Japan Has a Rabbit Island

Visitors to Okunoshima, a small island in Japan's Inland Sea, are often swarmed by an adorable welcoming committee. Hundreds of semi-tame rabbits eagerly approach people, creating a unique tourist experience that has earned the island the nickname "Usagi Jima," or Rabbit Island. This idyllic scene, however, hides a much darker and more secretive past. During World War II, the island was a top-secret chemical weapons (Review) facility, producing tons of mustard gas and other deadly agents. Its existence was so confidential that it was completely erased from official maps of the era.

While the popular legend suggests the current rabbit population descends from lab animals set free after the war, this is likely a myth. Records indicate that the original test subjects were euthanized when the Allied forces dismantled the plant. The more probable origin story for today's fluffy residents is far more innocent: in 1971, a group of schoolchildren released just eight rabbits on the island. With no natural predators, this small population flourished over the decades, transforming a place of grim history into a symbol of unlikely rebirth and a haven for animal lovers.