Rikuya Takatani
University of Shimane
Hiroshima has an island called Okunojima. There are many rabbits on this island. Many tourists come to see the rabbits. But this island has a sad past.
As I got off the passenger boat and approached the pier, the white and brown “MofMof” quickly crossed my line of sight. Rabbits on the road, rabbits on the plaza, rabbits on the slope. Rabbits live everywhere on this small island, about 4 km around. The island had a former army poison gas plant from 1929 until the end of the war. After being processed and taken over by the US military, it was finally returned to Japan after 57 years. After that, the National Holiday Village opened in 1983, and it was reborn as a resort area. Why are there rabbits on this island? As I walk on the island, I notice there are holes in and around here and there. All the rabbits are wild rabbits. It is an “alien species”. Although there is a theory that they were brought in for poison gas experiments and survived, there is also a theory that eight animals were released by primary school children from off the island in 1971 and they have been breeding ever since.
There are natural enemies of baby rabbits such as crows, owls, and snakes on the island. Looking for the appearance of rabbits, many tourists, including foreigners, are coming now. However, most of them do not know the history of Okunojima. That is a problem of Okunojima. Go through the tunnel at the 2nd pier on the right and there are the remains of a power plant. It supplied heavy fuel oil at the time of poison gas production and was also used for manufacturing balloon bombs. Although you cannot enter,the unique decaying atmosphere is a masterpiece even from the outside. Inside the island there are also the ruins of a fort, citadel, Nagaura Poison Storehouse, gunpowder storehouse, as well as a poison gas museum where you can learn the history of poison gas production.
Some of the tourists coming to Okuno Island seek out the history of this poison gas production. However, families with young people and children do not visit these places so much, but maybe these people
should also learn about the dark history.
