Kakimoto Family Barracks (Former Bando POW Camp)

A Barrack Block from the Bando Prisoner-of-War Camp

The Kakimoto Family Barracks (Former Bando POW Camp) (柿本家バラッケ（旧板東俘虜収容所）) is a barrack block of the Bando prisoner-of-war camp of 1917 in Oasacho Hinoki, Naruto City, Tokushima Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 8, 2004 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-storey timber building with a slate roof and a building area of 198 square metres, moved in 1968 and again in 2006; registration number 36-0049.

Part of a Forty-Bay Barrack

The Kakimoto Family Barracks is a single-storey timber building fifteen bays by four, with a gabled slate roof (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It was originally forty bays long; inside, a central earth-floored passage ran between low boarded floors on either side, partitioned every two bays.

According to the newsletter of the Naruto German House, the barracks housed German non-commissioned officers and men at the Bando prisoner-of-war camp. There were eight blocks, each about 73 metres long, and they were in use for about two years and ten months from April 1917; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony had its premiere in the camp on June 1, 1918.

The Agency records that it was moved into the park of the Daiku no Sato roadside station in 2006. The German House newsletter reports that the station's produce hall, opened in July that year, is one of the registered former barracks, moved and restored.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency notes that, though simple, it is an example of military barracks, and registered it as a model of design.

What to Look For

Look for the long gabled roof, fifteen bays in length, and the barrack plan of a central passage between raised floors (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

It is owned by Naruto City (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It stands in the park of the Daiku no Sato roadside station, but no current official information on opening hours was found.