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In the Spotlight –
Okinawa
By Ed “Hazukashii” Howell
4 July 2014
All of the IN THE SPOTLIGHT articles I have written have been based
on my own experience in the particular area featured, often along
with a healthy dose of research and correspondence with other
hashers that I know of that can add to the story. This month’s
excursion into Hash House Harriers history is one that I have
thought and wondered about for decades. If you have been around even
for a short while, you have certainly seen or heard about the
Okinawa HHH, with those colorful orange and blue happi coats
standing out in any crowd of brightly colored hasher frivolity. I
started my hash life in 1984 with the Okinawa HHH, which has
directly spawned nearly 30 new hash clubs all over the world.
Okinawa is the largest island in the Ryukyu island chain that
encompasses hundreds of smaller islands spread out over more than
600 miles, and is the southernmost prefecture of Japan. The common
understanding of how the hash arrived on Okinawa has been attributed
to the legend of Dal “Jock” Trader who came to the island from
Taiwan. Jock explained to me that after he arrived on Okinawa in
1979, “I just took what I had learned about hashing and haring from
the Taipei HHH and transplanted it in Okinawa; with one exception -
women were invited to run with the OHHH. Slobbo of the Taipei HHH
excoriated me in a long diatribe for inviting women to run in the
Hash. He insisted that the Hash was a Men's Only Group. It was
probably the best move I ever made and helped insure the longevity
of the hashes I helped start. Taipei was a live hare / whistle
blowing hash and that's what I took to Okinawa and San Diego and
Long Beach. I quickly learned that organizing a hash group requires
some sort of advertising (flyers, etc.), planning several trails at
first to keep the momentum until the Newbees catch on and volunteer
to hare; funding the beer until the hash reaches approx. 20 hashers
(which is the break-even point even if the charge for the run was $2
or $3 or nowadays more). I basically hared the first 6 or 7 runs and
sometimes did them in reverse.”
Jock formed his first
hash club Okinawa in 1979 and called it the Naha HHH, although it
lasted only a few months due to the closure of the Naha Naval Air
Station. But after a few months of deliberation, the Okinawa HHH
that we know today started up with new vigor in February of 1980.
Jock goes on to explain that “the Okinawa HHH was partly started to
get the Okinawa Wild West Show rugby team into some sort of shape to
play rugby. Plus they already knew the songs.” Additionally, the
Okinawa HHH was made up of the remnants of the Naha HHH along with
new support from parts of the medical staff at Kuwae Naval
Hospital.”
“Even more important to the club, was the infusion of the Japanese
Self Defense Force and Japanese Customs Officials. Since duty in
Okinawa was ‘overseas’ duty for the Japanese Self Defense Force
members, quite a few of them had the time and an interest in running
and found hashing to be a nice diversion” according to Jock.
Jock also invited US Marine Corps Helo pilots from Futenma, and an
Air Force Major by the name of Dennis Gill who was the Captain who
played Rugby and was a KC-135 Tanker pilot. Jock told me that
“Dennis was first named Ship Wreck, as he was an avid yachtsman, but
after picking up an affinity for singing soon became better known as
Mr. Mu-Sick.” Jock also mentioned that Mu-Sick “brought in a few Air
Force people and helped found the Angeles City Hash.” One other
notable member of the early Okinawa HHH was Middle School Principal
Milt Halloran, originally named Icky Body, but became affectionately
known as Uncle Milty, when he later founded the Samurai HHH in Camp
Zama, Japan in May 1984.
Back in those early days of the Okinawa HHH, Jock mentioned “I
remember most of my runs. Even though I like to set an 'A' to 'A'
run, and somehow try to come back to the start on an 'In' route
which returns in close proximity to the 'Out' trail, but I have been
burned by smart short cutters. I have laid trails in Okinawa through
the covered 'Thieves Alley' market in Naha, run by the Naha Prison,
by Shuri Castle, ended in the Foreigners Cemetery, run out of flour
and had to 'borrow' 1000 yen from a young Okinawan gas station
attendant who didn't speak much English and wasn't sure what I was up
to, so I could buy some small bags of flour to finish the trail; all
the while hearing the whistles of the Pack coming down a flood
control not too far behind me. I DID return the Yen to the young man
soon after the run. One of the trails I set, of which I am most
proud, started at the entrance to Camp Courtney East side of the
island. I headed West on an 'A' to 'B' trail through an Okinawan tea
farm, a golf course and down some Habu [an Okinawan snake] infested
rocks, hills, tall grass and burial caves until I reached Green
Beach on the other side of the island (approx.: 7 miles) and let the
pack enjoy the hot bath located there.” Jock soon after retired from
the Navy on 1 August 1980, and started hashes in the San Diego and
Long Beach areas of southern California.
Now we come to one of those tiny bits of history lost to the sands
of time. I have never met Jock, despite 30 years of hashing, but I
have been a longtime friend of this next hash icon and miscreant.
This is his story, as related to me over a few beers while sitting
in a street side pub in Yangon, Myanmar.
After getting orders to
depart Taiwan in conjunction with the US military’s departure from
Taiwan, and participation with the ‘China Hash’ “I decided to wait
out the summer when rotations were ongoing and teachers were back in
the US, until the fall of 1979 to attempt to introduce Hashing to
Okinawa.
Unfortunately since my job required a security clearance
and since I and the family resided in quarters on Kadena AFB, I did
not have an opportunity to develop too many ‘Close and continuous
associations with foreign nationals’ Fraternizing as the military
calls it. Consequently all members of the initial Okinawa Hash were
coworkers, service members, member of their families or civilian
employees who may have noticed the weekly start notifications in the
military newspaper. I would guess the average packs to be not much
more than 20-25 and most runs were done on or near Kadena Air Base,
Torii Station, and their immediate surrounding areas. My record
keeping indicates I did approximately 30 of these initial Okinawa
hashes before dwindling participation caused the group to fold up,
most likely in mid-1980. Almost 2 years later I heard of another
Okinawa Hash going strong and primarily operating out of the large
Marine Corps base south of Kadena and finally managed to attend a
couple of those well attended hashes. One of which happened to be
the 2nd Anniversary hash, dated 20 Feb 1982 and you have that T
shirt on page 86 of your Hash T shirt collection.”
Who would this miscreant be, none other than Rich ‘Quick Drawers’
Coats who can be found hanging around with the Mount Vernon hash,
where I met him back in the mid-1990s. Quick Drawers has also dug up
an old flyer he produced for his Okinawa H3. While Jock’s rendition
of the Okinawa HHH is the one that has endured, we owe a frothy
down-down to both these fine hashmen.
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