In 1890 the company Mitsubishi purchased Hashima (端島), a small island off the southwestern coast of Japan, as a mining site for undersea coal repositories. As the industry expanded, the island's population of workers and their families grew, leading Mitsubishi to create large concrete apartment blocks to house them. When viewed from afar, the silhouette of the apartments on the island resembles a 1920s imperial battleship, earning Hashima its nickname, "Battleship Island" (軍艦島). The mines closed in 1974 as petroleum replaced coal as a dominant fuel source, and the island quickly became abandoned without an industry to support it. Though travel to the island is largely restricted for safety reasons, intrepid Instagrammers have made the voyage to explore and document the forgotten city.
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Photo by @ryo_hs