Japan was late to a bunch of things. Jazz, Funk, beer, capitalism and… oh yeah... the industrial revolution.
See, around the year 1870 the western world was done and dusted with the industrial revolution, but Japan's own industrialization had only just begun. This was a period known as the Meiji Restoration, during which Japan’s ports were opened up for trade after a long period of stoic protectionism.
There, right at the beginning of it all, was Mitsubishi. Its founder, Yataro Iwasaki (moustache, pictured above), jumped on the newly opened opportunities and started out as a shipping company. But to power its new fleet of steam-engined ships, they needed an all-important resource. Coal.
What better way to guarantee a resource than to buy an entire supply of it that nobody else can touch? Mitsubishi found a way when it purchased Hashima Island in 1890.
Yeah, they bought an entire island. The problem? Well, all the coal was underwater and the island was prone to being hit by typhoons. That wasn’t the only issue though. Even though the industrial revolution had hit, machinery for mining was still… rudimentary. Mitsubishi needed to house the hundreds of workers needed to actually extract the coal on the tiny rock.
As a result, in 1916, Mitsubishi built Japan’s first concrete apartment block, on a 160x480m island, solely to protect inhabitants from the inhospitable conditions during a typhoon. Other technological marvels included an impressive-at-the-time 200-metre-long conveyor, Japan's first steam-powered mine shaft. Facilities on the island included schools, artificial parks and even a cinema, it was referred to as the 'model island' a microcosm of Japanese society.
The coal shafts below the island stretched as far as 1km deep and by 1941 annual coal production was over 400,000 tons. Over the course of the island’s 84-year industry, a total of 15.7 million tons of coal was extracted.
In a way Skyfall’s fictional but insidious history for the island is fitting. It’s important to remember that during the Second World War (at the peak of annual production...), many Korean and Chinese prisoners were put into forced labour in inhuman conditions, at a time where food and water were scarse.
So what ultimately happened? Oil, mostly. With little demand for coal in the '70s, Mitsubishi finally closed down operations in 1974. It probably didn’t help that the island wasn’t very safe… With nowhere to go, every time a fire broke out many people died.
The island lay abandoned for 35 years before Mitsubishi gave it back to the city of Nagasaki voluntarily in 2002. It has since been added to UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites on the basis that it was one of the most important locations that lead to the industrialisation of modern Japan.
Oh yeah, and the island is referred to in Japan by its nickname 'Gunkanjima' – literally: ‘Battleship Island’ – sounds like the title of an anime.
Did you know about Mitsubishi’s odd and twisted connection to Hashima/Gunkanjima island? Tell us what you think in the comments.
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