PEOPLE
President of the NPO, Way to World Heritage Gunkanjima

■“Please take care of my Goldfish and a Little Bird for me”—A Children’s Message Left in the Room of an Apartment
――I heard that there was a bit of an incident after that.
Mr. Sakamoto: Around two years after the first symposium, another symposium was held in Takashima (currently part of Nagasaki City). We got into a heated argument with the then-mayor of Takashima, who wasn’t interested in making the island a World Heritage site. He planned to turn it into an industrial waste disposal site, so making Gunkanjima into a World Heritage Site and promoting tourism on the island was the farthest thing from his mind. Ms. Kato led the battle [laughs]. I can laugh about it now, but at the time the mood was so tense we were almost at the breaking point.
A lot of things happened after that too. In Nagasaki there was heated discussions about which to nominate first: “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution” or “Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region.” Those of us who wanted to nominate “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution” were in the minority by far, and it was really hard for me because as a resident of Nagasaki Prefecture I felt torn between the two.
――And then during UNESCO’s review, there was some South Korean propaganda strongly opposing Gunkanjima.
Mr. Sakamoto: That was Ms. Kato’s biggest problem ever since we got it included on Japan’s Tentative List. She often asked me, “But what was it really like?” about the conscripted worker problem. I had many opportunities to hear stories from the elders of the island and I firmly believed that what they were claiming didn’t happen, so I did my utmost to help by conveying information I found researching various documents and so on. Now Ms. Kato is gathering valuable testimony from the older people who lived on the island. I think we all have to keep doing things like that to convey the truth.
――How do the current tours of Gunkanjimawork? Does your NPO operate the tours?
Mr. Sakamoto: Four Nagasaki-based shipping companies operate daily sightseeing boat services. One boat holds 90 people and the others hold 200. Currently around 1,000 people can come ashore to Gunkanjima per day. The shipping companies arrange guides to show tourists around the island, and I continue to work as a guide to convey the island’s history and what life was like there.
――How often do you go to the island?
Mr. Sakamoto: Now I go about 10 days a month, mostly on weekends. Other tour guides call me “Weeper Maker Sakamoto” because anyone who hears my stories ends up in tears [laughs].
――What kind of stories do you tell?
Mr. Sakamoto: Most tourists who visit Gunkanjima only know its name and intimidating scenery. They don’t even know that it had a coal mine or that people lived there. So first I tell them about the scene on the dolphin pier on our last day that I mentioned earlier. Then I take them to the stairs of the coal pit that descends 600 meters underground and tell them, “If something happened down there, you wouldn’t be able to get back out by yourself. And there actually were people who weren’t able to come back. The people mining coal on the island were fully aware of this and contributed to the modernization of Japan. What you are looking at may just be rubble, but that rubble is filled with our thoughts and feelings.”
Inside one of the apartments there is still something a child wrote on a sliding door. It says, “They don’t need much food, so please take care of my goldfish and a little bird for me.” And there is a picture. This symbolizes the flood of emotions the residents had when they left the island. Hashima was once said to be the “future of Japan.” And now it is like this. Although what happened here was the direct result of changes in the government’s energy policy, the scenery is not unique to Hashima. Maybe that’s what it was like at Fukushima where the nuclear accident occurred. I think you can hear from the island “a warning from the future.” That’s the kind of things I talk about.
We must constantly think about the problems of the environment, resources, and peace. And we must not abandon towns in Japan where we live now to ruin like this. These problems are not exclusive to Japan, but should be shared by the entire world—we all need to think about them for the future. That is what Gunkanjima can teach us.
It really gives you a lot to think about. It makes me realize again that we have to continue thinking about these issues. Thank you for telling us about your valuable experiences today.
(Interviewed and written by Takeo Takashima)
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)