Ōkunoshima Island
Ōkunoshima is a small island in the Seto Inland Sea belonging to Takehara City, Hiroshima Prefecture. Ōkunoshima is known for its rabbits, its poison gas museum, and its ruined gun emplacements. The island is an attractive destination for photographers. Apart from some 900 rabbits, it has no permanent residents. The island can be accessed by ferry from Mihara and Tadano-Umi in Hiroshima Prefecture and from Ōmishima in Ehime Prefecture.
Ōkunoshima is often called Usagijima (“Rabbit Island”) because of the hundreds of tame rabbits that live here. As soon as you get off the ferry, you can find them close to the dock. They approach visitors without fear, and if you bring vegetables with you, the rabbits will eat from your hand. The rabbits living on the island are unrelated to testing of the poison gas. They’re probably the descendants of eight rabbits kept at a local elementary school that were released into the wild in 1971.
The molars of Naumann’s elephant have been found in the waters around the island, indicating that the ancient Seto Inland Sea was once a plain and that the present island was then one of the hills. In the Middle Ages in 1129, Taira no Tadamori was authorised to pursue pirates in the area. Later, the descendants of the Murakami Suigun lived on the island. During the Shōwa period, Ōkunoshima was erased from maps to conceal the gas manufacturing taking place. At the end of the war, the Army dumped the gas and manufacturing equipment in the sea. When the Korean War broke out, the U.S. military seized the island and used the buildings on the island as ammunition depots, holding it until 1955.
The island played a role during World War II as the location of a factory for the poison gas that was used in China. Today there’s a small museum with various equipment used for producing the poison gas, and a collection of photographs showing how the gas was made and its effects on people. The ruins of the gas manufacturing plant and the power station that supplied it are still there today. The power station building is a particularly dramatic sight.
Ōkunoshima is also home to other relics of military history. The mountain in the middle of the island is dotted with sturdily-built gun emplacements from the time of the Russo-Japanese war in the Meiji period. It takes an effort to climb up to them, but it’s worth it. The views from the top of the mountain over the Inland Sea are also spectacular. Ōkunoshima was one of a pair of islands collectively named the Geiyo Fortresses, equipped with gun emplacements, searchlights, and generators. Ōkunoshima’s sister island is Oshima in the Kurushima Strait.
The island now has a hotel, a six-hole golf course and a small camping ground. In the summer, you can swim in the clean water around the island. In terms of size, you can walk around the island in about 40 minutes, although a more leisurely pace is recommended to take in the sights and to enjoy the company of the rabbits.
The island is dominated by the massive pylon of the Choshi Powerline Crossing, the tallest pylon in Japan.
Information
Name in Japanese: 大久野島
Pronunciation: ōkunoshima
Address: Ōkunoshima, Hiroshima
