‘Dark’ tourism sites, from Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine to the Vietnam war Cu Chi tunnels, why we visit them and why they matter

‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,’ philosopher George Santayana said, and ‘dark’ tourism sites make sure we don’t forget history

From Japan’s Hashima Island and war shrine to Vietnam’s underground fortress, author Peter Hohenhaus has documented 300 sites linked to death and suffering

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The Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam is an example of a “dark” tourism destination. These places commemorate death and suffering, and visiting them is about remembering history, says the author of a book about them. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:45pm, 7 Mar 2022

Anyone who has watched the recent Netflix series Dark Tourist may have been left with the wrong impression of dark tourism.

In the New Zealand documentary series, journalist David Farrier travels the world searching out the macabre and visiting places associated with death and suffering.

In the episode devoted to Southeast Asia, for instance, he seeks out a shooting range in Cambodia at which it’s possible to shoot living cows and, in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, he observes a traditional Toraja funeral, which involves animal slaughter and the exhumation of human corpses. In Japan, Farrier visits Tomioka, evacuated during the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, and suicide hotspot Aokigahara.

The series suggests that dark tourism is undertaken by a certain type of thrill seeker – macho, daring, sometimes looking for fun in the least obvious of places.

A funeral ceremony in Tana Toraja in Sulawesi, Indonesia. ‘Dark’ tourism is not about thrill seeking. Photo: Shutterstock

However, the author of a new book on the topic is keen to stress that the “dark” in the term dark tourism should refer to the sites themselves rather than to any morbid curiosity a visitor might have; the nature of their histories, the inescapable reality of what occurred there and the educational value in their preservation.