MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- The year was 1955. African Americans from Mobile, Ala. decided their civil rights had been trampled on long enough and started a citywide bus boycott. The Brooklyn Dodgers had just won the World Series from the mighty New York Yankees and West Germany made headlines by joining NATO. Bread cost 15 cents and 21-year-old Cpl. Edmund Walsh reported for duty aboard Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan.
Although many years would pass before Walsh would come back to the Station, this time as a retired major, the memories and experiences remained inside the man who met his wife and had his first child here.
"I was stationed in Iwakuni from 1955 to 1958. Back then everyone rode bikes and nobody had cars unlike what I see today," said Walsh.
The retired major spent 26 years in the Marine Corps spending the first 13 of those years on the enlisted side. After being temporary selected as a second lieutenant, Walsh was shipped to Vietnam and, after his tour was complete, his commission was made permanent. Although Walsh would never return to Iwakuni as an active duty Marine after his three-year tour, he said he still reminisces about the time he spent here.
"When I came to Iwakuni as a corporal it was an E-3 and sergeants were E-4s," said the former ground supply Marine. "My barracks were made out of wood and there were 15 Marines to a room and it stood where the Headquarters Building (Building one) now stands."
To further state the dramatic changes the Station has undergone, Walsh said the building where he worked is now the location of the IronWorks Gym. A small Post Exchange was across the street from his barracks and the most common thing to do for Marines here was to go to the enlisted club on the other side of the base.
For most service members here now, the yen rate has never been over 124 yen to the U.S. dollar, but according to Walsh it was common to see the rate as high as 360 yen to the dollar.
"Everything was so cheap back then. Bread was 15 cents, electronics were cheap, but also poorly made and appliances were very inexpensive," he said.
Liberty cards were in affect back then with Marines signing out with buddies like it is done today. But while most Americans were bopping to the number one hit that year, "Rock Around the Clock" by Billy Haley and the Comets, Walsh was spending his weekends with his future wife and a few friends entertaining orphans in Hiroshima.
"My wife was a Japanese employee and she worked with me on base, but before we got married she would come with us to the orphanage and act as a translator. We would take the kids to an amusement park close by and buy them clothes and such just to help out," Walsh said.
Although Walsh said his three years here were great he wouldn't have minded being stationed here now.
"The base is amazing. The buildings are so high tech and I remember the golf course not being much more than a cow pasture," Walsh joked. "Now the course is great and the clubhouse is first rate."
One thing Walsh still has trouble getting over is the amount of cars on base.
"I have relatives not far from base and I walk here when I come on base and all I see is cars. Whatever happen to good old fashion bike riding?" he asked.
But Walsh answered his own question realizing change is inevitable and in many cases an improvement.
"I think the best thing about MCAS Iwakuni is every year this place becomes more beautiful than the year before. Despite all the changes I still get the same feeling walking through the Main Gate as I did 50 years ago," said Walsh.