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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:

  1. Situate Hashima in historical context — Identify key transitions from Meiji-era industrial development through wartime labour mobilisation to postwar decline and heritage-making. Modules 01, 04
  2. Explain how heritage becomes authorized — Describe how institutions stabilise certain narratives as legitimate "heritage" while treating others as controversy or risk. Modules 02, 03
  3. Distinguish evidence from narrative — Identify what different source types can establish and practice reading for what is absent as well as what is present. Modules 04, 06
  4. Analyse immersive media as historical argument — Treat XR and digital reconstructions as historiographical interventions rather than neutral visualisations. Modules 00, 05
  5. Identify soft gatekeeping — Recognise how obstruction operates through procedural mechanisms rather than overt censorship. Modules 06, 07, 08
  6. Practice refusal as method — Understand why non-release can be an ethically responsible outcome when institutional conditions would require erasure. Module 08
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

Nine modules tell the complete story of the HashimaXR project, from conception through obstruction to the archive of obstruction itself.

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

Positions & Perspectives

Regional media discourse and institutional positions on Hashima's contested heritage.

~15 min
 Module 08

Why the Project Stayed Unreleased

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

~15 min

Companion Experiences

These experiences can be engaged at any point in your learning journey. They complement the core sequence with different registers — sensory, digital, and cultural.

Companion

Social Media and Digital Memory

How platforms shape contested heritage narratives: algorithmic amplification and the testimony wars.

 Companion

Songs from the Coalfields

An audio-based learning experience exploring the folk songs that Hashima's workers brought from Japan's coalfield regions.

 Companion

Timeline: Hashima in History

Interactive timeline from 1890 to the present—filter by theme, explore enquiry questions, and hear the island's soundscape.

Teaching this at university? See Teaching Materials for discussion prompts, worksheets, assessment rubrics, and module-by-module guides for seminars and courses.

Teaching this in a secondary school? See our resources for KS3 and GCSE history teachers — including lesson plans, a 14-source investigation sheet, and teacher guidance.

Begin → Module 00: The HashimaXR Project