Posted on 03/25/2023 20:54
Video length: 3 mins
France 2 articles written by
A. Miguet, G. Caron, K. Watanabé, Y. Sano, R. Murata – France 2
France TV
Go to the mysterious island of Hashima in Japan which is now deserted. With its appearance of a disused industrial fortress, it fascinates and attracts many visitors.
Located off Nagasaki (Japan), Hashima is a deserted island. For James Bond in Skyfall it looks like a fortress from the sea, a ruined ghost town from the inside. 480 meters long and 160 meters wide, the small island was emptied of its inhabitants 48 years ago. Today tourists visit it by boat. Minoru Kinoshita grew up there until he was 13 years old. “It was fun living here as a kid. It was like the whole island was one big family,” he says.
An old mining town
Owned by Mitsubishi at the end of the 19th century, the island was then a mining town. There, high-quality coal is mined at a depth of 1,000 m. In the late 1950s it was the most densely populated place on earth, with 5,300 people living on just over six hectares. Then oil prevailed over coal, and from 1974 the island was abandoned. The Iron Island, as the Japanese call it, is a remnant of Japan’s industrialization and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
view comments
Share the article on social networks: