PEOPLE
President of the NPO, Way to World Heritage Gunkanjima
■Hashima from the Inside and Gunkanjima from the Outside
――Seeing your home remained the same as 25 years ago must have been like traveling back in time! What a moving story. And that’s when your current activities began, right?
Mr. Sakamoto: Right. I was a computer technician, so I immediately began doing searches online for “Hashima” and “Gunkanjima.” This was the time when the internet was just starting to become widespread. And actually a lot came up. Through my research I got to know a researcher who was studying Gunkanjima at a university in Nagasaki and I offered to show him around the island.
When we went ashore, the researcher said, “I want to go to Building No. 70.” I didn’t know what he was talking about, but it turned out that was our school. Then he said, “I want to go to Building No. 30. It was the first steel-frame apartment building in Japan.” [laughs] I was really surprised. I didn’t even know the buildings had numbers. To me it wasn’t “Building No. 70,” it was just “School.”
That was the first time I realized the value of Gunkanjima. I knew Hashima from the inside, but nothing about Gunkanjima as seen from the outside. This realization led me to start my current activities.
――What specifically did you start doing?
Mr. Sakamoto: Well, after that I launched something called “Gunkan Team.” I got about 20 Gunkanjima enthusiasts together, mostly people in their 30s, and we went ashore, camped in tents for a night, and I showed them around the island and talked about my memories of it. I did that for about two years, about four or five times a year. A total of about 200 people participated.
At the camp, instead just talking about my memories of Gunkanjima, I asked the participants why they were interested in the island and we had discussions from a variety of perspectives. One thing I realized while doing this was that the participants had a kind of homesickness. Many of them grew up in danchi apartment complexes (large public housing complexes built after WWII) and said it reminds them of when they were children. The scenery of the island overlapped with the scenery of the town they lived in. That’s why they were drawn to this abandoned island, they would say. And so I started to feel strongly that I had to do something to preserve the remains of the buildings and traces of what life was like on the island.
――And that’s when you established the NPO, Way to World Heritage Gunkanjima, right?
Mr. Sakamoto: I wanted to preserve it, but I was just an office worker, so I didn’t know how. Just then, it was 2001, there was this rumor spreading that Hashima was going to be turned into an industrial waste disposal site. Actually, there was talk of that from the time when the mine was closed, but that strengthened my resolve. I had to save it, otherwise Hashima’s valuable history would be lost.
――Around the same time, efforts led by local people involved across Kyushu to make Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution a UNESCO World Heritage Site got into full swing. Separate at first, this movement and Sakamoto’s resolve melded into one.
Mr. Sakamoto: I was 48, so I said I wanted to see my dream come true by 60, and quit my job and established the Way to World Heritage Gunkanjima. I started teaching a computer class so I would have income, and continued to work towards my goal of realizing my dream by the time I turned 60.
Mr. Did you meet Ms. Koko Kato, Managing Director of the National Congress of Industrial Heritage, around that time?
Mr. Sakamoto: We invited her to the 1st Gunkanjima Symposium in Nagasaki in 2003. I had been communicating with her by email before that, but that was the first time we met. Initially we planned to go to the island and watch the sunset after the symposium, but discussions became heated and went an hour and half overtime, and ended in a deadlock [laughs].
Mr. Kimiyasu Shimazu, then-president of the Shoko Shuseikan Museum in Kagoshima, came and after that I visited Kagoshima. We became close by visiting each other back and forth like that.
Senior Researcher, Industrial Heritage Information Centre
Honorary Advisor, Nippon Mining Co., Ltd.
The Ambassador of Supporting Kamaishi Hometown
Former Director of Nagasaki City World Heritage Office
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)