Sept. 30, 1973

REED PRESENTS THE OWNERSHIP KEY TO TAKAMURA

By LANCE CPL. JOHN HOLMAN
S&S Staff Writer

TOKYO - Grant Heights Chapel performed its last service Friday afternoon, when the property reversion ceremonies for the Grant Heights Housing Area were held there.

The brief ceremony began with the playing of the U.S. and Japanese National Anthems by the Grand National Self-Defense Forces Band.

Immediately following was the business of document signing. Col. John C. Reed, commander, 475th Air Base Wing, Yokota AB, Japan, and Kiyoshi Takamura, director, Tokyo Defense Facilities Administration Bureau signed the reversion papers for the U.S. and Japanese governments, respectively.

Then with two and a half decades of U.S. ownership behind, Reed passed the key of ownership to the representative of the original owners of the 447 acre former housing area situated only 12 miles from center city Tokyo.

Speeches from reed, Takamura, Kensuke Tabata, mayor of the Nerima Ward of Tokyo and Tadaki Ogiwara, director of Japan Housing Corporation of Tokyo were concluding events of the ceremony.

Plans for the area, it was asserted by Takamura, consist of a housing complex, parks and an educational installation that is hoped to benefit the further growth of Tokyo.