Gunkanjima

My biggest reason for going to Nagasaki was to see "Gunkanjima",my grandfather was a coal mine design engineer after the 2nd world war.
He didn't work at Gunkanjima but Gunkanjima has been featured on TV recently,and this reminded me that he had worked on Nagasaki island.Actually he had told me about his work when I was very young,but I was too young to appreciate what he said .
Gunkan (battle ship) jima (island) has been deserted since 1974.The official name is "Hashima" but it's shaped like a battle ship ,so people keep calling it Gunkanjima instead of Hashima.The nickname has stuck,so that many people name forgotten the original name.
The island is  63,000 square meters,from north to south only 480 meters and from east to west 160 meters,but over 5,000 people lived there. It was packed!!!

Anyway,I taught a trip to Gunkanjima would be a good chance to follow up on my grandfather's history.

swimming pool

According to the guide,Gunkanjima was set up with everything,supermarkets,a movie theater,a hospital,a school and shrines etc.They only lucked two things,graves and crematory so when someone passed away,the bodies were taken to the next island,where they could be cremated and buried.

Gunkanjima is a legacy of the Japanese coal mining industry which has declined enormously.But in the golden age of coal mining,there were 900 mines all over Japan because the growth of industry was so dependent upon coal.

Nagasaki prefecture is keen to register Gunkanjima as a UNESCO world heritage site.