The Dark Past of Japan's Cute Rabbit Island (7 Photos)

There is an island in Japan where thousands of rabbits live! Even more than cats on the cat island, even more than deer in Nara. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have their own island for each type of animal, they just don’t tell you about everything.





Now they'll pounce and eat you!

By the way, there is also an island for men only. Funny, Japanese, funny.

What a dark past

Everyone knows about the terrible scientific experiments carried out on people by the Japanese during World War II. Such that even the USA and Germany did not dare to do this.



Rabbits live in an abandoned scientific base

But they were not against experiments on animals, so the United States and Germany ordered the opening of a research center on one of the islands. All sorts of diseases were developed on rabbits in order to develop biological weapons.





The old buildings of the science center were converted for tourists

To prevent the disease from spreading to the inhabitants of the country, a remote, uninhabited island was chosen. Okunoshima became one of these; there was also a chemical weapons plant there to improve it on guinea pigs.

When the war ended, such a dangerous plant was closed. And the rabbits were pitied and released. In other remote places, rabbits became extinct, but on Okunoshima they survived and began to reproduce very actively.



Abandoned military factory building. Rabbits and the end of the world - the best combination

Rabbit Island is a cute place

Now that the island is simply teeming with fluffies (against the backdrop of an abandoned factory and laboratories, which looks quite creepy), there is no end to tourists. Probably the thirtieth generation of rabbits has been living here, so they are definitely not sick or poisoned. Scientists estimate that the rabbit population has exceeded 3 thousand individuals.



The garbage from the center was never removed from the island, rabbits still live in it

Before traveling to the island, all tourists are asked to bring as much food for the rabbits as possible. Especially in winter, because the overpopulation of rabbits has led to the fact that they gnaw everything they can reach.

In winter, they practically starve, and the “extra” die. Natural self-regulation occurs.

It is prohibited to take any other animals onto the island, especially dogs and cats, as they are direct predators for rabbits.



It's quite hungry on the bare beach, but the rabbits are sitting here waiting for food from tourists

True, you can only be on the island on the pier, square, road, and going deep is prohibited. Somewhere there are still tanks buried with the remains of chemical weapons or arsenic.

You might think that they are waiting for something there. But in reality, as with Fukushima, it is too expensive for Japan to dispose of all this, so they will pretend that everything is fine, as in the case of Fukushima.



They are always hungry, therefore they are always contact and tame. Wild rabbits can't survive here

When it blows, they will sort it out. But it might not blow.