Japan's abandoned ghost island of Hashima

LOCATED off the coast of Nagasaki in Japan is an eerie island that has long been abandoned.

With its warship-like appearance, it's little wonder why Hashima Island is commonly known as Gunkanjima (or 'Battleship Island').

It's other nickname? Ghost Island.

For nearly a century (from 1887 to 1974), the island was a bustling coal mining facility that housed thousands of workers. Mitsubishi bought it in 1890 and built Japan's first large concrete building, at nine stories high.

With a population of 5259 people in 1959, the 6.3ha island was the most densely populated place per square metre in the world.

When the busy mine closed, Hashima Island fell into ruins.

But the deserted island is anything but forgotten. It continues to lure tourists with its enchanting yet eerie crumbling structures.

(Link)

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Quite a fascinating 'ghost island' if you ask me. I'm interested to know if any ATS members have visited this complex and can let us in on any further details about it.

reply to post by Dark Ghost


Abandoned you say? Is it possible to move there, and grow your own food and just live there without anyone knowing?

I would choose a building no one goes to, convert a few rooms for food growing, and to grow whatever I want , and i would live there me and Jude (my dog) forever

It appears to be literally within swimming distance of the main island.

I wonder if Japan would sell it, looks like a great place to rebuild on, the tourist thing is kinda **yawn**, just a bunch of old buildings.

Thank you for this sweeping overview of such an enigmatic island. Very interesting history, and intriguing story.

reply to post by Dark Ghost


If you're interested, theres always the "Street View" tour.

www.google.com... 000000000000788%2C0.30000000000000676&output=classic&cbll=32.628992%2C129.738613

I've been down to HIroshima and Nagasaki .. but I never heard of this while there.
I wish I had known about it when I was living over there in Japan.
Didn't the latest James Bond movie film there ??? I think so.

Dibs on it in case the zombie apocalypse hits!

5000 some people LIVED on that tiny thing? My...../god/.........
can you just imagine? Elbow to elbow. Literally. There's not even enough buildings to house 2000 much less 5000.....

wicked cool though. I'll ahve to read the link later after I wake up. Keeping this page open, defiintely.

Whoa, the perfect scenery for a post-apocalyptic movie or urban exploring. I'd love to go there before the place is cleaned up and re-used.

I have seen a documenturary on it before. They are studying to see how long it takes for nature to completely erase signs of man.

It looks so much like a battleship that during WW2 it was torpedoed twice by submarines. The entire place looked post apocalyptic on the show. Pretty cool.

Looks a bit creepy to me, imagine being there at night with just a flash light? Wonder if it's haunted or anything like that?

I would not want to live there. Japan is glowing at the moment and is likely to do so for several generations until they get the nuclear power plants covered up in an iron dome or something. Its a shame as Japan has a fascinating culture and would love to have visited Japan. The best thing they can do with this island is either make it into a penal colony or give it back to nature.

Just saw this covered on Discovery Channel. They said that the people left very quickly and there was evidence of lots of stuff being left behind. Also buildings were left damaged or partially destroyed, so, there was some violence. What really happened there? It was a mining operation on an island in the ocean...I wonder if they disturbed something they shouldn't have? I mean given all the conjecture of underwater or underground civilizations.

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Creepy...
thehiat.blogspot.com...



Just NO!
desertedplaces.blogspot.com...