Exploring Japan’s abandoned industrial island of Hashima, 50 years after its closure

A high sea wall runs around the perimeter of Hashima island. Photo / Japan News

The Japanese island of Hashima was closed in 1974 and fell into disrepair, but since the 2000s, it has been reborn as a tourist destination.

On an island off the coast of Nagasaki, ruins that seem on the verge of collapse stand clustered behind a high sea wall. Though officially known as Hashima, the island is sometimes called Gunkanjima, or Battleship Island, because of its resemblance to the warship Tosa. Last year was the 50th anniversary of the closing of the island’s coal mine, which once made the spot prosperous.

High-quality coal was discovered on Hashima about 1810. In the island’s heyday, about 5300 people lived there, making it the most densely populated island in Japan. Within the 1.2km-long perimeter were most of the things one would need for daily life, including an elementary and junior high school, a hospital, a post office and a nursery school.

Hashima backlit as the sun sets in the sky. The island’s silhouette resembles a warship. Photo / Japan News

The island was closed in 1974 and fell into disrepair, but since the 2000s, it has been reborn as a tourist destination. In 2015, Hashima Coal Mine was added to the World Cultural Heritage list as one of the “sites of Japan’s Meiji industrial revolution”. Preservation work is also under way.

Strolling around the island, visitors can tell how many years have passed by the overgrowth of trees. It is difficult to imagine the hustle and bustle that once existed here, with only the lonely sound of waves now echoing off the island. In the spring of years past, the annual Hashima Shrine Festival would be held, and in the summer there were fireworks displays and bon odori dancing.

An abandoned slide atop the roof of the 10-storey No 65 Apartment Building. Photo / Japan News

From above, you can see the collapsed shrine hall, with only the miniature hokora shrine left intact. There is also a slide on the roof of the No 65 Apartment Building, which was company housing for the miners, but the walls and pillars around the slide are heavily cracked. In a room in another building, there is an abandoned cathode ray tube television, along with some shelves. Plants that formerly were found only in the rooftop vegetable garden now bloom brightly among the rubble.

“I have good memories of playing quietly, caring for the miners who were tired from their night shifts and sleeping during the day,” said Minoru Kinoshita, 71, who lived on the island for 12 years. “When I go to the island, there are so many nostalgic memories that I feel like I’m the age I was back then.” No matter how desolate the island may be, his feelings for his home town remain warm.

The building for Hashima’s elementary and junior high school, constructed in 1958, lies on the northern part of the island. Photo / Japan News

Although most of the island is off limits to visitors, it has been in the spotlight in recent years, serving as the setting for movies and TV dramas and attracting tourists from all over the world.

“I’m happy the island will be remembered by so many people. It seems to be a little livelier than it used to be,” said a smiling Kinoshita.

This year marks a decade since the isle was added to the World Cultural Heritage list. This small hump of land, which once supported Japan’s economic growth, seems to have found a new place for itself in the world.