Japan’s Abandoned Hashima Island Is Full Of Decay And Dark Secrets.
In Skyfall, James Bond sails to an abandoned island off Macau, where he is taken prisoner by the villain, Raoul Silva.
Silva, played by spanish actor Javier Bardem, is a former MI6 employee turned cyber-terrorist who bears striking similarity to Batman’s nemesis The Joker.
Hashima Island, once a mecca for undersea coal mining, was a sharp representation of Japan‘s rapid industrialization. Also known as Gunkanjima (meaning Battleship Island) for its resemblance to a Japanese battleship, Hashima functioned as a coal facility from 1887 until 1974.
In the 1970s, the mine was closed and residents were forced to leave, with the abandoned buildings left to deteriorate.
During World War II, the history of the island is darker as Japanese wartime mobilization policies exploited enlisted Korean civilians and Chinese prisoners of war as forced laborers. Made to work under harsh conditions, it’s estimated that over 1,000 workers died on the island between the 1930s and the end of the war as a result of unsafe working conditions, malnutrition, and exhaustion.
As a tourist site, the island was named a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Historical Site in 2015 and groups of visitors can be taken on tours.
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