The uninhabited Japanese Island of Gunkanjima (also known as Battleship Island) and since 2015 registered as an UNESCO world heritage site, is the subject for MAKIKO’s photo series entitled “BATTLESHIP ISLAND”. (Previously called “Paradise Revisited”)
This series, consists of 700+ monochrome photographs, captures childhood memories of this island, which has been abandoned and untouched for over 40 years. The island recently appeared as a haunting backdrop in the 007 movie ‘Skyfall’, representing the evil home of villain, Raoul Silva.
In Summer 2015 MAKIKO was granted rare permission by Nagasaki City to visit the restricted zone, in order to show how it is now and to remember how it was 40 years ago, through the memories of a former resident who was from a mining family and spent a happy childhood on the island, leaving at the age of 13.
Shooting from his perspective as a child, MAKIKO has produced a beautiful and powerful photo essay, which recalls priceless memories of a time spent in what was once a childhood paradise.
The island of Gunkamjina used to be an industrial metropolis. It was known for its coal mine and was bought by Mitsubishi in 1890 who began extracting coal from undersea mines. In 1916, the company built Japan's first large 7 storey concrete building, choosing concrete specifically to protect against typhoon destruction.
In 1960, population on the island reached its peak of 5,267 inhabitants, making it one of the most densely crowded places on earth, but when petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960s, the coal mines started shutting down and Mitsubishi closed its mine in 1974. The residents were asked to leave within three months and as leaving ships could not accommodate all their possessions, many of them left their belongings inside of their homes. As a result, the island is caught in a time capsule.
MAKIKO’s photographs were taken just after the City received its UNESCO World Heritage status. The focus was on the outside spaces (the buildings were to unstable to enter) and the project shows some of the places where children played, including the school and playground, tennis courts, flats occupied by teaching staff, the hospital, the walk to the park. She has also capture some of the imaginative Japanese graffiti. The photographs are accompanied by a narrative story as remembered by former resident, helping to bring these vivid scenes to life.
This series was published as BATTLESHIP ISLAND by Dewi Lewis Publishing in January 2018.
The image of Battleship Island from the water shown on the Projects page won Honorary Mention at Open Call of Life Framer, October 2020.
“This is an image of Battleship Island, an abandoned mining facility off the coast of Southern Japan which is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. With distant framing and desaturisation to bring out the pale grey tones, sea fading into sky, Makiko gives the image a sense of eeriness and otherworldliness, emphasizing the idea of it slowly fading in time. It paints the island like a distant memory – strange and magical and just out of reach.”