Within the Fifties, the most crowded location on earth changed into a Japanese island 9 miles of Nagasaki. Nowadays, it might be tough to imagine such a lonely place.
• At Japan’s westernmost tip, 505 uninhabited islands dot the Sea of Japan. One of them is Hashima Island, bought by Mitsubishi Motors in 1890 when they discover coal over there. The company set-up some giant seawalls around the island, in order to prevent typhoons, as a result, the island remains known as Gunkanjima in Japanese —”Battleship Island.”
Big Apartment Towers, Japan’s
First massive concrete buildings, built to house the army of workers that Hashima’s mine required. By 1959, there were 5,259 human beings dwelling there, on a footprint smaller than a regular stadium. That gave the island a population density of over 216,000 citizens per square mile, more crowded than any other island on earth.
• In 1974, Mitsubishi shut down the mine. Japan’s coal industry had collapsed because of the country’s switch to petroleum. Within few weeks, the whole island became absolutely abandoned. A vertical concrete ghost town where desks still in classrooms, furniture and TVs still in place. The authorities banned travel to the ghost island, you’ll deal with 30 days in prison if you decide to do so.
