In July 2015, MAKIKO was granted rare permission to photograph the restricted zone of Battleship Island, which used to be a coalmine, shortly after it was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The island lies just off the coast of Nagasaki. Ringed by a seawall, and covered in tightly packed buildings, it was once the most densely populated place on Earth. Now it is a ghost town – completely uninhabited for more than forty years.

In the book, archive photographs break the eerie silence of the island’s contemporary landscape and through the memories of a former resident of the island, MAKIKO brings her imagination to bear on what life was like there as a child – a place described to her as a childhood paradise.

The island also featured as a haunting backdrop in 007 Skyfall.