Gunkanjima – Abandoned Japanese Island
Hashima Island, also nicknamed Gunkanjima or ‘Battleship Island’, is one of the many uninhabited islands in Japan. It is an old coal mine facility and used to be inhabited by around 5000 workers and families from the 1880’s. When petroleum began to replace coal in the 1960’s, coal mines around the country began shutting down, including Hashima Island. In 1974, the island closed down and it hasn’t been inhabited since. It was officially re-opened in 2009, but still remains an eerie concrete ghost town. The clip below is from a Google employee who recently went to record the island for the Google Maps feature.
Something about abandoned cities always intrigues me… I don’t know if its the eerie-ness, the complete isolation, the fact that this island looks like something out of a Hayao Miyazaki film or how nature always seems to take over the man-made…but there’s just something about this island that makes me want to see it for myself.
Has anyone been to an abandoned Japanese Island?
Source: Byoukan Sunday , Rocket News
I love this island!! I knew about it in some photography book and was amazed!! It’s in my “MUST-travel” list if I go to Japan! I saw photos of it and imagined the life once were there….
Yeh it’s now on mine too!! It’s really surreal isn’t it…..
Too surreal to exist in this world!! There’re still furniture and in those empty buildings…lol
I was so drawn abandoned cities and buildings.
Have you read this book ?(Sorry in Chinese cause I don’t know how to search it in Japanese nor English..)
http://www.books.com.tw/exep/prod/booksfile.php?item=0010414215
This book is originally written in Japanese. About abandoned places in Japan….such a amazing book!
Have you ever heard of urban exploration? People make a sport of tracking down and documenting abandoned sites. In Japanese it is called Haikyo.
A great urban exploration blog that focuses mostly on Japan is ‘Abandoned Kansai’ http://abandonedkansai.wordpress.com/
Oh wow I didn’t know it was a sport! I already follow that blog 🙂 haha
oh wow, thanks for sharing!! I wonder if there are similar places close to Tokyo?
I have never heard of the abandoned Japanese island before. Japan has always been a great city of dreams and wonders with particular occurrences, especially during the war times where lives were lost. It definitely seems like a great place to go to. However, I would be too afraid to venture there myself. It definitely reflects the great wonders of East Asia. I recently read an article about the cat island from this site, http://kotaku.com/cats-rule-these-japanese-islands-1382453901. It was quite interesting as well.