Look at the bunnies

Some places melt your heart with cuteness. Some places reinforce your belief in hating everyone equally. Rabbit island is one of the rare places that does both.
- Cris

Rabbit Island

Tucked away in Japan’s serene Seto Inland Sea lies Ōkunoshima, a tiny patch of land spanning less than one square kilometer. To the thousands of global travelers who catch the 15-minute ferry from Tadanoumi Port each year, it is known by a much simpler name: Rabbit Island.

Step off the boat, and the juxtaposition hits you immediately. The island is stunning, framed by brilliant blue waters, palm trees, and sandy beaches. But before you can fully process the view, you are greeted by dozens of twitching noses and floppy ears. Hundreds of feral, free-roaming rabbits call this island home. Because hunting them is strictly forbidden and predators like cats and dogs are banned, these bunnies have zero fear of humans.

Going Somewhere? Protect Your Trip (and Your Sanity)

The experience of visiting Ōkunoshima is undeniably surreal, but the true intrigue lies in its stark, unsettling contrast. Long before it became a viral internet sensation for cuteness, Ōkunoshima harbored a terrifying secret.

Between 1929 and 1945, the island served as a highly classified, secret chemical weapons factory for the Imperial Japanese Army. The military went to such extreme lengths to protect the operation that they entirely erased Ōkunoshima from official maps. Over those 16 years, the island manufactured thousands of tons of lethal mustard and tear gas.

Where the rabbits fit into this timeline is a subject of local debate. Some historical accounts suggest the original rabbits were brought to the island during the war as test subjects for the chemical gas. However, many historians believe those initial test colonies were destroyed at the end of the war when the factory was decommissioned. The current fluffy inhabitants are more widely believed to be descended from a few rabbits released by a group of schoolchildren in 1971. Left to their own devices in a predator-free paradise, nature took its course.

My immediate question is: WHAT school takes children to an island known for producing lethal chemical gas as a field trip AND fails to notice that several children brought along a bunny? This scenario seems sketchy compared to a ‘few survived from the 1940’s but we don’t want to admit that.’

Today, navigating the island feels like walking through a beautifully eerie, post-apocalyptic world where nature has triumphantly reclaimed the ruins of human conflict. Visitors can hike or cycle along the quiet, vehicle-free paved paths, stepping directly past overgrown concrete power plants, old laboratory testing sites, and empty ammunition storehouses.

The joyous, floppy-eared rabbits napping or begging for cabbage leaves right at the doorstep of a hollowed-out, vine-covered wartime ruin are absolutely adorable. It is a powerful, living reminder of how a place once dedicated to devastation can transform into a sanctuary celebrating life and peace. When people are gone, the bunnies will be just fine.

See you next Wednesday.

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