Gunkanjima Landing, Nagasaki

Follow me on my walk through "Battleship Island"

Senén Germade Dec 02, 2013 - 1 minutos de lectura

This area was once the nerve center of the mine.

In the General Office building there was even a large communal bath for the miners.

There were many other building around the office of course; however, most of them have collapsed in the meantime, at least partly.

Coal storage conveyor belt, on which the coal was once transferred to the storage facility

Only the braces of the conveyor belt survive today.

Ruins of the jetty at the entrance to the second mine

One of the old mine buildings in state of decay

The so-called No.30 Apartment, constructed in 1916 and known as "Glover House"; it is Japan's oldest 7-story reinforced concrete apartment building and served as housing for Hashima's miners.

Another view of the No.30 Apartment (right) and the No.31 Apartment (left); a communal bath was placed in the basement of the No.31 Apartment, where there were also a post office and a barbershop on the first floor.

Hashima's sea wall. Stone walls of this type are held together using an adhesive called "Amakawa".

As the island was expanded in the Meiji Period, more sea walls had to be built.

A mystic island indeed; you could call it 'Ghost Island', but to me it feels more like an art museum, also considering that "Battleship Island" (that's how it is also called) has been put on the tentative UNESCO World Heritage list as part of the Modern Industrial Heritage Sites in Kyushu and Yamaguchi. Before its reopening to visitors in 2009 landing on the island was sometimes permitted to journalist only. Then, after an important pier restoration for better and safer landing, the island was finally opened for tourists as well. I will show you a series of images of my time exploring the remains of this mysterious place.