The Allure of Abandonment
Why is it that we find abandoned buildings simultaneously revolting and alluring? An obvious answer is simple curiosity with inquiries about the location’s history and former inhabitants. Though many times we hesitate in this urge for urban exploration, due to the fact that after years of abandonment the buildings of ghost towns are decrepit and decaying. Obviously, unless you enjoy injury then it would only make sense to avoid abandoned buildings and cities even more so, unless you also enjoy the risk of potentially ending up in an amber alert. With a simple search on Google Maps you can see photos of just about any place on the planet from the safety of your home. This article will focus on three deliciously derelict sites in the wonderful archipelago of Japan. The three locations that will be discussed are Hashima island, the site of the Fukushima nuclear reactor, and an abandoned hospital.
Hashima Island, Japan
The first of these areas is Hashima Island located 15 km from Nagasaki City. It was an industrial hub during the 1st and 2nd World Wars due to the fact that coal deposits were plentiful on the island. The Mitsubishi group in 1881 purchased land on the island due to needing to mine coal deposits to fuel their combustion engines. 4th the reasoning add to why the name Mitsubishi is so familiar is because Mitsubishi’s subsidiary companies are responsible for the construction of a wide range of products from automobiles to tools to home appliances, odds are rather high that I’d the product is a mechanical device and especially if it requires a commission engine to operate them Mitsubishi owned a company responsible for its construction. To better accommodate the mining workforce on the island, Mitsubishi industrialized the island in 1916 by building apartment complexes, schools, bathhouses, a clubhouse and a cinema among other luxuries for the workers and their families who called the island home. The buildings were conducted out of concrete making them inexpensive, stable and long lasting. Hence why the city is in such good condition considering that our has been abandoned since the mid 1970s due a mix of the coal reserves being depleted and the fact that oil had been replacing coal as the dominant fossil fuel.
Fukushima Nuclear Plant
The next location of our urban jungle safari is the ruins of the Fukushima nuclear plant, or at least as much of it can be observed via Google Maps. The Fukushima nuclear reactor was commissioned in 1971 and was one of the largest nuclear plants in the world. Though the March 2011 9.0 earthquake was infamous for causing the plant to meltdown, the plant itself was suffering from structural issues before then, the earthquake and tsunami made what was an already horrendous situation worse. It was less the straw that broke the camel’s back and more the lead weight. Though there is 20 km no go zone around the ruins, photos of the plant’s interior from the play should hopefully be enough to whet our appetite for the strange. Just, be careful where you decide to poke around since you may not want some ghostly guests visiting you in the ER.
Abandoned Hospital
The last of these abandoned locations can be found not only in Japan, but in any industrialized nation. Hospitals have always given us a special kind of cocktail of terror mixed with hope since even our childhood. From anxiety over inoculation and illness, to the hope that whomever is ill, whether it be us personally, a family member or even a complete stranger recovers from whatever ails them. Though there were, and tragically are instances of people dying through no fault of their own and these tragedies were often the inspiration for myths and monsters causing the sudden death. There is a yokai, which are Japanese folk monsters that are based on the very real, very dismaying fear that any parent has: dying before knowing your child.
The monster known as ubume is a demon manifested from the grief that is felt by mothers who have either died from medical complications before even holding their baby. The ubume is then said to haunt the community spreading its misery by causing miscarriages. This can be prevented however, the mother has to hold the baby even if the mother or child have died, the subconscious bond of parent and child is that powerful even in the oblivion of death.
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