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Nine modules on the HashimaXR project, contested heritage, and the archive of obstruction

This sequence begins with the HashimaXR project itself—what was built and why—before examining the historical and theoretical context, addressing why the project was never released, and tracing how the same dynamics of obstruction reproduce in digital spaces. Each module takes 10–20 minutes to read; the complete sequence takes approximately 2.5 hours.

Modules are designed to build on one another, but can also be accessed individually depending on your learning goals. See teaching pathways for suggestions on how to navigate the material.

Learning Outcomes

By completing this sequence, you will be able to:

Situate Hashima in historical context — Identify key transitions from Meiji-era industrial development through wartime labour mobilisation to postwar decline and heritage-making.
Explain how heritage becomes authorized — Describe how institutions stabilise certain narratives as legitimate "heritage" while treating others as controversy or risk.
Distinguish evidence from narrative — Identify what different source types can establish and practice reading for what is absent as well as what is present.
Analyse immersive media as historical argument — Treat XR and digital reconstructions as historiographical interventions rather than neutral visualisations.
Identify soft gatekeeping — Recognise how obstruction operates through procedural mechanisms rather than overt censorship.
Practice refusal as method — Understand why non-release can be an ethically responsible outcome when institutional conditions would require erasure.

What This Resource Does and Does Not Do

This is not a comprehensive history of Hashima or of Japanese colonial labor policy. It does not attempt to settle the historiographical disputes it describes. It does not provide a playable version of HashimaXR.

What it offers is a framework for thinking about how contested histories are governed in digital contexts — and a documented case that makes those dynamics visible.

Time Investment

~2.5 hours Complete sequence

10–20 min Per module

60–90 min Quick pathway

Times include core content only. Expandable scholarly sections and reflective prompts add 5–10 minutes per module if engaged fully.

Not sure how to navigate? See How to Read This Site for a quick guide to the interactive features.

The Core Sequence

Modules 00–08 tell the complete story of the HashimaXR project, from conception through obstruction and into the digital spaces where contested heritage circulates today.

Module 00

The HashimaXR Project

What we built, what we intended, and why it matters. Start here to understand the project before examining its obstruction.

~15 min · Start Here Module 01

Hashima in Time and Place

Historical context for the site—from Meiji industrialisation through wartime mobilisation to UNESCO inscription.

~20 min Module 02

How Heritage Works

Authorised Heritage Discourse, interpretive regimes, and the politics of "balance."

~15 min Module 03

UNESCO & Contested Heritage

The 2015 inscription, Japan's "full history" commitment, and transnational counter-narratives.

~15 min Module 04

Labour, Empire, and Evidence

Coerced labour at Hashima and the politics of historical knowledge.

~15 min Module 05

Digital Histories

XR as historiography and the digital landscape around Hashima.

~15 min Module 06

Reading Institutional Positions

Analytical tools for interpreting how heritage governance operates through documentary evidence.

~15 min Module 07

Why the Project Stayed Unreleased

The archive of obstruction: soft gatekeeping, procedural refusal, and temporal drag.

~15 min Module 08

Social Media and Digital Memory

How platforms shape contested heritage narratives: algorithmic amplification, viral testimony, and the ongoing contest over Hashima's meaning online.

~18 min

Companion Experiences

These experiences can be engaged at any point in your learning journey. They invite sensory engagement with Hashima's history — listening rather than reading, feeling rather than analysing.

🎧 Audio Experience

Songs from the Coalfields

What the miners brought with them: Japanese folk songs as evidence of the source cultures that converged on Hashima.

~15 min · Headphones recommended 🏢 Ambient Experience

The Company Town

What happened when regional cultures converged: life on a 6.3-hectare artificial island controlled by Mitsubishi.

~12 min · Ambient audio available

Begin → Module 00: The HashimaXR Project