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Coligny wrote:Don't know if you carez guys, but I went a gunkanjima and tookz a picshures:
Coligny wrote:..Unfortunately, the trip is sterilized the japanese way, you just go to the boring/safe part. With full concrete walkway that would make an airport runway look rought..
Yokohammer wrote:Had me confused there for a bit Col. The first third or half are pictures of the port as you were leaving Nagasaki, no? I thought "Wow, they've really cleaned the place up!"
And then we get to Hashima ... eeyew!
Cool.
osopolar wrote:cool pics nonetheless. thanks for sharing.
Some historic buildings on Nagasaki’s Hashima island, also known as Gunkanjima, which once thrived on coal mining, have been deemed by experts as in danger of collapsing, according to city officials.
Gunkanjima, meaning “battleship island” after its appearance, is one of a group of legacy sites remaining from the Meiji-era (1868-1912) industrial revolution that the government wants to add to UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Four apartment buildings, including the nation’s oldest high-rise reinforced-concrete apartment, and part of another building are regarded by the Architectural Institute of Japan as “seriously damaged” or in imminent danger of collapse, the officials said.
According to the Cultural Affairs Agency, experts have yet to devise techniques to repair reinforced concrete when it has seriously deteriorated. Researchers, therefore, will hold an international conference in the city in June next year, hoping to come up with a method to preserve and restore the buildings.
The 6.3-hectare island, located about 19 kilometers from central Nagasaki, prospered on seabed coal mining. In 1960, about 5,300 people lived on the island, with about 30 reinforced concrete buildings, including apartments, a school and a hospital, built from the Taisho era (1912-1926) to the Showa era (1926-1989). After the mine was closed in 1974, the island became deserted. The buildings have been abandoned for 40 years, exposed to high tides, wind and rain. After a ban on entry to the island was lifted in April 2009, it became popular with tourists. The number of visitors topped 500,000 as of spring, but approaching the buildings is prohibited.
After a request by Nagasaki city government, the institute conducted research on the buildings from 2011 to 2013. The institute inspected 12 buildings for signs of deterioration, including Building No. 30 — the nation’s oldest high-rise apartment, comprising seven floors, which was built in 1916. As a result, four buildings were determined to be seriously damaged. In estimating the number of years remaining before the buildings collapsed, Building No. 30 was calculated at minus five years, meaning it should have collapsed five years before 2012, when it was inspected.
An international conference will be held by the Japan Concrete Institute, which about 150 researchers including experts from Western countries are scheduled to attend. Takafumi Noguchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo who studies building materials, says the worth of the island will be greatly reduced if its buildings collapse. He is head of the institute’s research group and chairman of the international conference.
“We hope we can gather the latest knowledge and experience of each member for preservation and restoration [of the buildings],” Noguchi said.
UNESCO list plans
The legacies of the Meiji era industrial revolution, which consist of 23 sites in eight prefectures, including Gunkanjima, are expected to be registered as World Cultural Heritage sites next year. UNESCO’s advisory body, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), is planning to advise UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee on registrations around May next year.
The Nagasaki city government is currently working toward establishing a program to repair and utilize the Gunkanjima buildings, the main focus of which is limited to preserving the buildings at several major residential areas. The city government excludes Building No. 30 from preservation efforts as its life cannot be prolonged with current technology, according to the local government.
“As a general rule, historic sites should be preserved as they are. But there are some buildings that cannot be preserved for technical reasons,” a Cultural Affairs Agency official said. “If a new technology is developed, we want to use it.”
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Russell wrote:I think the main appeal of Gunkanjima is the process of deterioration of this past civilization. So, what is the point of maintaining those buildings?
yanpa wrote:Russell wrote:I think the main appeal of Gunkanjima is the process of deterioration of this past civilization. So, what is the point of maintaining those buildings?
Basically what I thought when reading the article, before seeing your comment.
the government wants to add to UNESCO’s World Heritage list
chokonen888 wrote:the government wants to add to UNESCO’s World Heritage list
Why not save some time and just get the whole cuntry declared a UNESCO World Heritage site?
Yokohammer wrote:While I'm in full-on pedant mode, can we clear up a little issue that has popped up here a few times lately?
* A "tetrapod" is a four-limbed vertebrate.
* A "tetrapot" is an ugly four-spiked concrete thing commonly found along the local shorelines.
Thank you for your attention. Normal programming will now resume ...
yanpa wrote:Yokohammer wrote:While I'm in full-on pedant mode, can we clear up a little issue that has popped up here a few times lately?
* A "tetrapod" is a four-limbed vertebrate.
* A "tetrapot" is an ugly four-spiked concrete thing commonly found along the local shorelines.
Thank you for your attention. Normal programming will now resume ...
Let me pedantically quote Wikipedia back at you: "In coastal engineering, a tetrapod is a tetraeder-shaped concrete structure used as armour unit on breakwaters".
Ooooh, and we can blame the French:
The unit was originally developed in 1950 by Laboratoire Dauphinois d'Hydraulique (now Sogreah) in Grenoble, France.
Yokohammer wrote:yanpa wrote:Yokohammer wrote:While I'm in full-on pedant mode, can we clear up a little issue that has popped up here a few times lately?
* A "tetrapod" is a four-limbed vertebrate.
* A "tetrapot" is an ugly four-spiked concrete thing commonly found along the local shorelines.
Thank you for your attention. Normal programming will now resume ...
Let me pedantically quote Wikipedia back at you: "In coastal engineering, a tetrapod is a tetraeder-shaped concrete structure used as armour unit on breakwaters".
Ooooh, and we can blame the French:
The unit was originally developed in 1950 by Laboratoire Dauphinois d'Hydraulique (now Sogreah) in Grenoble, France.
You are a tetrapod.
Seriously.
So am I.
yanpa wrote:Yokohammer wrote:yanpa wrote:Yokohammer wrote:While I'm in full-on pedant mode, can we clear up a little issue that has popped up here a few times lately?
* A "tetrapod" is a four-limbed vertebrate.
* A "tetrapot" is an ugly four-spiked concrete thing commonly found along the local shorelines.
Thank you for your attention. Normal programming will now resume ...
Let me pedantically quote Wikipedia back at you: "In coastal engineering, a tetrapod is a tetraeder-shaped concrete structure used as armour unit on breakwaters".
Ooooh, and we can blame the French:
The unit was originally developed in 1950 by Laboratoire Dauphinois d'Hydraulique (now Sogreah) in Grenoble, France.
You are a tetrapod.
Seriously.
So am I.
No I'm not, I have 8 legs.
Russell wrote:chokonen888 wrote:the government wants to add to UNESCO’s World Heritage list
Why not save some time and just get the whole cuntry declared a UNESCO World Heritage site?
In order for that to succeed, it will be necessary to have a sufficient number of concrete structures all over the country.
O wait...
Details of Korean wartime labor at Japan heritage site insufficient, UNESCO says
The Japan Times | 7/23/2021
The committee also urged Japan to improve the exhibits so that visitors understand that a number of Koreans were forced to engage in hard labor in the Hashima Coal Mine, also known as “Battleship Island,” against their will.
UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee on Thursday adopted a resolution stating that Japan has failed to provide a sufficient explanation about wartime workers from the Korean Peninsula at its Tokyo information center on industrial locations listed as World Cultural Heritage sites.
The adoption of the resolution came during a virtual session of the committee that started on July 16.
The resolution concerns the exhibition at the Industrial Heritage Information Center on Koreans who worked in the Hashima Coal Mine off Nagasaki Prefecture, one of the 23 registered sites.
The center, featuring locations grouped as Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution, opened in Tokyo in 2020 with the support of the Japanese government, based on recommendations made by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization since 2015, when the sites were inscribed on the World Heritage list.
In the resolution, the committee said it had inspected the center in June and found it did not have sufficient exhibits to inform visitors about the Korean victims of wartime forced labor, expressing strong regret over Japan’s failure to carry out what it had promised.
The committee also urged Japan to improve the exhibits so that visitors understand that a number of Koreans were forced to engage in hard labor in the Hashima Coal Mine, also known as “Battleship Island,” against their will.
It called for Japan to report back to the committee by December of next year regarding measures to improve the exhibits.
In response, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the resolution was significant as the international community had confirmed Japan has not implemented its promise to provide sufficient explanation about the Korean victims of forced labor.
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