Japanese island gets tagged as a world heritage site

Tokyo, July 10: On July 5, 2015, in a meeting held in Bonn, Germany, a Japanese island-Gunkanjima-formerly known as Hashima (which means the Battleship Island) was given the World Heritage Site tag.

An undersea coalmine, the island is known for its strange appearance with high sea walls, surrounding the island on each side.

Meanwhile, to gain the World Heritage Status, Japan was required by the committee to acknowledge the use of 60,000 forced labourers from South Korea in the 1940s.

LOcated in the historical town of Nagasaki, the site was abandoned in 1974 when petroleum began to replace coal. Developed during the Meiji area, the island stands as a residual of Japan's industrial revolution.

Once a plush city with a dense population of 7,301 people per square kilometer in 1959, years of subjugation to natural calamities like typhoon have left the concrete city in ruins.

The abandoned island was, however, opened for tourism in 2009.

OneIndia News