So adorable！The myriad charms of the bunny rabbits on Japan’s Rabbit Island

Text / Edited and reported by the editorial department of MOOK Scenic Spots Family Travel Network

In Taiwan, it’s a common sight in daily life to see stray dogs or cats on the streets, and you might even have had the experience of being chased and fleeing in panic by a dog. But can you imagine the feeling of being surrounded and chased by hundreds of little rabbits on the street, all begging for food? The scene is hard to picture. Located near Hiroshima, Okunoshima Island gained fame after a traveler captured footage of being chased by hundreds of rabbits for food. The astonishing footage went viral online after being uploaded to the internet.

Okunoshima is one of the islands in the Geiyo Islands of Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, located about 3 kilometers off the coast of Tomocho, Takehara City, Hiroshima Prefecture. Although it now looks like an ultra-cute rabbit paradise, during World War II, due to its hidden location, it was chosen by the Japanese military as an experimental base for producing chemical weapons. The island was even erased from maps. Between 1929 and 1945, the Japanese army produced over 6,000 tons of poison gas here. After the war, Okunoshima became an abandoned island, desolate and uninhabited.