Post by Tomspy77 on Jul 1, 2013 22:45:01 GMT -6
Abandoned Japanese island captured on Google Street View
Gunkanjima or "Battleship Island" is a nickname for the island of Hashima which looks a lot like a battleship from afar.
Google sent employees to explore the completely abandoned Japanese island to capture it in Google Street view.
The results are these eerie series of stills, reminding one of other Google Street View captures of abandoned places like Fukushima.
The island was inhabited for around a hundred years, primarily by coal miners harvesting the rock until the 1970s, when petroleum mostly supplanted coal in Japanese industry.
As the coal mines shut down, the island's approximately 5,000 inhabitants had no choice but to pack up and head back to the mainland.
The island was finally reopened to the public in 2009, after 35 years of being declared off-limits.
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Gunkanjima or "Battleship Island" is a nickname for the island of Hashima which looks a lot like a battleship from afar.
Google sent employees to explore the completely abandoned Japanese island to capture it in Google Street view.
The results are these eerie series of stills, reminding one of other Google Street View captures of abandoned places like Fukushima.
The island was inhabited for around a hundred years, primarily by coal miners harvesting the rock until the 1970s, when petroleum mostly supplanted coal in Japanese industry.
As the coal mines shut down, the island's approximately 5,000 inhabitants had no choice but to pack up and head back to the mainland.
The island was finally reopened to the public in 2009, after 35 years of being declared off-limits.
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