GUNKAN-JIMA: Japan’s ghost town at sea

In the early 19th century, Japan (still under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate) discovered coal deposits at Hashima - an island around 20km off the coast of Nagasaki. Under the shogunate, it went largely untapped. When the Meiji Restoration modernized Japan in the latter part of the 1800s, the island was sold to the Mitsubishi corporation.

gunkan-jima from above

Mitsubishi set to work undertaking full scale mining and the coal that flowed out of Hashima played a huge part in Japan’s reconstruction and entry into the 20th century as a major power. It was under Mitsubishi that the island was turned into an enormous concrete complex to house workers and their families.

The island already had a reputation for resembling the shape of a ship prior to Mitsubishi’s arrival. However, with the new concrete additions it gained the name GUNKANJIMA, or battleship island. The island was innovative in many ways, with the 7 storey concrete structures housing movie theatres, schools, medical facilities and more.

However, working conditions were horrific for the people on the island - with many working 12 hour days in the mines only to return to their claustrophobic, concrete homes afterwards. Japan’s war efforts in the 1940s demanded increased production and this took an enormous toll. Some reports indicate as much as 40% of the island’s working population dying due to overwork and mining accidents.

Conditions improved with new labor laws after the war, but the island gradually became obsolete as power generation shifted to oil and gas. The mine was finally shut in 1974 and inhabitants were forced to leave the island.

Sitting in disrepair, the island was listed as a UNESCO heritage site in 2009 due to its important cultural and historical contributions. Nowadays, the island is famous as a ghost town and can be visited through tour groups. It even made an appearance as the lair of the Bond villain in Skyfall (2012).

(Photos via Wikimedia, Jeordy Meow & Japanistry)