[3][4] 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.

[7] 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.

[7][10] 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).

[7][10] Later, communist aggression on the Korean Peninsula necessitated a ban on dependent travel in East Asia, resulting in few new students enrolled until 1951.

Student activities and groups include Associated Student Body, Chorus, Class Elected Officers, Seminar Representatives, Kubasaki Airsoft Team, Drama, Far East Activity Council events, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Future Educators of America, Band, MCJROTC, Model United Nations, Intellectual Cultural Society, Chess Club, Ryukyuan American Tomodachi Organization, Mu Alpha Theta, National Honor Society, School Newspaper (Typhoon), Science & Humanities Symposium, Student-2-Student, Yearbook (Torii), and International Thespian Society.

In 1972, it was shortlisted for the Pacemaker Award as the top high school newspaper in America, edited that year by Joe Van Eaton.

The Typhoon has been the only Department of Defense high school to win an All American rating and was under the advisership of Bill Hobbs.

In 1971, edited by sophomore Frank Day, the Torii received an All American rating (the first of any DoD high school) by the NSPA.

Principal Virginia Lee was instrumental in making the yearbook "more stateside" in its production and Walsworth Publishing CO., with a representative in the Far East advised.

High school students can also join the local Okinawa Dolphins swim team and earn a letter.

As KHS was the only school on the island with active varsity and JV gridiron programs at the time, teams were determined by the general location on-island the players were from.

The Fall 1966 Kadena Falcons were coached by Captain James C Harding -- later to be the 25th most decorated member of the U.S. military in American history.

[17] 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.