Chilling private island where the entire city was built 'in BATTLESHIP' and the residents each had one and a half meters of living space

A TINY island off the coast of Japan, shaped like a battleship and abandoned for decades, was a living 'hell' for its former inhabitants.

Thousands of Korean and Chinese prisoners were forced to continue working Hashima from 1930 to just after World War II – and some never escaped.

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Hashima Island, also known as “Gunkanjima” or “Battleship Island”is the most famous of Nagasaki's 505 uninhabited islands.

It was discovered in 1887 and served as an important coal mine from the time it was purchased by Mitsubishi in 1890.

Towering concrete buildings were erected – the first in 1916 – by Korean and Chinese prisoners who faced grueling conditions.

Up to 1,300 conscript workers died on Hashima from hazards such as underground accidents, exhaustion and malnutrition.

Those who survived later shared that they did not call the island Hashima or “Battleship Island”, but “Jail Island” or “Hell Island”.

After the war, many Japanese moved to the island to work themselves – and each had only one and a half meters of living space.

An astonishing 5,300 people were crammed into the 480 by 160 meter space at its peak, when it was still a hub of national coal production. miningtogether with a hospital, schoolsshops and even a temple and a shrine.

But the mines soon ran out of coal and closed around 1974, leaving Hashima abandoned to be reclaimed by nature for forty years.

The concrete buildings, previously thought to be strong enough to protect the island's residents from the numerous typhoons that hit Hashima every year, began to fall apart.

Perhaps drawn to the island by the darkness historysome people camped there despite the dangers.

The government ultimately opted for it open the site to the publicand shoring up or replacing walls that were about to collapse, in an effort to discourage people from going there themselves and potentially getting hurt.

In 2015, Hashima was approved for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List; the eerie island today resembles a concrete jungle of abandoned high-rises, surrounded by a huge sea wall.

Japan acknowledged the survivors of forced labor who inhabited the island, stating “there were a large number of Koreans and others who were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions” on Hashima Island in the 1940s.

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