SPECTRALWhat happened here
Coal was found under Hashima in the 19th century, and in 1890 Mitsubishi bought the island and began deep undersea mining. The island was enlarged with sea walls and reclaimed land, and in 1916 it gained Japan's first large reinforced-concrete apartment block. At its peak in 1959, more than 5,000 people lived on about six hectares.
During the Second World War, Korean and Chinese workers were brought to the island and forced to work in the mines under harsh conditions, and some died there. When Hashima became part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015, Japan acknowledged that people had been “brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions” in the 1940s. As Japan switched from coal to oil, the mine closed in 1974 and the island emptied within months.
The legends
Ghost stories about the island circulate among visitors and in the media, many of them tied to the wartime workers of the mine: voices, footsteps and figures among the ruined blocks.
Its empty skyline — which inspired the villain's lair in the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall — has made it a favourite of urban explorers and horror stories.
Fact or legend?
The forced labour is real history, and how it is presented at the site is still disputed between Japan and South Korea. The ghost stories are best understood as one of the ways that memory of that suffering lives on.
Visiting
Tour boats from Nagasaki land on a small, fenced part of the island when the sea allows; many sailings cannot land because of waves. The buildings themselves are closed as unsafe.
