Mobara

Chiba Prefecture

• Midori-ku, Chiba
• Ichihara
• Nagara
• Chōnan
• Shirako
• Ōamishirasato

Mobara has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Mobara is 15.7 °C (60.3 °F). The average annual rainfall is 1,683.6 mm (66.28 in) with October as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.8 °C (80.2 °F), and lowest in January, at around 5.2 °C (41.4 °F).[2]

Mobara was settled from the earliest times, as evidenced by archaeological sites and shell mounds dating from the Jōmon period and Yayoi periods. The city also has examples of kofun, or burial mounds, from the Kofun period. The area was the location of at least two shōen estates, the Mobara-sō and the Tachibana-sō, in the Heian period. At the beginning of the Edo period, in 1591, an extensive land survey was carried out by the Tokugawa clan.

The town of Mobara was created during the early Meiji period establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889 in Chōsei District. The Bōsō Tetsudo, now the JR Sotobō Line, was established in 1897 between Ichinomiya and Ōami Station in present-day Ōamishirasato. Mobara Station was one station established on the line, thus connecting Mobara to the wider rail network. In 1909 a handcar system ran from Mobara Station and Chōnan. The handcar railroad was constructed and operated by the prefecture.

A base for the 252 Air Group of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), a fighter aircraft unit, was established in Mobara.[5] In 1941, by order of the IJN, 100 residences and their associated farmland, schools, town halls, police substations, temples, and shrines were forcibly confiscated without warning to build the base. Mobara Airfield was completed using a kinrō dōin group that consisted of the forced labor of Korean residents in Japan and students from Chōsei Middle School students in 1943. The airfield was located on the east banks of the small Aku River, directly to the east of Mobara Station along the present-day JR East Sotobō Line, and consisted of a runway and 20 structures, some of them concealed underground. Tokubetsu kōgekitai, or kamikaze units, were sent from Mobara Airfield to the IJN Kokubu Air Corps in present-day Kirishima, Kagoshima Prefecture to attack American forces off Okinawa. The United States confiscated the airfield shortly after the surrender of Japan in 1945. Remains of the runway, approximately ten airfield structures, and a tunnel are now on the property of the Mitsui Chemicals.[6][7]

Mobara Park

At the end of World War II, the 113th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army occupied the Mobara Airfield. The Japan Self-Defense Forces attempted to reoccupy the base in 1954, but after organized efforts by residents, agricultural organizations, the town and prefectural governments, the plans were abandoned the following year. The site was used to build Mobara Middle School for the rapidly expanding population of the town.[6]

On April 1, 1952, Mobara Town expanded by annexation of neighboring villages of Tōgō, Toyoda, Ninomiya-Hongō, Tsurue, and Gogō and was elevated to city status. On April 1, 1955, Mobara annexed the town of Chōnan. On May 1, 1972, Mobara merged with the neighboring town of Honnō. On December 11, 1990, the city was hit by an F-3 tornado, which killed one person, injured 78, and damaged or destroyed 1,747 homes in the city.[8]

JR East – Sotobō Line

• Honnō - Shin-Mobara - Mobara

• Ken-Ō Expressway
• National Route 128
• National Route 409

A popular annual event in Mobara is the Tanabata festival, during which a wide array of stalls and parades dominate much of the city's central shopping district. While the rest of Japan usually celebrates Tanabata on July 7, the Mobara festival is held in late July so as to coincide with school holidays.