Gunkanjima Island, Nagasaki Live Cam

This camera on the Nomozaki headland looks across open sea to Gunkanjima, the abandoned island officially named Hashima. The island lies on the horizon with a long seawall and tall concrete apartment blocks, and only sea and sky fill the rest of the frame.

Gunkanjima, or Battleship Island, was a crowded undersea coal-mining community until the mine closed in 1974. In 2015 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution. The camera stands at the Nagasaki City Dinosaur Museum, about 4 kilometers from the island.

The view is fixed on the island with the sea in the foreground. Distance and haze can soften the outline, and when the sea is rough waves break across the lower part of the frame. There are no lights around the island, so after dark the picture turns almost black.