Joan K. Mendel Elementary School History (formerly known as Yokota East Elementary School)

In April, 1973, Joan K. Mendel Elementary School (known at the time as Yokota East Elementary School) opened its doors to two multi-aged classes—a first/second grade combination and a third/fourth grade combination. Today, Joan K. Mendel Elementary School has two half day Pre-School for Children with Disabilities (PSCD), six kindergarten, seven first grade, six second grade, six third grade, five fourth grade and four fifth grade classes. The school also has about the same number of teacher specialists (art, PE, media, compensatory education, ESL, etc.) as classroom teachers.

Yokota East Elementary School took its name from the Yokota family that reportedly owned most of the land that stretches from Fussa station nearly to Tachikawa station. According to legend, the family provided this portion of its holdings to the Imperial Japanese Government which transformed the cornfields and pine groves into a military base in 1938. Finished with construction in 1940, the Japanese Army called the facility Tama Army Airfield, while local residents called it Fussa Airfield. Today, it is called Yokota Air Base.

The Japanese Army used the area primarily as a test flight center during World War II, and the base remained fully operational until the end of the war. The base sustained only minor damage during the war, and US forces began operations on September 4, 1945. American dependents arrived shortly thereafter. The school was built on an ammunitions dump, and teachers spent the first few years collecting empty bullet casings. For a while, the bullets filled up several large garbage bags, daily.

When Yokota East Elementary School opened, not one blade of grass or one tree was found around the newly established school which consisted of only one building. Today the entire six-building campus is surrounded by attractive gardens, managed by the students, and manicured, full-grown trees. Ms. Mendel was the first and only teacher at Yokota East when it opened, and she poured heart and soul into Yokota East Elementary School, devoting her career to its students and the entire Yokota East community. After her passing in 2006, the school was officially renamed to honor her legacy of living life to the fullest and helping others along the way. Welcome to Joan K. Mendel Elementary School. (A gallery of Ms. Mendel's school photos appears below.)