Battleship Island | Hello from the Five Star Vagabond

Battleship Island Nagasaki

November 16, 2016 by David Herd

Ferry to Battleship Island aka Gunkanjima

Battleship Island Nagasaki coal mine

Battleship Island Nagasaki coal mine, has been abandoned since 1974. The real name is Hashima Island commonly known as Gunkanjima which translates to ‘Battleship Island’. The ferry trip takes just 45 minutes to reach the fascinating deserted island.

Battleship Island Nagasaki coal mine

Here is our first glimpse of the “ghost island”, and yes it does look like a battleship. 🙂

Lookout or bird’s nest?

Not too sure what this little house was used for but it is a good spot for a lookout.

We are almost at the dock

Only a hundred meters to go before we leave the ferry for an hour to walk around the island.

OK, here we are at Battleship Island Nagasaki

We are all given a number in a plastic holder to wear around our neck, I guess they don’t want to leave anybody behind.

Crumbling walls & buildings

According to our guide the destruction of walls & building is totally due to the regular typhoons that have pounded the island over the last 40 years.

The power of a typhoon

It seems incredible that typhoons & storms can reduce concrete buildings to rubble.

Japanese guide

Our guide was excellent and told us a lot about the history of Battleship Island Nagasaki coal mine. For instance, from 1887 the island was a very busy coal mining facility that employed thousands of workers. In 1959 there were over 5,200 people living on the 6.3 hectare of space which was Battleship Island, this in fact made it the most densely populated place per square meter on the planet.

The boys from Sydney

Doug & Waz are two lads from western Sydney I met on the ferry, we hooked up together & explored the island, then back in Nagasaki enjoyed many ice cold beers followed by an excellent Italian dinner.

Aerial view of Hashima Island

This shot puts the island into perspective, credit to Kntrty, Flickr Source: Supplied.

Video of Battleship Island

Hashima Island is called Battleship Island

Watch this video on YouTube

My apologies for the wind noise.

Happy tourists

The island has been featured in several films and recently being the inspiration for the villain’s lair in the James Bond movie Skyfall.

More boats approach the island

There seems to be a huge amount of tourists visiting the island, TripAdvisor rate it 3rd out of 242 things to do in Nagasaki.

The power of nature

It seems hard to believe typhoons can cause such devastation.

Battleship Island Nagasaki coal mine

So as you can imagine after the mine mine closed in 1974 sadly Hashima Island gradually was reduced to ruins.

Make sure you take this interesting tour.

The cost was 4,300 Yen & well worth the expense, here are the ferry details.

My hotel in Nagasaki was only a three minute walk to the station & a short tram ride to the ferry terminal. Rated highly by AGODA, book through THIS LINK for an excellent room rate with free WiFi.

Standing Boy of Nagasaki

Please follow think link for the full story.

A young boy carries on his back the lifeless body of his younger brother, in the devastated city of Nagasaki after the atomic bomb. An American military photographer, Joe O’Donnell, took a picture of him standing stoically near a cremation pit. No one knows the boy’s name, but the photo has become an iconic image of the human tragedy of nuclear war. This program follows the continuing efforts to deepen understanding of the photograph, while exploring the fate of thousands of “atomic-bomb orphans” and their struggles to survive the aftermath of World War II.

Thanks for visiting my Battleship Island Nagasaki coal mine photo blog, please check out my Nagasaki city blog on THIS LINK.

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