A Room Where Gunners Trained Under a Painted Sky
The Former Searchlight Training Room of the 2nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment (旧陸軍高射砲第二連隊照空予習室) is an army air-defence training building of about 1938 in Nedo, Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 6, 2024 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
The Agency records a two-storey reinforced concrete building with a building area of 128 square metres, altered in 1967; registration number 12-0323.
Training Under an Artificial Sky
The building stands on the former site of the army's 2nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment and was used for air-defence training (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to Kashiwa City, the regiment was formed in Ichikawa in 1935 and moved to Nedo, now part of Kashiwa, in 1938; the training room is thought to be one of the army buildings put up for that move.
Kashiwa City explains that the interior was first a single tall room with no upper floor or partitions. Canvas lined the walls and ceiling, and white, orange and blue indirect lights created skies at different times of day. Images of aircraft were projected and moved across this sky, and crews treated them as enemy planes to practise aiming searchlights and giving firing orders.
The roof was a range-finder training ground: a pair of crane posts that still rise on the west side lifted the heavy range finder up and down (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Kashiwa City).
Why It Was Registered
The Agency registered it as a rare survival of a military building with a specialised purpose, one that would not be easy to reproduce. Kashiwa City says only a few such buildings were ever built in Japan, and just two survive, here and in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture.
A Fire Station after the War
According to Kashiwa City, the building stood empty for a time after the war and became a fire station in 1967, when an upper floor and a shutter on the front were added. The ground floor served as a fire station until 2009, and the upper floor was used as an office by the local residents' association and others until 2015.
What to Look For
Look for the pair of crane posts rising like horns on the west side, and the stair up to the roof on the east (Kashiwa City).
Visiting
According to Kashiwa City, the building cannot be entered. The regiment's site plan lives on in the blocks and streets around it, and the training room stands at a key point as a local landmark.
Q&A
- When was the training room built?
- In about 1938 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
- What was it used for?
- Crews practised aiming searchlights and giving firing orders at images of aircraft projected onto a canvas sky (Kashiwa City).
- Why is it rare?
- Only two buildings of this kind survive in Japan, here and in Kakogawa (Kashiwa City).
- Can I go inside?
- No. The building cannot be entered (Kashiwa City).
- When was the Former Searchlight Training Room of the 2nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment registered?
- On March 6, 2024 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
Basic Information
| Name | Former Searchlight Training Room of the 2nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment (旧陸軍高射砲第二連隊照空予習室) |
|---|---|
| Location | 443-3 Nedo, Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 2024/03/06 (Reiwa 6) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two-storey reinforced concrete, 128 m² |
| Owner | Kashiwa City |
| Public Access | The building cannot be entered (Kashiwa City) |
References
- Former Searchlight Training Room of the 2nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment (Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00014746
- Former searchlight training room of the 2nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment (Kashiwa City, Japanese)
- https://www.city.kashiwa.lg.jp/bunka/about_kashiwa/culture/rekishi/shiteibunkazai/torokuyukei/syoukuyosyusitu.html
Last verified: 2026.10.20