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A collection of eight rare printed items little known outside of Germany or Japan. The Bando POW Camp, located near Naruto, Japan, was set up in 1917 to house about one thousand German prisoners, both soldiers and civilians, who had been captured at Tsingtao, China. The collection includes the very rare camp directory: *Kriegsgefangenenlager Bando Adressbuch* (November 1917), with two fine color maps and advertisements; a beautifully illustrated children s book: *Drei Märchen* meant to be sent home to family and friends in Germany; and the final six consecutive issues of *Die Baracke* (April September, 1919), an illustrated monthly "Zeitung für das Kriegsgefangenenlager" [Newspaper for Prisoners of War]. All eight items are remarkably well-preserved, in very good to near fine condition. Unlike other Japanese POW camps, the German prisoners at Bando were given an unusual level of freedom, and were allowed to establish several of their own community organizations, including a bakery, a theatrical troupe and orchestra, and a large scale printing house known as the "Lagerdruckerei." At the press, which operated within the camp for just over two years, from 1917 to 1919, the German inmates pioneered a unique and highly sophisticated technique for printing in color on silk paper, and they published works with remarkably sophisticated and diverse content, including articles on Japanese culture, astronomy, politics, theatre, music, poetry, and political and military affairs, as well as an explanatory guide documenting their unique printing processes. Their various publications were illustrated with color plates, maps, diagrams, etc., of an astonishing high quality, when one considers the makeshift conditions in which they were produced. The works thus display unique technical qualities and content that could only have been created at the Bando camp. A remarkable and historically important collection of materials, rarely if ever found together. Detailed descriptions of all eight items follows. I. *Kriegsgefangenenlager Bando. Japan. Adressbuch. November 1917*. [POW Camp Bando. Japan. Address Book. November 1917]. Edited by Rudolf Hülsenitz. Bando, Japan: Lagerdruckerei [Prison Camp Press]. Large octavo (7" x 10"). 79pp. Complete as printed with irregular pagination. Folding map tipped onto the inner front cover, 1 full-page map, 3 full-page color advertisements and 1 inserted color plate advertisement. In the original grey paper wrapper with printed paper title label on the front wrap. A few scattered small marginal tears to wrappers, near fine. Edited by internee Rudolf Hülsenitz, this camp directory features a list of the prisoners in alphabetical order and their addresses in the camp. Also included is a guide to the camp s shops, and information about the camp s health services. Among the graphic highlights of the book are the two beautifully designed original maps. The folding map on the inner front cover depicts the core of the camp as it appeared in 1917, Bando s first year of operation. It corresponds to the address list, depicting each barrack house (dormitory) and listing the names of the occupants according to their beds. Printed in blue, yellow, and black, it is accurate to scale and includes much topographical detail. The second, full-page map, printed on page 2, depicts the camp within its greater environs, including its barbed wire boundaries, the 8 barrack houses, sports grounds, post office, gardening area, fountains, police station, cemetery, chicken coops, its two ponds, music hall, tennis courts, botanical gardens, officers quarters, the kitchen, offices, as well as various other structures. Also notable are the impressive color advertisements, including one for the Bando Lagerdruckerei itself, listing its publications to date. Other advertisements promote pharmacies, pastry shops, an exchange office, an art exhibition to be held in 1918, as well as a series of maps of other POW camps in Japan, and a printed celes.
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