In mid-October 2021, I visited Gunkanjima (actually, Hashima Island, but called Gungakjima or “Battleship Island” due to its resemblance to a battleship when seen from a distance and at a certain angle) for the second time. My first visit was several years earlier, probably around 2013-14. At that time (I don’t remember the month), the weather was chilly and the water choppy, so we were given plastic pullovers to wear as protection against the heavy splashing of water hitting the deck that we had to endure for much of the 50-minute trip (about 18 nautical miles from Nagasaki City). On this trip, the temperature reached the mid-80s and the water was calm, but the boat was nearly sold out, even though it was a weekday excursion.


Aerial view of Gunkanjima



Battleship Island

What motivated my first visit to the island was curiosity after seeing it appear in the James Bond movie Skyfall as the hideout of Bond villain Raoul Silva. In the movie, only a distant view of the actual island is filmed, the scenes on the island were filmed on a Pinewood Studio lot in the UK and using computer graphics. The movie storyline has the island located near Macau.


James Bond sailing to Gunkanjima (Silva's hideout) in Skyfall (the landing pier in front of the island and some other structures appear to be CGI)

Gunkanjima scene from Skyfall

Gunkanjima scene from Skyfall (movie set and CGI, not the actual island)

However, the tour is not about the movie, but rather it’s an educational tour about the island, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site (approval of which was held up due to the controversy over Korean and Chinese forced labor used on the island prior to and during WWII), and its history as an undersea coal mine and a miner community that was once the most densely populated place on earth. On the way to the island, a guide points out and explains over a loudspeaker the historical sites along the way (which is very interesting in itself) and the guided tour on the island stops at a few different spots and a guide explains over a bullhorn what you are seeing. Of course, this is all in Japanese. They used to provide a prerecorded explanation of the tour in English, but now they have replaced that with a notebook printout in English of the Japanese verbal tour presentation.

The island’s population reached a peak of 5,259 in 1959 and contained just about everything a small city would have including apartment blocks, a school, kindergarten, hospital, town hall, and community center, clubhouse, cinema, communal bath, swimming pool, rooftop gardens, shops, and pachinko parlor for the miners and their families.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashima_Island

Gunkanjima then

Gunkanjima now

Gunkanjima then

Gunkanjima now

The Gunkanjima Digital Museum, affiliated with the Gunkanjima-Concierge boat tour, was recently established. It’s located close to the pier where the boat departs and diagonally across the street from the ANA Crowne Plaza Nagasaki Gloverhill and close to the entrance of Glover Garden. There’s a lot to see, much of it photos and video from the day, but also models, apartment room reproductions, items recovered from the island, and even a 360-degree virtual tour of parts of the island using VR goggles, which actually made me feel nauseous when viewing and even for a couple of hours afterward. Most of the museum’s written descriptions are displayed in English, and some of the videos also have English translations. You’ll get a discount from Gunkanjima-Concierge to visit the museum immediately before or after your tour. There is much to learn about the island but I can only present a brief synopsis here. A visit to the museum is well worth it for the interesting history lesson about Japan’s industrial development and growth from the Meiji-era up to 1974 when coal mining on the island was terminated. According to the museum’s website, at one time Gunkanjima had:

• Japan’s first reinforced concrete high-rise apartment building (necessary to protect against typhoons)
• Highest penetration rate of television sets in Japan
• World’s highest population density – about 9 times that of Tokyo
• Japan’s first rooftop garden

https://www.gunkanjima-museum.jp/

Typical apartment on Gunkanjima

Pachinko machine from the island's panchiko parlor

Scale model of Gunakanjima with fireworks

Island Tour

Gunkanjima tour boat

Several companies offer cruises and tours of Gunkanjima. Most of these cruises depart from the Nagasaki Minato Terminal pier, while another, Gunkanjima-Concierge, which I’ve taken twice, departs from a pier about a 15-minute walk from the terminal. Below are the different tours available but not all of them are offered in English.

https://www.gunkanjima-concierge.com/
https://www.gunkan-jima.net/en/
https://www.gunkanjima-cruise.jp/?lang=en
https://www.gunkanjima-tour.jp/
https://www.gunkanjima-excursion.com/landing/


English translation of tour guide's presentation


Approaching Gunkanjima

The small wooden structure on the rooftop garden is a Shinto shrine

On the island





A few years ago, I visited an onsen further down the Nagasaki Peninsula. The onsen (I don’t remember its name) is right on the ocean, so after bathing, we walked outside and, lo and behold, there was Gunkanjima a short distance away, much closer than it is from Nagasaki City, and you can take a boat from this area as well.

Gunkanjima in relation to Nagasaki Peninsula and City

Gunkanjima and East China Sea as seen from Nagasaki Peninsula

View from Nagasaki Peninsula wih zoom lense