Ōkunoshima Island was the site of Japan's secret chemical-weapons-production factory during World War II.
During the war, the island factory produced more than 6 kilotons of poison gases, which were tested on rabbits.
Today, the island has been reborn as a tourist attraction and is called "Us agi Jima" or "Rabbit Island," thanks to its population of wild rabbits.
In 2013, Stephanie Broekarts, a 25-year-old environmental-social sciences student at Kyoto University, traveled to "Rabbit Island."
"I was couch surfing with a local girl and she showed me pictures of her visit to Ōkunoshima and I was instantly sold. I've always been a big animal fan, bunnies in particular, so something nicknamed 'the bunny island' was something I couldn't skip," Broekarts wrote.
Below are some pictures Broekarts shared with us from her trip to Rabbit Island.
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The small island of Ōkunoshima is located in the Seto Inland Sea in the Hiroshima Prefecture. The island lies about 2 miles from the mainland and the distance was considered far enough so that if an accident were to occur at the poison-gas facility it would not impact urban centers.
Broekarts said she took a train to Hiro station and then transferred trains to Tadanoumi station. The trip took almost two hours and cost around 1,240 Japanese Yen, or $12. She then took an hourly ferry from Tadanoumi, which brought her to Rabbit Island in about 10 minutes.
The coastline of Rabbit Island is only 1.5 miles long. Here is a picture of the rabbit ear-shaped viewers that line the coast.
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