Kubasaki High School

The first classes started sometime in November 1946 at a site named Okinawa University Study Center in Camp Hayward with Dr. Theodora J. Koob as its founder and first principal.[1] Classes were held on the site of Okinawa University Study Center in a large quonset hut under the name "Okinawa University School".[4] The first classes consisted of 30 students and faculty; the initial schedule consisting of a half day, six days per week and was inclusive of only six grades.[4] Middle and high school grade children were included sometime between November 1946 and March 1947.[4][5] The school newspaper was The Quonsetter. There was no yearbook printed in 1947.[6]

In the fall of 1947 classes opened the school year in a group of 15 Butler-type prefabricated buildings in the Awase housing area with 177 students and 11 teachers serving grades 1 through 12.[7] 1947-1948 was the first year that high school seniors attended Okinawa University School.[6] A problem with graduating seniors was the lack of accreditation of the school; however, on March 11, 1948 through the efforts of Dr. Theodora Koob, Okinawa University School received accreditation from The Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools.[6]

The first school yearbook was printed in 1948 and was called the Torii. The school newspaper was called the Typhoon.[6][8] In July 1949, Typhoon Gloria destroyed the school and delayed the opening of the school year.[6][9] When school did begin, teachers and students were forced to conduct their classes in two temporary family residences in the "New Sukiran Housing Area" (Zukeran, now known as Camp Foster).[6][9] In November of that year, the school name was changed to "Okinawa-American Dependent High School" and moved back to the Awase Housing Area in quonset huts.[6][9] Later, communist aggression on the Korean Peninsula necessitated a ban on dependent travel in East Asia, resulting in few new students enrolled until 1951.[6] At some point before 1952, the school name was changed to Okinawa-American Dependent School. In 1952 during the publication of the fifth Torii, the Dragon was chosen as the mascot.[6][10][11]

By 1952 rising enrollment forced a move to another set of quonsets at the Army Training School at Camp Kubasaki.[6] The high school kids were moved to the new campus at Camp Kubasaki while the elementary and middle school kids remained at Awase. The name of the high school was changed in the fall of 1952 to Okinawa-American Dependents High School.[12] Sometime between the fall of 1952 and the fall of 1955 the school name was changed again to Kubasaki American High School,[13][14]

In the Fall of 1957, the school was moved into partitioned barracks in the Port Wheel area of Naha. By the early 1960s, the school was hosting grades 10 through 12.[15]

To begin the school year in the fall of 1964, the school moved to its present and permanent location in the Kishaba Terrace housing area, adjacent to the U.S. Army post of Fort Buckner, and was renamed Kubasaki High School.[15]

Kubasaki High School has withstood destruction from fire and typhoons on six campuses in five locations and with four names.

Student activities and groups include Associated Student Body, Chorus, Class elected officers, Seminar Representatives, Drama, Far East Activity Council events, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Future Educators of America, Band, MCJROTC, Model United Nations, Intellectual Cultural Society, Chess Club, Ryukyuan American Tomodachi Organization, Mu Alpha Theta, National Honor Society, School Newspaper (Typhoon), Science & Humanities Symposium, Student-2-Student, Yearbook (Torii), and International Thespian Society.

Typhoon. The student newspaper of Kubasaki High School was established in 1964, when the present day Kubasaki High School was opened in Kishaba Terrace. During the late 1960s, the school newspaper gained national and international fame, winning 12 straight All American ratings from the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA). In 1972, it was shortlisted for the Pacemaker Award as the top high school newspaper in America, edited that year by Joe Van Eaton. Quill and Scroll awarded the Typhoon the George H. Gallup Award for excellence in 1972 (edited by Mark Tunis). John Weldon was principal at this time. The Typhoon has been the only Department of Defense high school to win an All American rating and was under the advisership of Bill Hobbs. The student newspaper was printed locally by Okinawan printers. The Typhoon was the product of both extra-curricular students and the journalism class, taught and advised by Bill Hobbs.

Torii. The student yearbook of Kubasaki was founded prior to 1956. In 1967, the Torii began production on a much larger scale, eventually becoming the largest single school Department of Defense high school yearbook with 336 pages in 1973, advised by Bill Hobbs. (This record was eclipsed in 1987 when Focus, student yearbook of Frankfurt (Germany) American High School published an All American book of 352 pages.) In 1971, edited by sophomore Frank Day, the Torii received an All American rating (the first of any DoD high school) by the NSPA. The Torii was printed stateside after the new Kubasaki was established in 1964. Principal Virginia Lee was instrumental in making the yearbook "more stateside" in its production and Walsworth Publishing CO., with a representative in the Far East advised. In 1973, when the school had almost 2000 students, grade 10 through 12, some 1200 copies were ordered from Taylor Publishing Co.

Quill and Scroll honorary journalistic society was established at Kubasaki High School in the spring of 1971, with Teresa Sheehan as its first president. In 1973, under its president Harvey Humphrey, this chapter was named the Bill Hobbs Chapter in honor of its founding adviser.

• Keith Nakasone, 1980 U.S.A. Olympic judo, team captain. Class of 1974.
• Kristin Armstrong, cyclist. Three-time Olympic gold medalist in the individual time trial in 2008, 2012 and 2016. Class of 1991.[16]
• Patricia Fink, singer

• List of Japanese international schools in the United States
• Americans in Japan

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kubasaki High School.

• Official website
• Kubasaki High School Alumni Association
• Kubasaki Dragon House