Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

Hello, I wanted to share with you an experience I had when my husband and I were stationed in at Naval Air Facility, Atsugi, Japan. My husband spent twenty plus years in the Navy, and has since retired.  We had always wanted to be stationed in the orient, and were so excited when we received orders.

It was our first year and a half in Japan. We had lived off Base for awhile, and our name finally came up to move on Base. As much as we loved leaving in our cute little Japanese apartment, it was bone chilling cold most of the time, except during a couple of months in the summer, and we looked forward to the comforts of the American housing unit on Base. We were told that we were going to be assigned an older townhouse that would eventually be torn down and that we eventually would be assigned a new unit once they were finished being built. It was a quaint little townhouse.

About a month after my husband and I moved in, on a Sunday morning, my husband was downstairs watching football on TV  (In Japan, and I’m sure other countries as well, Monday Night football was televised on Sunday mornings). I was laying in bed, it was around 6:30 or 7:00.  All of a sudden, I felt a stillness in the room and I felt and saw the bed sheets rustling, as if someone was crawling in bed with me. Suddenly, I could not move. It was like someone or something had a hold of me and was trying to suck all the air out of my lungs. I tried to call out for help, but I was not able to. I tried to think of the Lord’s prayer, but, the words would not come in my mind. I finally was able to bring the imagine of Jesus in my mind, and what ever had a hold of me just let go. I was so terrified that I ran downstairs. My husband asked what was wrong and wondered why I was shaking. I didn’t want to tell him, because I didn’t want him to think that I was crazy. I just told him that everything was fine and that I was ready to get up.

This was the beginning of several strange events that I would experience, while we lived in that unit. Thank goodness, though, I never had that terrible experience again, that I had mentioned earlier. Of course, I never slept in our bedroom anymore by myself, only if my husband was there with me. When he would deploy with the aircraft carrier, I would sleep on the couch downstairs. For some reason, I felt safe on the couch, but it would take me awhile to finally fall asleep. Anyway, one day, not to long after my horrible experience, I started to hear footsteps, like someone was walking fast, up and down the stairs. We had neighbors next door and their unit was the same as ours, just opposite (their stairs were next to ours). So, I just thought that they were walking up and down the stairs. I didn’t mind at all hearing this, especially when my husband was away. It would go on all the time, through the night as well. I thought that it was odd that it only occurred when I was alone, and not when my husband was home. He never told me that he had heard anything out of the ordinary. But, I didn’t pay much attention to it. I also thought that it was rather strange, that our neighbors were up and about all night, but, I felt like I wasn’t alone… a source of security.

I was in the kitchen fixing dinner one evening, and all of a sudden, I felt that same stillness in the air, that I had felt earlier in the bedroom. I looked over, and I saw pages of my cookbook, that I had opened, flipping over fast. It only happened for a second, then it just stopped. I looked at my cookbook afterwards and it was on the same page as before. I thought, okay, I’m just tired. My husband had a distinctive way of clearing his throat every once in awhile. One time when I was home alone, I heard it, and I thought that he was home from work. When I went to greet him at the door, he wasn’t there. I would hear that sound every once in awhile.

I had spoken to one of my friends, and she told me that I wasn’t the only one who had been experiencing such strange events. She said that both her and her husband had lived in the towers on Base, which were also Base housing units, and she said that every once in awhile they would see the blinds in their bedroom shake, as if someone was adjusting them. She said that the first time she saw it, it scarred her so bad that she wanted to go back to the States. But she said that after awhile, she got use to it and that she eventually ignored it. She also told me, and I had heard this from several other wives and military members, that there were tunnels beneath the Base that were built during WWI and WWII, where the Japanese would bring their POWs and torture them at times or interrogate them. That a lot of people had died in those tunnels and their bodies were left there. Also, that some parts of the Base was very sensitive (in a paranormal sense).

When we finally moved into the new housing unit, I never experienced anything strange again while we were stationed there. As for the footsteps going up and down the stairs in our old townhouse, we were one of the last families to move out. One evening, I was alone in the old unit, cleaning the stove for the inspection the next day. I heard the footsteps again. I knew that no one was around. It scarred me so bad, that I just ran out of the townhouse and got into my car and drove to our other unit, leaving all my cleaning stuff behind. The next time I was in that unit was when the Housing inspector came by to inspect.

I never told my husband about my experiences until years later. Of course, he laughed and thought that I had an active imagination. But, I know what I had experienced and there were other people on that Base who had similar experiences as well. I hope that you enjoyed my story. It is true to the best of my knowledge. Thank you for listening.

Written by Bonnie Burton, Copyright 2009