2025/Jordan-

I've lived in Japan for about 12 years, and 11 were on the mainland at Camp Zama. Both of my parents are teachers working for Dodea, so I am not a military child, but even though I'm not a military child that doesn't mean that there aren't some struggles with being a civilian. Being a civilian you are more often than not to get the short end of the stick, for example in Okinawa housing is mostly only for military families, and when I got here with my parents we only really had about a month to find a house that would be big enough for a family of six, close to a school bus pick up/drop off zone for me and my brother. Both Okinawa and Zama civilians aren't able to have easy axes to the hospitals on base like the military are. Unless of an emergency or a need for surgery, you need to find doctors off-base which wasn't a problem for me or any of my siblings, but that doesn't mean that it's the same for everybody who is a civilian. The last thing that both military and civilian children experience is the loss of friends. Having a friend move is hard when you are a child but it gets easier the more it happens and the older you get, mostly because now you have a phone and access to the internet so it is easier to keep in touch with friends.