Hashima Island (Battleship Island)
Once the most densely populated place on Earth, this abandoned coal mining island housed 5,000 workers in brutal conditions. Forced laborers died by the hundreds. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, visitors report spirits of Korean and Chinese workers who perished there still roaming the ruins.
Rising from the sea like a concrete battleship, Hashima Island stands as a monument to industrial ambition, human suffering, and abandonment. Once home to 5,000 people crammed onto 16 acres, the island was abandoned in 1974 and has slowly crumbled ever since. Visitors to this ghost city report more than just the ghosts of buildings - they report the spirits of those who died there.
The Coal Mine
Mitsubishi purchased the island in 1890 and began extracting coal from undersea shafts that eventually extended 600 meters below the ocean floor. The work was dangerous and brutal. Workers descended in elevators to tunnels where temperatures exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the risk of collapse was constant.
To house workers, Mitsubishi built Japan’s first large concrete residential buildings - towering apartments that gave the island its “battleship” silhouette when viewed from sea. By 1959, Hashima had a population density of 139,100 people per square kilometer, making it the most densely populated place on Earth.
The island was self-contained: apartments, schools, shops, a hospital, a shrine, a theater, and even a small brothel. But beneath the infrastructure was exploitation.
The Forced Labor
During World War II, Mitsubishi brought Korean and Chinese workers to Hashima as forced laborers. Conditions were atrocious. Workers were essentially enslaved, forced into the most dangerous mining duties with inadequate food and rest. Beatings were common. Medical care was minimal.
An estimated 1,300 workers died on Hashima during this period - from mine accidents, exhaustion, disease, and malnutrition. Many were young men conscripted from their homelands and worked to death in the undersea tunnels.
This history became controversial when Japan nominated Hashima as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015. Korea objected to any designation that glossed over the forced labor history. UNESCO granted the designation with a requirement that Japan acknowledge “the full history” of the sites, including the forced labor.
The Abandonment
When petroleum replaced coal as Japan’s primary energy source, Hashima’s mines became uneconomical. Mitsubishi closed the operation in January 1974, and residents were given three months to leave. They departed by ship, leaving behind furniture, appliances, televisions - everything that couldn’t easily be carried.
For the next 35 years, Hashima was strictly off-limits. The concrete buildings began to crumble. Typhoons tore at the structures. Vegetation pushed through cracks. The island became a photographer’s dream and a testament to how quickly human civilization can decay.
The Haunting
When tours began in 2009 (on restricted portions of the island), visitors started reporting paranormal experiences:
The Miners: Figures in work clothes are seen in the industrial areas, particularly near the mine shaft entrances. They appear momentarily and vanish.
Children: Despite the decades of abandonment, visitors report hearing children playing or crying from the decaying apartment blocks.
The Korean Laborers: Near the area where forced workers were housed, visitors report overwhelming feelings of sadness and despair. Some have reported seeing figures watching them from windows that have long since lost their glass.
Physical Effects: Visitors describe feeling pushed, touched, or grabbed, particularly in the lower levels of buildings and near the mine entrances.
Photographs: Unexplained figures and faces appear in photographs taken on the island - forms that weren’t visible when the pictures were taken.
Modern Significance
Hashima Island appeared in the James Bond film “Skyfall” (2012), though filming occurred on a recreation due to safety concerns on the actual island. Its haunting appearance has made it a popular subject for documentaries and urban exploration.
The island represents both Japan’s industrial achievement and its capacity for exploitation. The spirits reportedly seen there may be remnants of the thousands who suffered and died to extract coal from beneath the sea. For them, there was no evacuation - they remain on Hashima forever.