Gunkanjima or Hashima – a tiny abandoned island off Nagasaki, lying about 15km from the centre of the city – became popular for coal mining during the industrialisation of Japan in the 1950s. Now, it has become a ghost island! As this island looks like a naval ship anchored in the middle of the sea because of its high-rise buildings, it is also known as Battleship Island.

Currently, Gunkanjima is one of more than 500 uninhabited islands in the world! Several films, including Skyfall (a 2012 spy film and the 23rd in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions), have been shot on this island. High quality coal was discovered on Gunkanjima Island in 1810 and the Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) bought the island from the Government of Japan in 1890. Later, the global integrated business enterprise built a coal mine and several buildings, including a 10-storey one, on the island. By 1959, the population of Gunkanjima crossed the 5,000-mark! Nearly 0.4 million tonnes of coal was produced from the 1sqkm area of the island per annum at that time.

The concerned authorities also built housing apartments, one after another, to develop the island. Hospitals, swimming pools for recreation, club houses and even theatres were also built for the convenience of the islanders. Those buildings were constructed in such a way that they could be protected from typhoons. Hence, this island looks like a huge battleship from a distance.

It is said that Japan imprisoned thousands of Chinese and South Korean nationals on Gunkanjima Island during the Second World War! The prisoners were forced to do hard work in the coal mines as punishment. However, petroleum replaced coal in the Japanese industrial sector in 1960. Hence, the authorities decided to shut down all the coal mines across the Asian country. Residents of Gunkanjima were asked to leave the 6.3-hectare (16-acre) island overnight and the process of abandoning the island began in January 1974. The inhabitants left the island on April 20 of the same year.

Japan opened Gunkanjima Island for tourists in 2009 and adventure-lovers started arriving there. In 2015, the island was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site! Later, the preservation of the buildings on the island began under the leadership of Dr Takafumi Noguchi, a Professor of Engineering at the University of Tokyo.

There are ruins of some of those buildings on this abandoned island that have witnessed several natural disasters. David Farrier, a journalist from New Zealand, made a web series, titled Dark Tourist, on Gunkanjima Island. The documentary series, having eight episodes, about dark tourism was released by Netflix in 2018.

This ghost island of Japan stands witness to a plethora of dark historical events, ranging from imperialism, slavery and the like!

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das