is a United States Department of Defense Education Activity School on Okinawa, in Kitanakagusuku. Kubasaki is the second oldest operating high school in the Department of Defense Education Activity system. Only W.T. Sampson High School (1931) at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba is older.

History

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. 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. The school newspaper was The Quonsetter. There was no yearbook printed in 1947.

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. 1947-1948 was the first year that high school seniors attended Okinawa University School. In July 1949, Typhoon Gloria destroyed the school and delayed the opening of the school year. 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).

By 1952 rising enrollment forced a move to another set of quonsets at the Army Training School at Camp Kubasaki. Sometime between the fall of 1952 and the fall of 1955 the school name was changed again to Kubasaki American High School,

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.

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.

By the mid-1970s, a fourth "expansion team" — Kubasaki Warriors (gold & white) — was added due to the large post-Vietnam student population and to give those prep athletes an opportunity to play.

For regional games against opponents on mainland Japan, an "all-star" team of top players from all three (and later, four) Kubasaki varsity squads were selected and sported the green and white uniforms of the Kubasaki Dragons.

The legacy teams were dissolved with the opening of Kubasaki's new "cross-town rivals," Kadena High School on Kadena Air Base in 1981.

Kubasaki has the Varsity Dragons and the JV Dragons. At the beginning of the season, these teams are not formed. Instead, they make up the Green Squad and White Squad, and they have scrimmages against themselves.

The Kubasaki All-Stars lost the first "Cherry Bowl" game 30–0 in Yamato Japan (1961) to the Narimasu Dragons; coincidentally, this game was held on the 20th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

They split two games with Kanto Plains champion Yokota High School in the 1970s.

From 1982 to 2004, Kubasaki and Kadena High School fielded two teams each to make up the four-team Okinawa Secondary Schools Athletic Association (OSSAA) football league. In 23 seasons, the Kubasaki Samurai won or shared 15 island championships, while the Kubasaki Shogun captured six.

At the end of the season, a Dragons varsity team was selected from the Samurai and Shogun and played against Kadena's varsity team. In 1992, the Dragons swept Kadena two games to none and routed Yokota 44–12 in the inaugural Ichiban Bowl. In 2005, the Dragons won the First Class AA Far East Championship against the Seoul American Falcons 34–14.

Notable alumni

  • 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.
  • Patricia Fink, singer

See also

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

References

  • Kubasaki High School Alumni Association
  • Kubasaki Dragon House