Welcome to Erin Mankie's Cabinet of Curiosity's, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm

and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

We've all seen those apocalyptic movies where the populous city has been abandoned, streets

that used to team with pedestrians and taxis now sit idle, a still life of decay as grass

pokes through potholes and trees flourish along sidewalks.

It's quiet, quieter than it ever has been before, like a living photograph.

It's hard to imagine an area like New York City or Tokyo suddenly drying up and losing

its entire population, but it does happen.

Chernobyl is perhaps the most famous example of a modern ghost town, with empty apartment

buildings, dilapidated amusement rides, and overgrown parks.

But there is another location just like it, one that saw numerous atrocities and horrors

in its day, and it survives as a symbol of both a time we'd like to remember and an era

we'd like to forget.

Nine miles from the city of Nagasaki, off the coast of Japan, is an island.

It's small, only 16 acres large, but this postage stamp size plot of land is big with history.

It's called Hashima, and in 1810 Cole was discovered there, which kicked off its long

and complicated history.

A mining operation was established, and nearly a hundred years later the Mitsubishi Corporation

...