Johnson AB. As a result of the Korean War, the 6163d Air Base Wing was activated on 1 January 1951. The airfield was used primarily as an emergency landing field for aircraft returning from combat missions over Korea, and as a maintenance and repair depot by Technical Service Command. During the Allied occupation, in 1951, Chitose received its first scheduled civilian flights to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, operated by

Japan Airlines , also known as JAL (''Jaru'') or , is an international airline and Japan's flag carrier and largest airline as of 2021 and 2022, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport, as w ...

. After the 1953 Korean Armistice, the USAF moved its

F-86 Sabre The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing Sov ...

-equipped

4th Fighter Group The 4th Fighter Group was an American element of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Eighth Air Force during World War II. The group was known as the Debden Eagles because it was created from the three Eagle Squadrons of the Royal Air Force: ...

(later Wing) from Kimpo AB (K-14), South Korea in September 1954. The only American combat unit assigned to Chitose, the squadron provided air defense of Hokkaidō for several years, being inactivated in place on 1 July 1957 due to budget restrictions. With the inactivation of the

4th Fighter Wing The 4th Fighter Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Combat Command's Ninth Air Force. It is stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, where it is also the host unit. The wing is one of two Air Force uni ...

, Chitose was phased down for return to Japanese control. The 6029th Support Group was activated and continued support for the units assigned to the base. It was inactivated along with the other United States military units at the base on 31 December 1957, returning the facility over to Japanese control. The US maintained a communications facility at the base until December 1970, and formally ended operations at Chitose on June 30, 1975.

Civilian service

The passenger terminal at Chitose Airport opened in 1963. Chitose quickly overtook

Okadama Airport is an airport located in Okadama-chō, Higashi-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, north of the city center of Sapporo. Its scheduled airline service is limited to turboprop flights to other cities in Hokkaidō; larger aircraft use New Chitose Airport, ...

, which was too small to serve jet aircraft, as the main airport serving the

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous cit ...

metropolitan area. Immigration facilities were constructed in 1969, prior to the opening of the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 ( ja, 札幌1972), was a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside Euro ...

in Sapporo. The only scheduled international service at Chitose was a

Japan Air System was the smallest of the big three Japanese airlines. In contrast to the other two, JAL and ANA, JAS' international route network was very small, but its domestic network incorporated many smaller airports that were not served by the two large ...

flight to

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

with a stop at

Tokyo Narita Narita International Airport ( ja, 成田国際空港, Narita Kokusai Kūkō) , also known as Tokyo-Narita, formerly and originally known as , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Haneda Airport ...

, which operated from 1981 to 1987. All civilian passenger service was transferred to

in 1988.

JSDF units based at Chitose

Kawasaki T-4 night operations at Chitose Air Base

Northern Air Defense Force

* 2nd Air Wing : 201st Tactical Fighter Squadron ( F-15J,

Kawasaki T-4 The Kawasaki T-4 is a Japanese subsonic intermediate jet trainer aircraft developed and manufactured by the commercial conglomerate Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Its sole operator is the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), in part due to historic ...

) : 203rd Tactical Fighter Squadron ( F-15J,

) * 3rd Air Defence Missile Group (

Patriot missile The MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the primary of its kind used by the United States Army and several allied states. It is manufactured by the U.S. defense contractor Raytheon and derives its name from the radar compon ...

s) : 9th Fire Unit : 10th Fire Unit * 8th Mobile Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron

Air Support Command

* Special Air Transport Corps ( Boeing 777-300ERs used by the Japanese government) * Chitose Air Rescue Wing ( Mitsubishi UH-60J, BA Series 800 U-125A)

Accidents and incidents

* February 4, 1966: All Nippon Airways Flight 60 departed Chitose en route to Tokyo Haneda. The plane crashed just moments from its destination, killing all on board. * July 30, 1971:

All Nippon Airways Flight 58 All Nippon Airways (ANA) Flight 58 was a Japanese domestic flight from Sapporo to Tokyo, operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA). On 30 July 1971, at 02:04 local time, a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) F-86F Sabre jet fighter collided with th ...

, en route from Chitose to Tokyo Haneda, collided in mid-air with a Japan Air Self Defence Force

F-86F The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing ...

flown by a trainee pilot. All on board perished, while the fighter pilot ejected safely and survived.ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 727-281 JA8329 Shizukuishi
''

Aviation Safety Network The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) is an independent, nonprofit, international organization concerning research, education, advocacy, and communications in the field of aviation safety. FSF brings together aviation professionals from all sectors ...

'' Retrieved August 22, 2016 * August 19, 1982: A

Boeing 747-146SR suffered a runway strike of the No. 4 engine while landing in Chitose. The aircraft, JA8119 would go on to crash three years later in what would become the worst crash of a single aircraft in aviation history.

In media

Chitose Air Base was used as the main setting of the 1990 film '' Best Guy'' and the 1994

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

OVA , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

series ''

801 T.T.S. Airbats ''801 T.T.S. Airbats'', known in Japan as , is a manga by Shimizu Toshimitsu which was later adapted into a seven episode anime series, produced by Studio Fantasia and Victor Entertainment , also known as in Japan, is a subsidiary of J ...

''.

References

External links

Chitose Air Base Official Website
{{authority control Airports in Hokkaido Installations of the United States Air Force in Japan Japan Air Self-Defense Force bases Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Occupied Japan 1926 establishments in Japan Airports established in 1926 Military airbases established in 1939