Recently I spotted an article in the Nagasaki Shimbun noting that the latest 007 James Bond film, Skyfall, features the Japanese ghost island of Hashima (端島), otherwise known as Gunkanjima (軍艦島) – ‘Battleship Island’.Readers of this website will undoubtedly remember my illicit account of urban exploration on the real island itself back in 2010. The Island of Hashima, which served as the set for Javier Bardem’s Bond baddie in 2012’s Skyfall, was one of 23 Japanese sites given world heritage status five years ago by Unesco. And, it didn't always look the way it did in "Skyfall." Once home to a thriving mining community, it is now almost completely deserted - although not quite, as the plot of the latest James Bond film, Skyfall, would have us believe. Also known as Gunkanjima (meaning Battleship Island) for its resemblance to a Japanese battleship, Hashima functioned as a coal facility from 1887 until 1974. Hashima Island, once a mecca for undersea coal mining, was a sharp representation of Japan‘s rapid industrialization. Located off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan, is the now-abandoned island of Hashima. Hashima is a tiny industrialised island situated off the south west coast of Japan. Hashima Islands abandoned 16 acres of nowadays wasteland are redolent with decay and frosted-over by the still extant memories of dark shadows surrounding certain aspects of its more recent past. Once the coal reserves started depleting and petroleum began replacing coal, the mines shut down and the …

January 14th, 2013. This abandoned island with crumbling concrete buildings was the inspiration for the evil dude’s hacking headquarters in the latest James Bond movie Skyfall. Until it was abandoned in 1971 the island was the entrance to one of the world’s most unusual coal mines, and at its peak housed 5,300 workers. In the movie, it is referred to as the Dead City off the coast of Macau, but Hashima is located near Nagasaki in Japan. The latest destination to spark interest is Hashima, the deserted island in Skyfall, the location of the villain’s hideout in the latest 007 flick.

Tagged abandoned, Battleship Island, Ghost Island, Gunkanjima, hacking headquarters of a 007 villain, Hashima, Hashima Island, James Bond, lost city, Skyfall, urban exploration, urbex; Permalink.