Leaving Hashima
Watercolour and oil pastels
Charlene Brown
This Streetview picture was taken from a
boat full of tourists leaving after viewing the deserted island of Hashima, now
a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here is a link to it.
The island once had an important seabed coal-mining
facility, with the population peaking in 1959 at over 5000. The workers were housed in apartment blocks,
built to resist typhoons, including Japan’s first tall reinforced concrete
buildings. However, as oil replaced coal in the 1960s, coal mines began closing
down all over Japan. The Hashima mine closed in January 1974, and by April the
island was cleared of all inhabitants. 35 years later it was opened to tourists
and World Heritage designation was applied for. At first this was opposed by
Korea and China because of the forced labour used in the mine before and during
World War II, but both countries withdrew their opposition when Japan agreed to
acknowledge this in signage on the site.
