Photo from open sources
At one time, this small piece of land surrounded by the sea was just bare rock towering above water uninhabited an island on which only local fishermen occasionally sailed.
But at the beginning of the 19th century, rich coal deposits were discovered here, and Hashima Island gathered a lot of people in the hope of earning money. Coal mining, on the one hand, somewhat leveled the island, and with another – even expanded it somewhat, since the climb to the surface of the waste rock was accompanied by its discharge near the coast in sea. In addition, the island of Hashima was then purposefully and artificially expand and complete.
A photo from open sources
Nevertheless, he remained a tiny island with an area only 0.063 square kilometers (coastline only about a thousand meters). And while the maximum density its population for half a century (the time of the most intense coal mining here) conditionally amounted to more than 140 thousand people per square kilometer, although in reality at this then only a few thousand coal workers lived in a piece of land mines.
A photo from open sources
From an uninhabited rock this island in appearance with time turned into a kind of armored tanker, although in fact it was a fairly large industrial center of the coal mining industry. In this “bunker” were multi-storey buildings, schools, hospitals, shopping and drinking establishments, various entertainment facilities and much other that is necessary for the life of a civilized item. True, living in tiny apartments, sizes in a few square meters, more like dormitories for prisoners, it was difficult to call comfortable. But people somehow lived they worked, many were quite happy with such an existence …
A photo from open sources
During World War II, prisoners were brought to Hashima Island, forcing them to work in the deepest and most terrible working conditions mines – at a depth of 700-800 meters below sea level. No wonder that most of these prisoners simply did not survive this slave violence.
The turning point for this island was 1947. In connection with the full depletion of coal reserves, mines that fateful year on the island of Hashima were closed, so the locals had no choice but to leave acquired places. Everything created on the island was also abandoned. infrastructure. Hashima in a few months turned into ghost island.
A photo from open sources
Now you could only come here to look at it a gradually collapsing nest once, albeit severe, but human life. Because the interest from tourists and just vandals to the island persisted (things from Hashima are still high valued on the black market), the government had to fight for many years with this phenomenon, since in this “bunker” there were now unsafe: dilapidated housing and other buildings threatened to collapse, underneath people. But in general, it seemed that Japan was eager for forget about this island, deleting it from its history.
A photo from open sources
However, in 2015, Hashima Island was included in the list of world UNESCO heritage. Today it has become a tourist destination, here a considerable stream of those who for some reason adore seeing traces of the previous civilization, now already rested in the Bose. However today you can walk around a deserted island far from free – only on special tracks. For violation of this prohibition a rather large fine is foreseen …
Japan Life Time
