Yumenoshima

Inside the Yumenoshima park.

Yumenoshima (夢の島, literally "Dream Island") is a district in Kōtō, Tokyo, Japan, consisting of an artificial island built using waste landfill.

The island was originally conceived in the 1930s as a site for a new Tokyo Municipal Airport to replace Haneda Airport. The airport plan was finalized in 1938 and work on the island began in 1939, but fell behind schedule due to resource constraints during World War II. The airport plan was officially abandoned following the war, as the Allied occupation authorities favored expanding Haneda rather than building a new airport.[1]

A public beach opened on the island in 1947, at which time the "Yumenoshima" name was adopted. The beach closed in 1950, and from 1957 the island was used for garbage disposal.[1]

Today, Yumenoshima has been covered over with a layer of top soil and includes a sports park (with baseball and soccer fields and a gymnasium), the Yumenoshima Tropical Greenhouse Dome, a large-scale yacht marina, waste disposal and incinerating facilities. The island also houses an exhibition of the Daigo Fukuryū Maru, a wooden fishing boat exposed to nuclear fallout during the Bikini Atoll test in 1954; the boat was modified as a training vessel following the exposure, and later abandoned near Yumenoshima.[2]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "東京・夢の島、名前の由来は海水浴場　空港計画も". 日本経済新聞. 15 November 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  2. ↑ "Yumenoshima Park". Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Retrieved 18 November 2013.

External links

Coordinates: 35°39′00″N 139°49′49″E / 35.64990°N 139.83021°E