This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Abroad from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

In 1929, Okunoshima Island off the coast of Japan served as a top-secret poison gas and chemical weapons plant -- so top secret that it was even removed from the maps. Then World War Two happened, and Japan kind of lost, so the bottom dropped out of its secret poison gas business. Okunoshima is now called Usagi Jima, which is “rabbit island” in Japanese, and it is home to hundreds of semi-tame bunnies. Whether they are the descendants of lab animals released when the factory closed or the progeny of bunnies left behind by visiting schoolchildren is unknown, but tourists come by the ferry-load to be besieged by friendly rabbits who want nothing more than some food and a nice cuddle. An island where there are no natural bunny predators (that has pretty much been stripped of everything green) might not be an idea that appeals to everyone, but as the bunnies and bunny-lovers who visit Usagi Jima might say: “It’s a bunny day.”

From the Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.