Ghosts and Beacons

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Story 1.

Ghosts of Kadena Air Base.

It is common for locations that have have played host to major military conflict to feature persistent manifestations of ghosts or other such paranormal entities.

But the Japanese island of Okinawa is the site of a somewhat disproportionate number of supernatural sightings.

Join us this week as we walk amongst the ghosts of Kadena Air Base.

The midday sun was relentless as it beat down on the nursery's play area, much to the jubilation of its occupants, who were out enjoying the remainder of their afternoon break.

But whilst the smothering heat appeared to invigorate and energize the children as they raced from one adventure to the next, it seemed to have exactly the opposite effect on the adults entrusted with their care.

As she made her way around the restricted patch of asphalt, ensuring that each of the youngsters was sufficiently hydrated, Patsy Schneider was finding it ever more difficult to keep pace with her juvenile charges.

Breaking into a brief jog, she managed to catch another miner, and was in the process of applying a liberal covering of sun lotion when something unexpected caught her eye.

Over in the far corner of the play area, one of the children had his arm drawn back.

and had apparently thrown something up and over the wooden fencing.

Finishing her current task, Patsy began to thread her way through the crowded playground, observing the child again picking something up from the ground and tossing it over the fence into the yard next door.

Drawing closer to the boy, she recognised him as Angelo Conti, whose father was a senior NCO attached to the 19th Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron, which had recently deployed to the base.

On closer inspection, the items at his feet were the die-cast toy cars he regularly brought to the nursery with him from home, and he proceeded to throw a further two before she managed to reach him.

Patsy tactfully questioned the boy, wondering out loud if he would be sad at the end of the school day when he realised that he couldn't get his cars back.

Angelo announced that he was giving them to the children who lived next door, as they didn't have any toys of their own to play with.

It was a statement which immediately sent a shudder through the young teacher's body.

She gently explained to Angelo that he must be mistaken, as there weren't any children next door, and that nobody had lived there for a long time.

This statement was met with a warm-hearted smile from the youth, who replied that there was a little boy and a little girl next door, and that they had asked to borrow his toys.

As Patsy processed what Angelo was telling her, she was startled by the shrill whistle which announced that playtime was over.

Collecting his two remaining cars, the young boy dashed off to the main building, leaving his teacher staring pensively at the wooden fence panelling, which separated the playground from the small neighbouring property.

Explaining to one of her colleagues that she would be a minute or two late in rejoining the children, Patsy made her way next door, negotiating the wild foliage which surrounded the boarded up building.

Once she reached the point where she estimated Angelo's cars must have landed, she began to root through the long grass and weeds, hoping to recover them.

She had been searching without success for several minutes when there was a sudden and unexpected noise just behind her.

The unmistakable sound of a young girl giggling immediately caused the teacher to stop in her tracks.

There was a moment's silence, followed by the sound of two children whispering, only a few feet away from where she was.

Patsy turned in the direction the sounds had come from, only to find the overgrown yard completely deserted.

There was no place for anyone to hide, and equally, no sign of any children.

But a few feet away, directly in the middle of the trail of flattened grass which marked her path across the yard, were Angelo's cars.

There were seven of the toys, all arranged in a perfect circle, pointing inwards to face one another.

Realising that it was impossible for the small boy to have thrown the cars so that they landed in such a fashion, and that someone or something must have arranged them whilst her back was turned, Patsy felt a sickening feeling rising up from the depths of her stomach.

As she stared at the toys, She realized that the yard was now eerily silent, without even the sounds of passing traffic or birds noticeable.

Ever so slowly, one of the toy cars started to rotate, until it pointed away from the center of the circle, directly towards her.

With a cry of pure terror, Patsy ran screaming from the yard, just another in a long line of people to have experienced something deeply unsettling.

at the airbase's most notorious building.

On the morning of April 1st, 1945, the United States 10th Army attacked the Japanese island of Okinawa with the intention of using the location as a staging post to finally bring an end to the Pacific campaign.

The battle which followed would continue for 82 days and feature some of the bloodiest and most savage fighting of the Second World War.

One of the most crucial elements of the American battle plan was the seizure of the Yara Hikojo airfield, which had recently been constructed by the defenders near to the village of Kadena.

By the end of the third day of fighting, the badly damaged 1400-metre airstrip was in American hands, and work could begin on restoring it to operational use.

Over the next six months, Kadena Air Base gradually increased in terms of size and importance to the American forces.

Initially used to deploy fighter aircraft in support of further localized operations, it it eventually became a key outpost in preparation for the massive bomber campaign designed to end unyielding Japanese resistance.

With the war over following the deployment of atomic weapons, the United States elected to retain the facility, which remains operational to this day.

In the years which followed the end of the conflict, A steady and disconcerting number of reports were submitted to the military police in relation to inexplicable incidents which had taken place on the airbase.

It soon became apparent to investigators that these issues were centered on one of the accommodation buildings, designated number 2283.

It became increasingly difficult to house airmen and their families in this particular dwelling for any length of time due to the bizarre occurrences that were allegedly taking place there.

A number of families reported hearing a woman singing softly to herself around the house, only to find the rooms empty where the voice had been coming from.

Sometimes, taps would be found running in the bathroom, despite there being no one inside the house.

One resident even reported encountering the ghost of a young Japanese woman washing her hair in the bath, who promptly vanished when he tried to communicate with her.

But as disconcerting as these occurrences were, far more tragic events lay in store.

During the 1970s, an officer who had recently been posted to the base with his family was housed in number 2283.

The man's mental health quickly deteriorated, to the point where he killed his wife and children before ending his own life.

This horrific incident subsequently led to an immediate increase in the number of reports of paranormal activity at the dwelling, to the extent that nobody was prepared to live there.

Neighbours reported that the phone inside the house could be heard ringing at all hours of the day, only for the staff who were sent to disconnect it to discover that it had already been removed, and there was no longer even a phone inside.

On a number of occasions, military police officers who were driving past the address at night noticed an unnatural glow coming from behind its drawn curtains.

and were inevitably unable to locate the source of this light when they then entered.

During one such encounter, a lone MP was dispatched to number 2283 one evening, following a report that bangs and clattering noises had been heard inside.

Having entered the address, the soldier was shining his torch around the living room when he realised that there was someone standing next to him, who had apparently entered the room through a solid brick wall.

As he spun round, the light from his torch illuminated a Japanese soldier, clad in ornate battle armour.

As the samurai's hand dropped down to the sword it wore at its waist, the airmen screamed out in horror and ran from the address.

His colleagues were quick to make light of his account, until two other officers reported having encountered a ghostly armoured warrior traversing the base.

Now unable to house residents in the building, the authorities instead repurposed it for storage, but the issues stubbornly persisted.

Airmen attending number 2283 to collect supplies reported the sounds of children laughing and running through the rooms.

Over time, personnel housed in the surrounding accommodation claimed to have heard similar sounds emanating from the air vents in their houses.

Eventually, The staff at the daycare centre which was located alongside the haunted building formally requested that it be torn down, as it was allegedly having a negative effect on the mental health of the children in their care.

A number of the youngsters told their teachers that they were friends with the children who lived in the house next door, to the extent that their parents refused to let them attend the nursery.

The base commander eventually acceded to the demand and ordered that the building be demolished so as to extend the play area of the nursery.

This work would take far longer than planned, however, as the contractors who were allocated the task reported severe nausea and headaches, to the extent that they could not continue with their work.

It would not be until 2009 that the cursed residence was finally destroyed, and all trace of it removed from the ground it once stood upon.

Kadena is not the only location on the island to be the scene of unsettling paranormal incidents.

Camp Hansen, which is situated half an hour's drive to the northeast of the the airbase, was constructed during the 1960s and is home to the 12th Marine Regiment.

It is built on the site of another airfield which was captured by American forces during the Battle of Okinawa, having incurred heavy losses from Japanese snipers and mortar teams.

Not long after the base was completed, a sentry was on duty in the early hours of the morning at the Gate 3 Guardhouse.

during a severe thunderstorm.

As he sheltered from the driving rain in the open entrance to the guardhouse, he noticed a marine dressed in a poncho slowly making his way up towards the gate.

Stepping out into the downpour to greet the approaching soldier, he suddenly recoiled in horror.

The man was dressed in a blood-soaked World War II era uniform with severe facial injuries.

As he reached out with one blood-slicked hand towards the sentry, there was a flash of lightning and then he was gone, leaving no trace that he had ever existed.

The ghost of the unknown soldier continued to visit Marines who were allocated overnight guard duties at Gate 3.

On one occasion, a terrified young sentry felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to find the bloodied Marine holding a cigarette out in front of him, asking for a light.

Eventually, The base authorities decided to close down the gate 3 guardhouse and keep the gate itself secured at all times.

Banyan Tree Golf Course is located a stone's throw from Kadena Air Base and was the site of a Japanese field hospital during the war.

Down by the beach there is a cave which few local residents are brave enough to enter, where the sounds of crying and wailing have been heard echoing out across the water.

A number of nurses from the hospital are believed to have taken their own lives there, out of fear of the invading American forces, and the deaths of several local swimmers have been attributed to their vengeful souls.

A similar phenomenon has been reported to the north at Maida Point, the site of another wartime field hospital.

Over the years, spectral figures have been observed throwing themselves from the cliff tops, but vanishing in mid-air and never landing in the swirling waters below.

It is believed these are also the spirits of Japanese soldiers, who elected to take their own lives in order to avoid capture.

Several of these alleged spirits have been captured on film by tourists who are visiting the picturesque location.

Can it be that these manifestations are somehow linked to the protracted battle which took place there nearly 80 years before?

Given the proximity of these apparitions to sites which played key roles during the conflict, it is difficult to argue that there is not some form of mysterious connection between the wartime events and these modern-day hauntings.

The sheer scale of suffering which took place during the invasion of Okinawa set it aside from similar battles in the campaign.

Its own losses aside, the 10th Army documented over 140,000 bodies in the aftermath of the operation, of which nearly a third were civilians.

Controversy still rages over the number of these victims who were either forcibly deployed against the American forces or executed by the Japanese army for refusing to fight.

Is it possible that some powerful force was generated as a result of such a large scale and tragic loss of life, and that it somehow prevents the souls of the departed from leaving the field of battle?

Or are the individuals who refuse to move onto the afterlife unable to do so out of confusion or even anger?

The fact that so many of the witnesses to these incidents are service personnel acts as something of a double-edged double-edged sword in terms of their plausibility.

On one hand, the stigma and ridicule attached to a professional witness claiming to have encountered a ghost makes it hard to understand why any soldier would make up such a story.

On the other, members of the armed forces have something of a propensity to embellish mundane encounters, which then become ever more fantastic with each successive retelling.

A certain percentage of these occurrences can be attributed to the mental stresses and strains which naturally accompany the undertaking of military duties so far from home.

But the sheer volume and similarity of the Okinawan encounters do seem to indicate that something very much out of the ordinary is occurring there.

As always, it is our sincerest hope that whatever force seemingly compels the souls of the wartime dead to remain on this earth eventually frees them and allows them to move on to a place of peace.

Story 2 Under the Beacon's Glare

Reaching far back into antiquity, seafaring civilizations have relied upon beacons and lighthouses to ensure safe passage for mariners.

But all too often, these noble constructions have ended up tainted by tales of torment and tragedy, playing host to mysterious and inexplicable events which have played out under the beacon's glare.

It is no mere coincidence that the events depicted in our very first episode just so happen to transpire in and around a remote lighthouse situated on the Flannon Isles to the northwest of Scotland.

While such locations represent reassurance and safety for those travelling nearby, quite the opposite could be true for the hardy souls who maintain them.

All too often, these beacons were constructed in some of the most inaccessible locations on the planet, resulting in lengthy periods of crushing isolation for those who manned them.

They were also prone to horrific environmental conditions, requiring operators to possess deep reserves of initiative and resolve in order to survive.

As haunting as the disappearance of the Aileen Moore lighthouse keepers may be, other cases have proven equally disturbing, even when the ultimate fate of the keepers is known.

One such instance is the events which occurred at the Smalls Lighthouse in Pembrokeshire at the turn of the 19th century.

Deep in the winter of 1801, The crews of passing ships had reported to the local port authorities that they had received signals from the lighthouse keepers requesting urgent assistance.

Efforts to attend the isolated rock station would be hampered by horrendous weather conditions, which repeatedly drove back any attempt at rescue.

Eventually, as the weeks passed and the winter gales finally subsided, A boat was able to battle through the waves and make landfall.

But having hurried up and across the rocks towards the building, the rescuers would soon find themselves in the epilogue of a soul-destroying tragedy.

The two keepers who had manned the station were known to argue with one another in public, and when one of them passed away from natural causes, the other had feared being accused of murder.

So instead of committing the body of his colleague to the sea, he had placed it inside a makeshift coffin and then lashed it to the railings outside.

But in the high winds, the casket had smashed open, leaving the arms of the rotting corpse to hang down and scrape across the windows of the lighthouse.

Over the following weeks in complete isolation, the surviving keeper had almost gone insane, believing that the corpse of his colleague was beckoning him to his death.

A similar situation would play out half a century later, on a small island situated just off the coast of Maine, New England.

Following a series of shipwrecks, in 1855, the US Army were ordered to construct a lighthouse near the town of York, in order to prevent further tragedies from occurring.

The location which the engineers finally settled upon was Boone Island.

a rocky shoal that jutted up and out of the sea roughly six miles from the town.

A number of keepers would come and go from the lighthouse which was constructed there prior to the eventual arrival of Lucas Bright and his young wife, Kathleen.

But only four months after the newlyweds had moved in to maintain the facility, local residents noticed that the light had gone out.

Braving the howling December tempest, A deputation of local fishermen hurriedly rowed across to the island, finding the living quarters there eerily deserted.

Upon entering the adjoining tower, they encountered a dying Kathleen, sitting with her back propped up against the bottom of the stone staircase.

The young woman was pale and emaciated, a shadow of her former self, and was cradling the frozen remains of her husband in her lap.

Kathleen survived long enough to explain that during a particularly strong gale, Lucas had set off from the cottage to ensure that the light had enough oil to last out the storm.

But he'd not travelled far when he had been swept off his feet by a huge, unexpected wave, before then being pulled out into the freezing waters.

Witnessing his plight, Kathleen had acted swiftly, tying a rope to her waist and then diving headlong into the raging seas after him.

Several minutes later, she was finally able to take hold of her inert husband, battling back to the shoreline and hauling him clear of the surf.

Despite her best efforts, the anguished bride had been unable to revive her dead husband.

Kathleen had spent the next week maintaining the lamp as best she could, slowly succumbing to a fever she had sustained from her doomed rescue attempt.

In the years that followed, many passing mariners reported seeing a mysterious figure dressed all in white, standing out alone on the rocks.

Rumours soon circulated that this was Kathleen's ghost, grief-stricken and too tormented by the loss of her husband to move on from the location.

Subsequent keepers reported hearing footsteps moving around the living quarters at night, and a faint tapping on the wooden door of the cottage, despite being alone on the island.

One employee, named David Wells, went on to relate a mysterious incident he had experienced when posted to the island during the 1970s.

At the time he worked there with his colleague, they had been allowed to keep a pet Labrador for company.

But Wells stated that the dog quickly became too difficult to control, often visibly agitated and refusing to settle within the confines of the island's cottage.

Upon entering unoccupied rooms, it would snarl and growl, apparently focusing its attention on some invisible figure moving around inside the building.

On several occasions the keepers would see the dog apparently chasing the same unseen entity across the rocks, cornering its quarry and attacking, before then turning and sprinting back to the cottage in fear.

Far away on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean, the French authorities would find themselves investigating a series of unsettling incidents of an eerily similar nature.

Over the centuries, various vessels had been lost whilst approaching the coast of Brittany, coming to founder upon a group of treacherous islands known as the Point d'Urat.

So prolific was the number of ships lost amongst these rocky shoals that legend abounded they must have been occupied by death itself.

Locals told stories of sailors being swept away from sinking vessels, disappearing into the island's caves through sinister portals and into the very depths of hell.

In 1875,

after several difficult years of construction, the Teverneck lighthouse was finally activated, in a bid to prevent any further losses.

But whilst this rock station would indeed be successful in preventing further deaths of sailors approaching the French coastline, the same could not be said of its custodians.

The contract offered by the local government to potential keepers demanded a full year of service stationed alone at the lighthouse.

The first successful applicant was a man named Henri Gizenek, who duly took up his post in complete seclusion upon the island.

But not long after his arrival, the keeper began to share stories with the sailors who transported his supplies, which caused them great concern.

Gizenek became convinced that he was not alone on the island, stating that at night, he could hear other voices murmuring off in the darkness.

These unknown whisperers spoke in a variety of languages, including Breton and Flemish, but all seemed to be saying the same thing,

that the island was damned and that he should remove himself from it immediately, or share the fate of those who had died there before him.

At the end of his contract, the outgoing custodian was ordered by his employers not to speak of the matter to anyone anyone else, lest other applicants be deterred from the position.

Several weeks after the arrival of his successor, a man named Minot,

the supply ship found the new keeper expectantly waiting for them at the end of the pier.

The unfortunate soul was manic and wild-eyed, demanding that they remove him from the island immediately and take him back to the mainland with them.

Having been calmed down, the haunted Mino stated that not long after his arrival, he had begun to hear murmuring as he had been trying to sleep.

This sinister chorus of whispering voices, which had gradually penetrated the walls of his cottage from the outside, could soon be heard inside his bedchamber at night.

The decision was made to double the number of men stationed at the lighthouse, but not six months into their tenure, one of the new pair of keepers was found lying dead in the lamp room.

As it became increasingly difficult to find staff who were prepared to maintain the lighthouse, an ever more unconventional cast of characters took up the post.

A man by the name of Melipe was found deceased in his bed by his colleague when he did not come down for breakfast one morning.

The dead man's eyes were wide open, staring up at the ceiling, his arms stiff and raised as if he had been trying to ward off some unknown attacker.

Years later, a former sailor named Rupa agreed to take the position, on the understanding that he could live there with his ailing father for company.

The old man was bedbound and soon told his son that he did not want to stay on the island, saying that there were shadows in his room which were moving around him at night.

Rupa had dismissed these stories as a trick of the mind, only to then find his father dead one morning, having apparently opened his own throat with a razor during the night.

Turning to families to maintain the lighthouse did not seem to assist the authorities.

with the sinister and bizarre incidents there seeming to continue.

During a particularly violent tempest, as the wife of one of the subsequent keepers was in the throes of childbirth, the wall of their accommodation suddenly collapsed, fully exposing them to the raging gale.

Eventually, despite their reluctance, the local magistrates agreed that a priest was to be approached and asked to exorcise the island.

After several unsuccessful attempts, The holy man resorted to walking around the perimeter of the location, setting crucifixes into the rocks at certain points.

This appeared to solve the problem, with no further incidents reported at the lighthouse until it was eventually automated in 1910.

There has been a lighthouse on Isla Velobas since the middle of the 19th century.

As with many lighthouses situated just off the Uruguayan coastline, it has been fully automated for some time, only requiring periodic maintenance from the mainland.

But prior to this, it was the responsibility of the military to maintain the facility, with a detachment of five soldiers ordered to remain there for a period of two weeks at a time.

During October of 1972,

The team stationed at the island was under the command of Naval Captain Francisco Cascuda.

On the evening of the 28th, the officer and his men had all been seated in the recreation room of the living quarters, watching television.

Procedure dictated that the generators were to be checked at 10pm every night, with the corporal named Juan Fuentes selected to carry out this mundane task.

But upon departing the main building, Fuentes had come to an immediate halt, catching sight of a series of lights playing across the roof of the nearby generator building.

Realising that it was impossible for these to be vehicle headlights due to the isolated nature of the location, the NCO's hand quickly dropped to his sidearm.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he caught sight of a small vessel, apparently perched on the flat roof of the generator building, approximately six meters off the ground.

The lights projected projected by this craft were a variety of white, yellow and violet, and were illuminating three small figures moving around beneath it.

Fuentes could see that the trio were wearing tight-fitting black suits, similar to those worn by divers.

Their heads also appeared to be bulbous and slightly elongated.

as if they were wearing helmets.

Catching sight of the watching corporal, the three three figures immediately ceased what they were doing.

As Fuentes stepped forward and raised his sidearm, he felt a sudden and unexpected shock similar to a bolt of electricity shooting up through his body.

The outstretched arm which held his pistol began to tremble uncontrollably, and he could feel the hairs on his skin standing up on end.

The trio then began to clamber back up into their craft, as the corporal developed a strong inclination that firing his weapon would have no effect, almost as if the very suggestion had been placed into his mind.

Moments later, the object began to vibrate, levitating above the generator building despite having no visible engine or exhaust.

It then hurtled away at great speed into the night sky, away from the lighthouse and back towards the Uruguayan coastline.

Finding himself free to move again, the young corporal had immediately hurried inside to inform his comrades of the incident.

But despite a thorough search of the roof of the generator building and the surrounding area, there was no trace of the mysterious visitors.

Noting the incident in his diary, Captain Kascuda had thought little of the matter, only to be summoned by his superiors shortly after their return to the the mainland.

Having related the incident in further detail, he was then asked to accompany Corporal Fuentes to the American Embassy in Montevideo.

There, they spent several hours answering questions about the encounter and drawing pictures of the craft before being dismissed.

In the years that followed, Cascuda made discreet inquiries into the incident, always receiving the same summary from those he spoke to.

Neither the Uruguayan nor American authorities had any idea what it was that Corporal Fuentes had seen, but they had no reason to doubt his testimony.

The matter has remained a complete mystery ever since.

As interesting as these tales are,

There is no denying that the isolated and inaccessible nature of the lighthouses involved played some part in the events which unfolded.

The fact that the people who manned them were often alone and longed for human contact more than likely pushed them to an eventual breaking point, leaving them open to suggestion.

On the other hand, it may be that this very isolation exposed them to contact with the unknown.

particularly in the case of the Isla Velobos lighthouse.

With the visitors witnessed by Corporal Fuentes taking a risk out of necessity, perhaps landing in a place they thought was deserted in order to facilitate repairs or maintenance to their craft.

As more of these lighthouses become automated and less of a human presence is required, it is unlikely that we'll ever fully understand what happened in many of these unfortunate incidents.

These reports will simply pass into nautical legend, only adding to the many mysteries of the sea.

Bed time's glorious.