Hashima Island lies nine miles off the port of Nagasaki, Japan. Between the seawall which encircles the small island and the abandoned apartment blocks rising from it, many think that it looks like a battleship, earning the nickname, Gunkanjima, or “Battleship Island.” The tiny island was once the most densely populated spot on the globe with 5,259 residents living and working on only 16 acres. For the last 40 years, it has been abandoned and uninhabited, a ghost island, its concrete towers slowly crumbling into the sea. In July 2015, after some controversy, the island was formally approved as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Beginning in 1887, when a rich deposit of coal was discovered, the island was turned into a large coal mine. Mineshafts reached deep beneath the sea while the apartment buildings for the miners rose skyward on the island above. Mitsubishi purchased the islands and built nine-story apartment buildings, the first large concrete buildings in Japan.

In the 1930s and during World War II, the Japanese used Chinese prisoners of war and Korean conscripts as slave labor to mine coal at Hashima under harsh and inhumane conditions. The island was called, “Jail Island” and “Hell Island” by the enslaved miners.

After the mine was shut down in 1974, it was closed to visitors for 35 years. In 2009, the first tourists were allowed to visit the island. In 2009, Japan also requested that Hashima Island, among with 22 other industrial sites, be added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The request was met by protests from South Korean authorities and others. Finally, after Japan agreed to acknowledged use of forced labor during World War II, the Koreans and others dropped their objections and the island was approved for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list on July 5.

Hashima Island was featured in the James Bond film, Skyfall in 2012, although no scenes were actually shot on the island as the condition of the ruins was judged to be too dangerous for the actors.

Even if Hashima/Battleship Island is not safe for movie crews, Google has sent its crews there so that anyone can visit virtually using Google Streetview.  Click here to visit Battleship Island.

Hashima | 100 Wonders | Atlas Obscura