5 abandoned islands with incredible histories

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Gunkanjima Island, Japan

This small island lies off the coast of Nagasaki in Japan and used to be one of the most densely populated places in the world. However, the island has been a ghost town for the last forty years. The Mitsubishi Corporation developed the island in the 1900s, as it was sitting on an amazingly rich coal deposit. Their mining operations were producing 400,000 of coal per year by 1941, but eventually the coal ran out, leaving the island totally deserted.

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