Whilst Having A Shower,

I suddenly remembered where I had seen the island,

the one I am referring to is Battleship Island, Hashima or Gunkanjima as it was once known, that was featured in the James Bond movie Skyfall, that we watched just a couple of nights ago, the reason I remembered was that we had featured it on our blog some time ago, but back to the island, only 40 years ago this tiny island was the site of a thriving community with the highest population density on earth, ever, one among 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture, Hashima lies in the East China Sea some 15 kilometres from Nagasaki,


it was important to the Japanese for coal, one mine owner Nabeshima Naomasa, lord of the Nabeshima Clan, who had a mine on nearby Takashima turned to Scottish merchant Thomas B. Glover (1838-1911) for help, the enormous success of the Takashima coal mine filled Nagasaki coffers with foreign currency and sparked a rush to develop mines on nearby islands—including the until-then useless heap of rock called Hashima then enter the big players,


Mitsubishi Corporation purchased the mine for 100,000 yen, the now world-famous company had expanded rapidly after its inception as a shipping enterprise in 1873, and had purchased the Takashima Coal Mine in 1881, Hashima's annual coal production reached a peak of 410,000 tons in 1941,


but there is a dark side to all of this, about 1,300 labourers had died on the island, some in underground accidents, others of illnesses related to exhaustion and malnutrition, still others had chosen a quicker, less gruesome death by jumping over the sea-wall and trying in vain to swim to the mainland, the story appears here, it is a fascinating read, mostly forgotten, whilst looking for information I was surprised by the number of 404 messages I received, I guess some things are best left forgotten,


during its 84-year career under Mitsubishi, the island produced some 16.5 million tons of coal, the last resident stepped onto the ship for Nagasaki on 20 April 1974, and from that time visitors or tourists have been banned from the island,


but in April 2009, however, a newly constructed boat dock made it possible for sightseeing tour boats to land on Gunkanjima, tour participants are taken to three observation decks in a small part on the southern end of the island and spend about 45 minutes on the island with Japanese speaking tour guides, would we like to visit? with a tour of Japan yes we would.