Rokko Island about 60 years ago and today

History of Rokko Island

Off the east side of Kobe Port, a square artificial island floats. The name Rokko Island was taken from the Rokko Mountains that press close behind it. In Kobe the mountains come down to the edge of the sea, and almost no usable flat land is left behind the port. If the city wanted more space for cargo handling, the only way was to go offshore, and the procedure of carrying the earth and sand from cutting the mountains out to the sea was repeated in this city. This area is where reclamation began in 1972, as the second island after the artificial island built toward the west. For that reason, the aerial photographs of the old eras show the sea before the island existed and the development sites that had gone ahead earlier on the mainland shore. There is also a photograph that captures the works midway, making this a location where the order in which sea turns into land can be lined up and viewed as it is.

The sea before the seawalls

In the oldest photograph, from 1945-50, only about the top third of the frame is photograph, and the rest is a blank of light gray. It is the range the photography of the time did not reach, and the edge of the blank is cut by a gentle curve and a diagonal straight line falling toward the lower left. The part that is shown is a uniform gray water surface. There are only bright mottles like white foam and dark, long, narrow streaks extending sideways, and neither land, blocks nor clear ships can be made out.

In 1961-69 too, the position of the island is still sea. The change is at the top edge of the frame. Two sections of light gray developed flat land line up, their edges cut by straight lines. The left section has several round storage tanks and a row of white buildings; irregular dark water surfaces cut into its interior, and stripes of sand remain along the edges. The right section also holds sandy ground and dark water surfaces in the same way. This is development that had gone ahead earlier on the mainland shore. The area below it is all sea, and a fine-grained texture covers the frame. In the middle there is a horizontal break, below which the color turns lighter. That is because the frame joins exposures taken on different days. Two thin white wakes run over the sea surface, and the lower right is a blank of light gray.

White lines and muddy water

If you switch to 1974-78, works have begun on the sea. From the middle of the left side of the frame, a thin white line extends straight and horizontally to the east, turns at a right angle in the middle and heads north. It is the line where the seawall was drawn on the sea first. On its east side, sand-colored earth and sand poke above the sea surface to form a triangular spread, and from there pale green muddy water flows south like a fan. The place where the earth was dropped can be told directly from the color of the muddy water. Another white line also extends at the eastern end, with a white dot attached to its tip.

The top edge of the frame is the factory district of the mainland, where round storage tanks form clusters. In the upper left corner there is a section where many long, narrow brown bands line up in parallel. Two white, square, box-like objects, thought to be barges or the like used for the works, float in the middle of the sea. The lower half of the frame is a separate exposure sunk in dark green, and in the lower right corner there is a black rectangular gap. In this photograph the island is not there yet.

From a band to a square

In 1979-83 the island appears as a long, narrow sand-colored band running east-west. On the band, earth-colored mottles and the lines of roads dividing lots pass faintly. White sand is piled along the edges, and inside, water surfaces remain that have been enclosed but not yet filled. One section in the middle is a flat gray water surface, and one section toward the east has the shape of a bright green inlet, different in color from the dark sea outside. The procedure of enclosing first and then filling the inside can be read from the difference in the color of the water. From the top edge of the frame southward, thin lines of a lattice cross the sea and reach the island. This is the era after the Rokko Ohashi Bridge was built in 1977, linking the island and the mainland. The bridge does not appear in the photograph of the previous era. From the lower right to the bottom edge of the frame, white, black and light gray rectangles continue in steps, and the gaps in the photography remain honestly.

By 1984-86 the full shape of the square island is complete. Along the north shore and at the northwest corner, transit sheds with blue and red roofs line up, and yards where boxes of the same size are lined up neatly and look like grains of color spread beside them. The southwest corner is also packed tight with grains of the same colors. In the northeast, another pier extends across a waterway, filled with transit sheds and cargo-handling areas. Work began from the outer edge. On the other hand, from the center to the south is sand-colored bare ground all over, with traces of excavation and dark puddles scattered here and there. On the east side a shallow green inlet still remains. The road coming down south from the bridge runs through the bare ground, and outside the island's south shore a single thin white line has been drawn.

A center enclosed in green

In today's photograph, the center of the island is framed in a square by a green band. Inside it, slab-shaped apartment buildings, tower-like buildings and buildings that look like shops and schools are packed in, and trees fill the spaces between the blocks. This is the area that was sand-colored bare ground in 1984-86. The outer shape of the island was made first, and even if you compare the outlines in the two photographs, the line of the shore has hardly moved. South of the central blocks, a green sports field, a reddish-brown track and a long, narrow water surface line up. In 1990 Kobe New Transit's Rokko Island Line opened. It was laid so that the new transit line enters the center of the island, and Island Center Station is placed within the blocks. Today's photograph also shows two lines crossing from the mainland to the island, where 1984-86 had only one.

The outer edge is clearly different in character from the center. Warehouses and logistics facilities with large roofs line up facing the same way, boxes of many colors are lined up neatly on the quays at the southwest and southeast, and several tall cargo-handling structures stand beside them. A large white ship is berthed alongside the pier in the northeast. The eastern inlet that had been enclosed in 1979-83 is also filled with buildings and paving in today's photograph. The layout, which puts the residential blocks in the middle and moves cargo handling and logistics to the outer shores, can be seen in layers within one photograph.

The heights of the five measured points are all around 5 m. The western 5.9 m is the highest and the southern 4.6 m the lowest, but the gap between them is only 1.3 m. Even if you cut a cross-section, the line is almost level, and no relief corresponding to hills or valleys appears. Assumptions about the height of water are the job of maps, not photographs. The hazard map published by the City of Kobe color-codes the areas flooded by storm surges and tsunamis, so anyone with business on this island should open it address by address and check.

The point where official land prices (Chika Koji) are published is not on the island but in Sumiyoshihama-cho, reclaimed land on the mainland side across the water. It is about 1.8 km from the location, and its use is factory. At the start of the records in 1993 it was 250,000 yen per square meter, and in the 2026 publication 110,000 yen, so from 1993 to the 2026 publication it comes to a level of about 40%. The lowest up to the 2026 publication is 53,800 yen in 2015. Toward the west of Kobe Port is Port Island, built earlier, and its photograph shows the works midway, with water surfaces left unfilled cutting deep into the inside of the island.