Qualla: Okunoshima

Okunoshima: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit OpenStreetMap, CC BY-SA 2.0. Hundreds of rabbits come bounding across the grass the moment a ferry passenger steps onto Okunoshima. They are fearless, habituated to humans, and utterly charming -- the reason this small island in the Seto Inland Sea has earned the nickname Rabbit Island and become a viral tourist destination. But walk a few hundred meters inland, past the campsites and nature trails, and the mood shifts. Crumbling concrete ruins emerge from the undergrowth: the remains of a poison gas factory so secret that it was erased from maps during World War II. Okunoshima holds both realities simultaneously, an island where visitors come to feed rabbits among the ruins of one of Imperial Japan's most hidden atrocities.

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Image: OpenStreetMap | CC BY-SA 2.0

Okunoshima: The Factory That Didn't Exist

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit そらみみ, CC BY-SA 4.0. Between 1927 and 1929, the Japanese military built a chemical munitions plant on Okunoshima, chosen for its isolation and distance from population centers. The island had been fortified during the Russo-Japanese War with ten coastal defense forts, and only three fishing families ...

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Image: そらみみ | CC BY-SA 4.0

Okunoshima: Buried Secrets

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Asturio Cantabrio, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the war ended, the cover-up continued. Documents were burned. Allied Occupation Forces disposed of the remaining gas stockpiles by dumping them at sea, burning them, or burying them on the island. Workers were instructed to remain silent, and several decades passed before th...

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Image: Asturio Cantabrio | CC BY-SA 4.0

Okunoshima: The Rabbits Arrive

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Vickerman625, Public domain. After the war, when the island was developed as a park, rabbits were intentionally released onto Okunoshima. The wartime rabbits -- used to test the effectiveness of the chemical weapons -- had all been euthanized when the factory was demolished and are not the ancestors of today...

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Image: Vickerman625 | Public domain

Okunoshima: Two Museums, One Message

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. 00340 assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0. The Poison Gas Museum's two rooms offer a stark complement to the rabbits outside. The first room documents the factory's construction, working conditions, and the fates of the workers whose families donated personal artifacts. The second room explains how poison gas attacks the ...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. 00340 assumed (based on copyright claims). | CC BY-SA 3.0