Gunkanjima Perspective - No. 1

Virile 'Battleship Island' floating in the ocean

Takako Sakamoto Oct 14, 2014 - 2 min read

<p>The whole shape of Gunkanjima is now unveiled in front of my eyes. It surely looks like a battleship</p>

<p>At 2 p.m. we will finally land on Gunkanjima. The weather is fine, but how high will the waves get...</p>

<p>As soon as your boat departs from Nagasaki Seaside Park, you'll see the docks of Nagasaki Shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a symbol of the maritime city Nagasaki</p>

<p>On the way to Gunkanjima, you can see Kaminoshima Church in the center of Kaminoshima Island (left). A statue of the Virgin Mary is watching over our safe voyage</p>

<p>Despite the fine weather, the sea was rough and my boat went up and down</p>

<p>Clusters of uninhabited buildings on the island</p>

<p>Amazingly, they built Japan's first large concrete buildings in 1916 here on the far west island</p>

<p>On the north side of the island miners' residences still stand uninhabited</p>

<p>The silhouetted Gunkanjima in B & W viewed from southeast</p>

<p>On the left is the isolation ward of Hashima Hospital</p>

On New Year's Day this year, I landed on Hashima Island, which is commonly known as 'Gunkanjima, the Battleship Island', by speed boat that departed from the port of Nagasaki in the afternoon.

Since this island is located in the outer sea, waves are high and rough at times and ships to the island are often canceled. But fortunately on the New Year's Day that we went the ship was able to depart! How lucky we were! However, the ship we took was small - capacity was only 100 passengers. It SWAYED and ROLLED and about ten passengers became seasick. I highly recommend that you take medicine for seasickness before boarding a ship to Gunkanjima Island. The Japanese government recently decided to support the application of this island for World Heritage designation. Since I'm a fan of 'ruins', Gunkanjima truly fascinated me!

Undersea Coal Mine Island, 'Gunkanjima' 1. Gunkanjima Perspective - No. 1 2. Ruins on Gunkanjima - No. 2 3. Gunkanjima: Undersea Entrance - No. 3

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Takako Sakamoto @takako.sakamoto

I was born in and grew up in Tokushima prefecture, and have lived in many places since then: Nishinomiya, Kyoto, Nara, Mie, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Fukuoka and Fukui. I am currently living in Yokohama City. All the places I lived, all the places I visited, I have loved dearly. The histor...