PEOPLE
Gunkanjima Is a Warning Message for the Future of Earth and Humanity ~The Thoughts and Pleas of a Guide and Former Resident~
President of the NPO, Way to World Heritage Gunkanjima
1954: Born in Chikuho, Fukuoka Prefecture.
1965: Moves to the island of Hashima (Gunkanjima), Nagasaki Prefecture in 6th grade.
1974: Graduates from Nagasaki Prefectural Takashima High School and enters the Junior College of Commerce, Nagasaki University.
1975: Leaves college and gets a job in computers in Tokyo.
1982: Returns to Nagasaki.
1999: Travels by ship to Hashima for his 25th class reunion and is shocked at how much the island has weathered. He starts becoming involved in activities to preserve the island.
2003: Establishes and becomes president of the NPO, Way to World Heritage Gunkanjima. Today he actively engages in a variety of efforts, mainly working as a Gunkanjima tour guide, but also holding seminars and writing books.
Published works include:
40 Years After Leaving Gunkanjima—People’s Memories and Future (Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha, 2019) Gunkanjima—A Message from the Ruins (Akishobo, 2014).
■7-Story School and 9-Story Apartment Building: Moving to a “Futuristic City” in the 6th Grade
――I understand you were given two letters of appreciation from the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution Route Promotion Council for your many years of involvement with Hashima island (Gunkanjima) that contributed to the promotion of the World Heritage route promotion, once at the council’s 2017 meeting and again at its 2018 meeting held in November (two companies and four individuals in Japan have been given a letter). How did you come to be involved with Gunkanjima in the first place?
Mr. Sakamoto: I was born in Chikuho, Fukuoka Prefecture, so I didn’t really have any connection with Hashima. My father worked at a coal mine for Mitsubishi and when I was in sixth grade the company transferred him to Hashima Coal Mine. So, my whole family moved to Hashima. That was my first encounter with the island. It was my first time to see the ocean and ride a boat. I was already sad because I was transferring to a new school in December just a few months before graduating elementary school, so when I arrived on the island after an hour and a half of crossing the rough winter sea, everything in my stomach came out and I really cried.
――You had a pretty vivid first impression of the island, didn’t you?
Mr. Sakamoto: Before going, all I heard about the island was that it had a coal mine, so I really regretted going when I got there [laughs]. The environment of the island was totally different from Chikuho. It was only the late 60s, but my school was a seven-story steel-frame building and we lived on the ninth floor of a big nine-story apartment building. My school in Chikuho was a two-story wooden building and I hadn’t even seen buildings much taller than that before. I went to school on the island through junior high, but I always felt a conflict in my heart of wanting to run away back to Chikuho.
――You left Hashima to go to high school?
Mr. Sakamoto: I commuted to Takashima High School on the mainland by boat. After graduating high school, I left the island. I moved to Nagasaki City and went to college there. So my 8 years of Hashima life was ended. While I was in college, I sometimes went home to Hashima when my money got low.
――Was that around the time when Hashima Coal Mine was closed?
Mr. Sakamoto: I was about 20 years old. One time when I went home after being away for a while as I always did, my parents were waiting on the pier. I wondered what was wrong, and it turned out that the coal mine had been closed and the residents had to leave the island that day. At the time we didn’t have mobile phones so I was going home without any idea of what had happened. I ended up not going ashore—my parents and I left the island together. That was the last I would see of the island for a long time.
――Wow, that’s pretty dramatic—suddenly had to leave your hometown like that, where you spent your childhood. Was that when your strong feelings toward Hashima were aroused?
Mr. Sakamoto: I didn’t feel anything special at that time. But everyone on the boat waved good-bye to the island and wept. That scene became etched in my mind. I was half in doubt that we were all really leaving, but that was our very last day on the island.
――So that experience is what led you to become a tour guide for your hometown of Gunkanjima and work towards making it a World Heritage Site?
Mr. Sakamoto: Actually, it was just by chance that I became a Gunkanjima tour guide. After we left, I moved to Tokyo and got a job in computers. That was when computers were huge before there were personal computers, but it was a cutting-edge, sought-after job, and I had no plans to go back to Nagasaki at the time. It was around then that I met my wife and got married. She was born and raised in Hashima so we’re from the same town, but after getting married we planned to live in Tokyo.
But, since she was the youngest of four and the baby of the family, her mother said, “Come back to Nagasaki at once!” She couldn’t let her go [laughs]. So, grudgingly, we decided to live in Nagasaki. I got married when I was 27 and did a wide variety of jobs in Nagasaki until I turned 45. If I hadn’t gone back to Nagasaki then I think I would not have gotten involved with Gunkanjima.
Former General Manager, Nagasaki Shipyard and Machinery Works, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Chairman, Fujisankei Group
Executive Managing Advisor, Fuji Television Network, Inc.
Executive Managing Advisor, Fuji Media Holdings, Inc.
Advisor, Federation of Japan Port and Airport Construction Association
(Ex. Chairman of Specialists Center of Port and Airport Engineering)
Mayor of Nagasaki City
Former Director of the Sano Tsunetami Memorial Museum (currently known as Sano Tsunetami and the Mietsu Naval Dock History Museum)
Director of NPO Association for Thinking about Satoyama
Director of National Congress of the Industrial Heritage
Honorary Chief Priest Toshinari Ueda
Former Mayor of Omuta City
Archaeologist and Heritage Conservation Specialist
A fellow of the Japan Federation of Engineering Societies
Team Member of the Industrial Project Team Office for the Promotion of World Heritage Listing under Cabinet Secretariat
Governor of Kagoshima Prefecture
Mayor of Hagi City
Mayor of Uki City, Kumamoto Prefecture
The Former Employee of Nippon Steel Corporation
An Associate Professor of the Faculty of Science and Engineering in Iwate University
Chairman of the Tourist Guide Association of Misumi West Port
President of Kuraya Narusawa Co., Ltd.
Chairman of Izunokuni City Tourism Association
Director and General Manager of Gunkanjima Concierge
Producer of the Gunkanjima Digital Museum
Owner at Tōge Chaya
Chairman: Mr. Hidenori Date
President: Mr. Masahiro Date
Proprietor, Houraikan Inn
Representative Director of Egawa Bunko non-profit incorporated foundation
The 42nd head of the Egawa Family
Democratic Party for the People (DPP) Representative for Nagasaki Prefecture
President of the NPO, Way to World Heritage Gunkanjima
Representative Director
MI Consulting Group
President of Watanabe Production Group and Honorary Chair of Watanabe Productions Co., Ltd.
Member of the House of Councillors
Governor
Kagoshima Prefecture
World Heritage Consultant
Director and Dean, The Kyushu-Asia Institute of Leadership
Representative Director, SUMIDA, Inc.
Journalist, founder of the Shimomura Mitsuko Ikikata Juku School
Representative, Rally Nippon
Chairman, Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution World Heritage Route Promotion Council Director, National Congress of Industrial Heritage
Representative Director, General Incorporated Foundation National Congress of Industrial Heritage (Advisor, Public Interest Incorporated Foundation Capital Markets Research Institute)
Mayor of Nagasaki City
Policy Director at Heritage Montreal
World Heritage Consultant
Executive Director of Kogakuin University
Heritage Architect and International Consultant
Head of Data Acquisition at The Glasgow School of Art’s School of Simulation and Visualisation
Head of Industrial Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland, Edinburgh
Scottish Ten Project Manager, Historic Environment Scotland, Edinburgh
Mayor of Izunokuni City, Shizuoka Prefecture
Pro-Provost and Chairman of Council of the Royal College of Art. Heritage advisor of Canal & River Trust for England and Wales.
Dean of Tokyo Rissho Junior College
Professor emeritus of Keio University
Mayor of Kitakyushu City
At the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee convened in Bonn, Germany, from June 28 to July 8, 2015, the decision was approved to inscribe the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution on the World Heritage list.
At a celebratory party held to mark the occasion, some of the primary promoters of the project spoke of their joy in achieving their goal and of the trials and tribulations to getting there.
Director and Managing Executive Officer, Hanshin Expressway Company Limited
Member, Board of Directors, National Congress of Industrial Heritage
Vice-Governor of Shizuoka Prefecture
Mayor of Hagi City
Chairman, Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd.
Mayor of Omuta City
Deputy Director-General, Lifelong Learning Policy Bureau, MEXT
Former Counsellor, Cabinet Secretariat
Mayor of Kamaishi City
Member, Board of Directors, National Congress of Industrial Heritage Counselor, Shimadzu Limited
Chairman of the Consortium for the World Heritage Inscription of Modern Industrial Heritage (Kyushu-Yamaguchi) and governor of Kagoshima Prefecture (as of 2015)