'Battleship' Island, Coal Mine, Japan - Describe Works?.?

Question

Saw the dense concrete structures atop island and want to know more about coal mine operation that structured huge complex above.

Answer 1

By 1940 there were more than 30 concrete buildings on the island.

During World War II the Japanese government forcibly recruited large numbers

of Koreans and Chinese to work in the mines, and many of these men perished

due to the harsh living conditions and malnutrition. Hashima's annual coal

production reached a peak of 410,000 tons in the early 1940’s to meet the huge

wartime demand for coal. By the end of the war about 1,300 slave laborers had

died on the island.

After the war living and working conditions improved. Mitsubishi corporation

offered free accomodation, electricity and bathing facilities on the “island without

green” (midori naki shima). Apart from the movie-theatre, a Pachinko parlor and

a bowling center (both built in 1955) provided entertainment for the workers and

their families. There were retail shops, a Buddhist temple and a Shinto shrine.

Many families brought soil from the mainland and started to grow vegetables and

flowers on the roofs of the buildings. A hospital and a new school for primary and

secondary education were inaugurated in 1958. The last structure built on the

island was the gymnasium, which was constructed in 1970.

Soon after Mitsubishi corporation decided to close down the Hashima mines

due to falling profits and comparitively cheap foreign coal imports. The closing

ceremony was held on January 15, 1974. The exodus from the island started the

next day and was completed in April. Since then Gunkanjima has been an

uninhabited ghost island. Thirty-one years of harsh weather and salty sea air

have taken its toll. The concrete is crumbling, many of the 70 structures on the

island are falling apart or on the verge to collapse. In the past few years a couple

of typhoons have done extensive damage, especially to the island’s piers. It is

almost impossible to go there by boat now. Only during high tide, when the sea

is calm, can one try to dock at the island, though, for obvious safety reasons,

setting foot on the island is officially prohibited.