If you have watched the James Bond movie Skyfall, do you remember Silvia the villain’s abandoned island that was used as his secret lair? I wonder sometimes if these movie locations are created in the studio or actually places.
Turns out this was a place called Hashima Island or Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) of the Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan. Nicknamed Battleship Island for the reason it resembles a warship and I believe I read somewhere it was once torpedoed due to its silhouette.
The island was first used for seabed coal mining. Miners’ apartments were built from concrete to protect against typhoons. The buildings grew and included a school, hospital, clubhouse, and cinema. During WWII, it was a place of forced labor as prisoners of war had to endure harsh conditions here.
The Island covers a 16-acre area and at its peak held a population of 5,259 people. Today, it is abandoned but most of the buildings and sea walls are still intact. You can virtually visit the island as Google has it on Street View.
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