Then there was a photo showing many cruiseships tied up in Yokohama about 15-20 years ago. Which pier is that? Can you locate the "Hikawa Maru" for us?

I assume those are drawbridges going to the outer piers. I do not remember them in the past.

[ 10-26-2005: Message edited by: Cambodge ]

Ocean Liners seems to have missed your query. Perhaps you can allow me to respond in his place, although, of course, he is welcome to add comments too.

The passenger pier is the big single finger pier to the left of the pier with the white-roof structures. It is down the road from the Yokohama Baystars baseball stadium which can be seen clearly. This has long been the main passenger pier in Yokohama - it is where Canadian Pacific's EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA was moored during the Great Earthquake of September 1st, 1923, for example, and is the pier always shown in postcards. The terminal was rebuilt a few years ago and the pier extended somewhat.

HIKAWA MARU is at that little (tiny) one ship pier to the right of the passenger pier and near the pier with the white roof structures.

If you follow in a beeline northeast from the main passenger pier you get the US military pier. It is just above that basin enclosed by two breakwaters.

The bridges you refer to are high suspension bridges, and ships can pass under them.

I suspect, when I departed Nippon in 1946 on Monterey, we left from the right side of one of the white-roofed piers. Another troop transport, the "Stetson Victory" was also tied up there at that time. But my mother and father arrived on the President Cleveland at the passenger pier you cite. And my wife and I sailed several times, in the 1960s southbound on MM's "Vietnam" and "Cambodge" from the same pier.

[ 10-29-2005: Message edited by: Cambodge ]

Sorry, I missed to read your topic until today.

The International Passenger Terminal is situated at Osanbashi Pier also known as South Pier or "Meriken(American) Wharf" in old days and President Liners or M.M Liners were docked here.

Map of Yamashita Park/Osanbashi Pier

To the left Center Pier(or Shinko Pier) is a redevelopment area or formerly shipyards area was expanded by the reclamation work(Now Pacifico Yokohama is located at new reclaimed land) and called "Minato Mirai 21 or MM21 Area"

Minato Mirai 21 is the name of a project launched with an intention to dramatically transform the metropolitan area of Yokohama. Until two decades ago, large shipbuilding docks and port facilities were located in the central part of Yokohama, with Tokyo Bay stretching out in front. We have worked to relocate the shipbuilding docks and other facilities to another part of the city, and the open space and the reclaimed land were joined together for new development, along with the neighboring towns to revive central Yokohama to a totally new form. This mega development is the MM21 Project.

The name of the project was selected from almost 2,300 suggestions proposed by the people of Yokohama back in 1981. The name incorporated an image of building a port town (Minato) of the future (Mirai), and was chosen for its uniqueness in using hiragana (Japanese alphabet to express the sound of genuine Japanese words), rather than the katakana (Japanese alphabet to express the sound of words imported from foreign language), which seemed to be inundating the Japanese language at the time.

The light green color coded shown originally Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Yokohama Shipyard was located.

The Dockyard Garden is a site of Dockyard No. 2.(Completed in 1896)

Established in 1891 as the Yokohama Dock Co., Ltd. Merged with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. in 1935 and reorganized as the Yokohama Dock of MHI. The Works was renamed the Yokohama Shipyard in 1943. Later, the Kanazawa Plant was established in 1982, and the plant in Yokohama was moved to the Honmoku and Kanazawa Plants in 1983, at which time the Yokohama Shipyard was renamed Yokohama Dockyard & Machinery Works. The Honmoku Plant is engaged in ship repairing and conversion along with the manufacture of large steel structures such as bridges, hydraulic gates, tanks and mechanical parking facilities, and the Kanazawa Plant is involved in the production of small and medium-sized power systems such as boilers, turbines and diesel engines and engineering of environmental equipment and general machinery.

To the right, Adjacent pier to the Hikawa Maru, is Yamashita Pier

Yokohama Bay Bridge, suspension bridge, opened in 1989 as the gateway to the Port of Yokohama, this bridge is part of the Metropolitan Expressway, 860 meters long and 6 lanes spans the Daikoku and Honmoku Piers and has a walkway "Sky Walk" leading to a viewing area.

The occupation of ports in Yokohama by US Forces began on 2 September 1945 with the entrance of the 1st Cavalry Regiment into Yokohama. By the end of September, all key points in the Eighth Army zone in Honshu were occupied. This occupation was preceded by a mine sweeping mission under the command of Rear Admiral A. D. Struble that cleared the ports of Yokohama, Yokosuka, and Tokyo in seven days.

The key piers occupied by the United States Army were Center Pier, and North Pier, at that time newly completed reclaimed land. The Yokohama Base Port Command assumed operations at Center Pier on 17 September 1945. The port activities in Yokohama fell under the control of the 2d Port of Embarkation in June of 1946. The port moved general cargo, as well as mail, privately owned vehicles, and passengers through the passenger terminal located at North Pier.

The new command controlled small Army ports in Moji and Kobe, as well as Haugen, Hakata, Otaru, and Hachinohe. Throughout this time, their headquarters remained at Center Pier, Yokohama. In August of 1955, the US Army began the return of Center Pier to the Japanese, with the initiation of joint use of three berths. This move was made possible by completion of certain berthing facilities at North Pier. On 4 May 1956, after more than 10 years of operation at Center Pier, the new Army facilities at North Pier were opened in a two-day celebration.

The facilities included breakbulk and bulk petroleum facilities, as well as the passenger terminal. At that time, the Navy's Military Sea Transportation Services Office, Yokohama, also relocated to North Pier. The port mission remained significant, even after the formal end of hostilities in Korea. in 1956, the command, with more than 1,400 American and 11,000 Japanese employees handled more than 3.2 million tons of cargo and 82,677 passengers. As late as 1958, the port processed tonnage exceeding 2.4 million tons and over 56,000 passengers.

The port command was redesignated as the US Army Transportation Terminal Command in January of 1957, and it continued to support the United Nations forces in Korea through the early 1960s. During January 1960 the headquarters was redesignated as the United States Army Transportation Agency, Japan. At the same time, the supply and maintenance mission and the field movements missions and functions were relocated to Sagami Depot. During the late 1960's and early 1970's North Pier remained a hub of activity, supporting the US involvement in the Vietnam War. During this time, an average of six military ships a day used the facilities at North Pier.

In February 1978, the Military Traffic Management Command assumed operations of common user military ports. Military Traffic Management Command, Yokohama was formed, and it has maintained operations at North Pier ever since with a redesignation as the 1316th Medium Port Command taking place in January 1993 and redesignation as 836th US Army Transportation Battalion taking place 1 October 1997.

www.globalsecurity.org

At present, seven berths with the total length of 1,295m are used by the U.S. forces and they are commonly called as “North pier".

In March 2003, a new public pier began operation upon completion of the reclamation work whcih had been executed adjacent to the North pier.It is targeted to operate as a building material pier handling mainly sand and gravel.

Mizuho Pier

[ 10-30-2005: Message edited by: Ocean Liners ]

Brings back many memories. I first arrived in Yokohama at North Pier in August 1957 on the USNS JAMES O'HARA and left in August of 1959 from North Pier to return to the U.S. on the USNS GENERAL HUGH GAFFEY. Later, on the APL liners was a frequent visitor to South Pier beginning in January of 1962. After APL ended their passenger ship business, we called with our container ships at Honmoku Pier.

Thanks,

A minutes away from Honmoku Pier, to the South, Minami(South) Honmoku pier has been under way since 1990 and in April 2001, as the completion of the first phase of the development, the MC-1 and MC-2 berths began operation which has Japan's first berths with a depth of 16m.

[ 10-30-2005: Message edited by: Ocean Liners ]

With the gigantic building programs of many of the ports in Asia, and particularly in Japan, I would be as I said in a previous post "lost the minute I stepped off the ship!"

Regards,