Transcript Nuclear Nomads & Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Nuclear Nomads &
Weapons Of Mass Destruction
67 U.S. Atomic/hydrogen Bomb
Tests From 1946 to 1958 in the
Marshall Islands
A Nuclear Holocaust
“History is a reminder of what’s possible.”
President G.W. Bush as he emerged from a guided tour of the gas chambers at
Auschwitz.
A Nuclear Holocaust


Holocaust means “a thorough destruction
involving extensive loss of life especially
through fire.”
And it is the holocaust, the thorough
destruction, of the Marshall islands that we
must be reminded.
This Presentation . . .



Chronicles one of the most underreported
stories of our nuclear past.
Unique insight into the callous attitudes
toward the people of Pacific Islands,
whose basic human rights were thrashed
in the process.
And the crude mentality of the post-war
period, where our own sailors and soldiers
became victims of the nuclear hysteria.
The Pacific Proving Grounds

Dotting the Pacific, spanning 1/3rd of the
world’s surface are places unknown to most
people in America and Europe.
The Globe

No nations are more
geographically isolated
than those in the
Pacific Ocean, making
them among the least
known and least
understood parts of the
globe.
The Targets

The Marshall Islands, 3,000 miles west of
Honolulu, in the Central Pacific, consists of
two archipelagic island chains of 1,152 islands
and 30 atolls, including Majuro atoll, the
capital; Ebeye island in Kwajalein atoll; and
Bikini and Enewetak atolls, which were targets
of U.S. Nuclear testing programs.
The Ocean

Contrary to continental
mentally, rather than a
separator the ocean is a
connector for those of
us who live in these
Islands.


We obtain nourishment
from this common source.
It is our mode of
transportation,
communications,
exchange and cultural
development.
What affects one affects
us all.
Pacific Islands
Marshall Islands
Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll
Enewetak
Eniwetok Atoll
Majuro
Hawai`i
Hawai`i
Kauai

“Soil scientist have
repeatedly found a
layer of radiation in
the high mountain
forests of the
Hawaiian Islands.”
“May Earth Live”
Tom Coffman 2000
Micronesia
Kiribati
Kosrae
Chuuk (Truk)
Guam
Rota
Tinian
Saipan
1946

In 1946, before President
Truman signed the U.N.
trusteeship agreement, he
authorized the military to test
the newly developed Weapons
of Mass Destruction in the
Marshall Islands.
For “The Benefit of Mankind”


The people of Bikini were told
by the U.S. military that their
atoll was needed for a project
“if you give up your islands for
benefit mankind so we [the U.S.]
can test our weapons we will take
care of you” .
They said the atolls would be
returned once the testing is
complete.
Bikini’s King Juda -1946
Grant Powers #6
Watercolor, 1946
U.S. preparations for tests


Bikini Atoll was the first
site selected by the U.S.
Government as a groundzero location.
This photograph taken on
February 11, 1946, was
taken prior to the
Bikinians' removal from
their home atoll for the
testing program.
Republic of the Marshall Islands
Embassy,USA
Nuclear Nomads

Saying goodbye to the ancestors
Would the Marshallese
have consented to
becoming “Nuclear
Nomads” if the truth
had been told that there
would be -sixty-seven
(67) tests in all-conducted from June
30, 1946 to August 18,
1958?
Leaving Home
Operations Crossroads July 1946


At 0900 on 1 July, test
ABLE detonated
about 518 feet above
the target fleet.
The surface
temperature of the
resulting fireball was
about 100,000
degrees Fahrenheit.
Charles Bittinger #3
Oil on canvas, 1946
July 1946, Too little. . .

BusinessWeek
Online | 100 Years of Innovation
“On board observation
ship, sailors were
instructed to shield their
eyes from the blasts.”
Baker Bomb Test July 25, 1946
Baker tidal wave


Arthur Beaumont #13
Watercolor, 1946
“The Baker blast
reached to the floor of
the lagoon--some 200
feet deep--and spewed
bits and pieces of coral
on the decks of the
target fleet.
The BAKER blast
caused a tidal wave that
tossed landing craft onto
the beach.”
Naval Historical Center
After Baker

“The BAKER blast
tidal wave swept
ashore and caused
extensive damage to
the village.”
Naval Historical Center
Arthur Beaumont #12
Watercolor, 1946
The last stage of Baker


Charles Bittinger #2
Oil on canvas, 1946
A view of the collapsing
cloud raining millions of
gallons of radioactive
water over the U.S. target
fleet, thoroughly
contaminating both the
warships and the lagoon.
For several hours after
the explosion a fine mist
rained down over the
area.
Source:Naval Historical Center
Hurricane Force


The very rapid expansion of the bomb
materials produces a high-pressure pulse,
or shock wave, that moves rapidly outward
from the exploding bomb.
In air, this shock wave is called a blast
wave because it is equivalent to and is
accompanied by powerful winds of much
greater than hurricane force.
Operations Crossroads



Intended to be the crossroad
from conventional war to
nuclear war.
The Americans celebrate the
“success” of Operations
Crossroads.
Because the cake & Mrs.
Blandy’s hat resemble the Baker
Bomb this picture caused wide
spread upset.
Officer in charge of Operation
Crossroads Vice Admiral & Mrs.W.
H. P. Blandy &Rear Admiral F.J.
Lowry
U.S. Medical Care 1946
The Iron Room


Marshallese being
tested for radiation
effects. 1946
He was found to be
within ”safe(?) limits
of radiation”
Operation Greenhouse Enewetak
Defense Special Weapons Agency

With NO protective gear, VIP observers sitting on the
patio of the Officer's Beach Club on Parry Island,
Enewetak Atoll are illuminated by the 81 kiloton Dog
Bomb test, April 8, 1951.
Operation Greenhouse 1951
George Bomb Test
May 8, 1951
225 kilotons
Enewetak November 1,1952


“Mike Bomb” weighed
164,000 pounds and
had a yield of 10.4
megatons.
1 Megaton equals one
million pounds of TNT
Before Mike


“The photograph shows five of forty named islands
comprising Enewetak Atoll before the "Mike" test
(the gray areas surrounding the islands are coral
reefs).”
Credit: U.S. Air Force
After Mike . . .


“The test completely vaporized the island of Elugelab as
well as portions of Sanil and Teiter (above), leaving a
crater 164 feet (50 meters) deep and 1.2 miles (1.9
kilometers) wide.”
Credit: U.S. Air Force
How many Pentagons?


“The observed destruction
from the weapons test in the
Marshall Islands was often
used to construct scenarios
for a nuclear war involving
the United States.
Here, the U.S. government
calculated how many
Pentagons could fit into the
crater left by the Mike shot
on Enewetak Atoll.”
Republic of the Marshall Islands Embassy,USA
The Crater

The five-sided giant, center of the Defense
Department, is the largest building in the world.
After Mike detonation,
the island disappeared in it's
place a deep crater 6,000 ft
across which would hold
14 Pentagon buildings with
room to spare.
Tsunami


“In addition to the damage
and fallout from Mike, there
was a Pacific wide Tsunami,
which traveled from the
Marshall Islands to Japan and
back across the Pacific as far
as the north shore of O’ahu,
Hawai`i.”
Richard U. Conant
Midway Island


Midway Island
after the Nov. 4, 1952
Tsunami
Operation Ivy 1952
King Bomb Test
November 11, 1952
500 kilotons
One kiloton equals a
thousand pounds of TNT
Bravo
A three-stage weapon


The first stage consisted of a big A-bomb,
which acted as a trigger.
The second stage was the H-bomb phase
resulting from the fusion of deuterium and
tritium within the bomb. In the process
helium and high-energy neutrons were
formed.
A three-stage weapon


The third stage resulted from the impact of
these high-speed neutrons on the outer
jacket of the bomb, which consisted of
natural uranium, or uranium-238.
The fusion neutrons had sufficient energy
to cause fission of the uranium nuclei and
thus added to the explosive yield and also
to the radioactivity of the bomb residues.
Operation Castle: March 1, 1954
6 Bomb tests in 3 months at Bikini Atoll exceeded 47 megatons
Bravo March 1, 1954
15 megatons
Two Suns Rose

The people of Rongelap, not
understanding what was
happening, watched as two
suns rose that morning,
observed with amazement as
the radioactive dust soon
formed a layer on their
island two inches deep
turning the drinking water a
brackish yellow.
March 1, 1954



Early in the morning on March 1, 1954, the hydrogen
bomb, code named Bravo, was detonated on the
surface of the reef in the northwestern corner of
Bikini Atoll.
The area was illuminated by a huge and expanding
flash of blinding light.
A raging fireball of intense heat that measured into
the millions of degrees shot skyward at a rate of 300
miles an hour .


Romeo – 11 megatons
Within minutes the
monstrous cloud, filled with
nuclear debris, shot up more
than 20 miles and generated
winds hundreds of miles per
hour.
These fiery gusts blasted the
surrounding islands and
stripped the branches and
coconuts from the trees.
The Decision . . .

“The decision the Navy
made to go forward with the
Bravo test March 1, 1954,
knowing that the winds were
blowing in the direction of
inhabited atolls, was
essentially a decision to
irradiate the northern
Marshall Islands, and
moreover, to irradiate the
people who were still living
on them.”
National Association of Atomic Veterans
Bravo - 15 megatons
Fallout scattered over 7,000 sq miles




Military reports indicate that Bravo was the single worst
incident of fallout exposure in all of the U.S. atmospheric
testing program.
Fallout was scattered over more than 7,000 square miles of
ocean and islands, resulting in the contamination and exposure
of military, civilian U.S. personnel working on the shot, and
people of the islands who were earlier moved to a supposedly
"safe" island but received large amounts of radiation.
7,000 sq. miles is more than Hawai`i and the District of
Columbia combined.
Acute radiation effects are still observed among these people.
Daigo Fukuryu Maru





Bravo Blast was 135 kilometer
(85 mi) to the west of the boat.
For three hours sandy ash
(fallout) rained down on the
boat.
14 days on the contaminated
boat, most of the 23 crew
members suffered nausea,
pain, and skin inflammation
Six months later one crewman
died.
The rest were hospitalized for
more than a year.
They say . . .


“People tell how as children, they ran and
cried then played in the milky dust that fell on
them.
They tell of confusion, of fear, of thinking that
the world had ended.”
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004


“Representatives of governments try to assure
us that all that could be done to bring the
matter to closure has been done.
They tell you that Washington no longer sees
these islands on their radar screen and
therefore our quest for fairness and justice is
all in vain.”
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004
Before & After
The Marshall Islands, so far
from everywhere and
unknown, but for their ethnic
p1ace names, seemed the likely
test grounds.
People and Islands were
vaporized. There is a hole in
the ocean where Elugelab
Island use to be.
The Brookhaven National Laboratory



"Even though the radioactive contamination of
Rongelap Island is considered perfectly safe for human
habitation, the levels of activity are higher than those
found in other inhabited locations in the world.
The habitation of these people on the island will
afford most valuable ecological radiation data on
human beings."
The Brookhaven National Laboratory scientists report about Rongelap: July
1957
Project 4.1 Guinea Pigs

“Drawn in 1953 for the planned 1954 Castle
Nuclear test series, Project 4.1 contemplated
the study of exposed human beings months
before Bravo.”
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004
Project 4.1 Guinea Pigs

“Throughout the years our people have had
misgivings about the annual medical
examinations they were subjected to by
scientists from the United States”
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004
Project 4.1 Guinea Pigs

Our discovery of these descriptions of Project
4.1 have reinforced our conviction that we
were being studied not treated by the scientists
who examined us.”

Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004
Health Care?



Union Bomb Test 1954
6.9 megatons
“American doctors have testified
that they were treating our injuries
and that the studies were an
integral part of the treatment.
Yet it was general knowledge
from the beginning that they
would not treat conditions which
they considered unrelated to the
tests and would refer such patients
to the trust territory medical
authorities.”
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March
1, 2004
Project 4.1




“We have documents pertaining to studies where
certain radioactive materials were given to subjects
both" exposed " and "unexposed" .
This resulted in previously unexposed subjects being
exposed for the purpose of comparison and exposed
persons getting even more radiation than they had
been gotten from the bomb.
If Project 4.1 was not a study why were there "control
groups"?“
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004
And we disappear


“The photographs in the office of the district
administrator here in Majuro were removed
and set on fire by agents of the United States
Government.
Several other fires involving medical records
of Marshallese exposed to radiation have been
reported through the years.”
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004
The Health of the Islands is
Forever Changed

Apache Bomb Test
1.85 megatons
The health of the people of
the Marshall Islands,
Micronesia, the Mariana’s,
other Pacific Islands, the
plants and animals of their
islands and surrounding
waters was impacted by the
bombs more than 1,000
times as powerful as the
atomic and hydrogen bomb
blasts of Hiroshima or
Nagasaki.
Castle Bomb Test 1954


Women from these islands have
suffered disproportionate
numbers of miscarriages and
births of severely deformed
children, and islanders continue
to suffer high rates of cancer,
hepatitis, tuberculosis and
immune deficiency diseases.
Tripler Army Medical Center
classifies their numerous Cancers
by numbers, having run out of
names.
Operation Redwing 1956
a 17-test nuclear weapons series
Seminole June 6, 1956
13.7 kilotons
Operation Redwing 1956
Seminole June 6, 1956
13.7 kilotons
1956 Operation Redwing
Dakota 1956
June 25, 1956
1.1 megatons
Operation Hardtack I: 1958
Hickory June 29, 1958
14 kilotons
Operation Hardtack
Umbrella Underwater
June 8, 1958 8 kilotons
"Are you still there?"


"Are you still there?" was the first radio transmission
received at Johnston Island after the TEAK
thermonuclear test on August 1, 1958.
The 3.8 megaton, 77-kilometer-high blast triggered
an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) which stopped radio
communications throughout that large area of the
Pacific.
Kalama Island (Johnston Island)


The EMP was so severe that military and civilian
aircraft had to be grounded in Hawaii. The TEAK
fireball could be seen as far away as Oahu Hawai`i,
approximately 800 nautical miles from Johnston
Island.
Several scientists viewing the test had to duck into a
shelter quickly because an error with the launch
vehicle, a Redstone rocket, caused it to detonate
directly over Johnston Island instead of 20 miles
down range.
Guam



After the bomb tests, the Atomic
Energy Commission & The Navy
would bring the hot ships from
Bikini to Guam and wash them
down so they could take vessels in
tow back to Pearl Harbor, S.F. and
Seattle.
Waters of the Marianas are still
contaminated due to radiation
fallout.
Guam has more cancers and
hepatitis per capita then any other
island in the Pacific.
Charles Clark, Commander National Association
of Atomic Veterans March 2004
50 Years later

Bikini and Rongelap
Atolls still are
considered unsafe for
habitation.
The Record


“July 1994 - U.S. Representatives George Miller and Ron
de Lugo write to Dr. Ruth Faden, chairperson of the
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments:
"...There is no doubt that the AEC intentionally
returned (Marshallese) to islands which it considered to
be "by far the most contaminated places in the world,'
but which it told the people were safe.
Nor is there any doubt that the AEC, through the
Brookhaven National Laboratory, then planned and
conducted test after test on these people to study their
bodies' reaction to life in that contaminated
environment.”

2002 Republic of the Marshall Islands Embassy,USA
Particles travel, WE are all impacted!



“Prior to the BRAVO explosion, radioactive tritium
was not measurable in Lake Ontario, 6,000 miles from
the Marshall Islands (one of the Great Lakes,
contiguous to Toronto Ontario).
After the BRAVO bomb blast the measurement of
tritium in Lake Ontario was very high. It has remained
measurable, but not that high, to this day.”
Dr. Rosalie Bertell
Everyone in the Marshall’s Received Fallout



“To think that the bomb left its mark on Lake Ontario
and not on the entire Marshall Islands is truly
unbelievable.
Everyone in the Marshall’s received some fallout.
Probably the range of exposure doses people received
was large, but it is not likely that anyone escaped with
no dose.”
Dr. Bertell has been a Grey Nun for more then 50 years, earned a doctorate
in biometry and written books about radiation and its effect on the health of
humanity and Planet Earth.




“For all these years under American guidance, we
have learned principles of democracy and human
rights under which all men aspire to live.
Yet, when we seek to be treated with honor and
dignity, we are denied the means to assure that
fairness and justice is guaranteed to all.
The United States continues to be less than
forthcoming in its handling of information and
dissemination of facts pertaining to the testing
program.”
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004
50 Years




“Here we are, fifty years after Bravo, and the people
forcibly removed from their homes for the atomic
tests, with the exception of Utrik, have yet to return
home.
The question of exposure as it affects other atolls of
the Marshall’s has yet to be fully addressed.
Many claims are still being prepared.
Adjudicated claims have not been paid in full as
agreed upon by the United States.”
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004
Bikini Underwater
The USS Saratoga
The bombed reef
Bikini Atoll Underwater
Health Care?



“Medical and monitoring programs, promised by
those who exposed us, have been severely curtailed
or abandoned.
Making "non-exposed" Marshallese responsible for
the medical needs of "exposed" Marshallese is not a
just solution.
America must own up to the problems it created.”
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004
Saipan



“It is believed that ALL
of the Islands of the
central pacific are
contaminated with
radiation, Agent
Orange and shad
chemicals.”
Robert Celestial, Former Guam
Legislator
March 20, 2004
Operation Dominic Nuclear Tests - 1962





Christmas Island & Johnston Atoll
36 atmospheric nuclear devices detonated in the
Pacific Proving Ground from April to November
1962.
It was the last atmospheric nuclear test series
conducted by the United States.
Dominic I was the largest and most elaborate U.S.
testing operation ever conducted.
In geographic terms, the diagnostic stations receiving
data from the tests covering more than 15 million
square miles.
Christmas Island 1962




Between 1945 and 1992 the
United States detonated 1,149
nuclear test explosions.
Until 1962 the tests were
conducted in the atmosphere
and oceans.
106 of the 216 above-ground
blasts were exploded 63 miles
from Las Vegas, Nevada.
The remaining were detonated
at the Enewetak or Bikini Atolls
in the Pacific Ocean.
Christmas Island 1962


Bluestone
1.27 megaton
Johnston Island 1962
Test: Frigate Bird
Time: 23:30 6 May 1962
(GMT)
Location: Johnston Island
Test Height and Type:
SLBM Airburst; 11,000 Feet
Yield: 600 kilotons
Runit Island


Beneath the concrete dome on Runit Island
(part of Enewetak Atoll), built between 1977
and 1980 at a cost of about $239 million, lie
111,000 cubic yards (84,927 cubic meters) or
radioactive soil and debris from Bikini and
Rongelap atolls.
The dome covers the 30-foot (9 meter) deep,
350-foot (107 meter) wide crated created by
the May 5, 1958, Cactus test.
Cover Up Runit Island


Researchers have suggested that this
dome was inadequate as it had an
estimated life of 300 years, yet the
material encased will remain
radioactive for 500,000 years.
This particular entombment is a
special interest because a nuclearwaste crypt is now being finished
800 miles from Honolulu at
Johnston Island where plutoniumlaced materials are to be buried
under a cap of coral soil.
“The Forgotten Guinea Pigs”

In 1980, Congress issued a stinging report,” The
Forgotten Guinea Pigs”, which concluded that the
Atomic Energy Commission chose to secure, at any
cost, the atmospheric nuclear weapons testing program
rather than to protect the health and welfare of the
residents of the area who lived downwind from the
nuclear test sites. (Y 4.In 8/4:G 94)

Since the tradewinds traverse the length and breadth
of the Pacific, all Islands are “downwind.”
A Question of Fairness





Marshall Islands has been a member of the U.N. since 17
Sep. 1991
We vote with the United States consistently.
We are America' allies in the war on terrorism.
At a time when the US is spending billions to study
nuclear clean up at mainland weapons production sites,
and hundreds of billions to make the world a safer place,
the US has a legal and moral obligation to finally resolve
the legacy of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands.
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004
Decades later


“Because of its geographical isolation from world
powers and political areas, the United States
government used its strategic Trust Territory to
conduct atomic and thermonuclear weapons tests.
Five decades later, the Marshallese people still
confront medical problems, environmental
contamination, displacement and social upheaval
resulting from the testing program.”
Source: Embassy of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to the United States
Veterans



“From 1946-63, the military ordered more
than 200,000 active-duty GIs to observe
one or more nuclear bomb tests either in
the Pacific or at the Nevada Test Site.
The 195,000 GIs who served as part of
the occupation force in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki may also have suffered the
effects of radiation.”
DUCK AND COVER(UP): U.S. RADIATION TESTING ON HUMANS
by Tod Ensign and Glenn Alcalay
Atomic Veteran

Jim Lyerly obeyed an
order to turn away from
the impending blast.

“But I still could see the
bones in my fingers like
an X-ray when I
shielded my eyes.
I could see marrow.”

Photo by Adrin Snider/Daily Press
Copyright © 2004, Daily Press
Atomic Veterans


Today, thousands of men and women
living in these Islands, who served in the
U.S. military are suffering the effects of
radiation and have also been forgotten.
6,336 claims approved; 3,156 denied
U.S. Department of Justice, Torts Branch, Civil Division
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project August, 1998
1998 The Brookings Institution
Atomic Veterans

Atomic Veterans include members of the
United States Armed Forces & civilians who
were exposed to ionizing radiation from atomic
and nuclear weapons testing during the period
beginning with the
Atomic Veterans


Trinity Blast of July 16, 1945
at Alamogordo, New
Mexico; continuing through
the U.S. clean-up of
Nagasaki / Hiroshima;
during the 317 atmospheric
atomic and nuclear weapons
tests in the Pacific and
Nevada test sites; until the
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of
1963.
Charlie Clark- Hawaii State Commander
National Association of Atomic Veterans
Robert Celestial- Former Legislator of
Guam
Both suffer with repeated cancers and their
claims have been denied.
No Clinical Trials

After more than 50 years
“no clinical trials on the
effects of ionizing
radiation on the retina
have been conducted.”
National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health,
March 23,2004
Bravo is not over.

“The people of Kwajalein, who sacrificed their
home and society for America's nuclear
ambitions, still live in squalid conditions on
Ebeye, unable to live in peace and comfort in
their own homeland.”
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004

They have been subjected to many of the same
treatment the islands of the tests suffered:
displacement, loss of traditional skills, social
disruption, and the contamination of their
lands and seas.”
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi March 1, 2004
The Future Generations

People throughout the Marshall Islands are
concerned about the effects of radiation on
future generations. According to many
Marshallese communities, severe deformities,
did not exist prior to the weapons testing
program.
Republic of the Marshall Islands Embassy,USA
Baby after Radiation Burn
“Bravo” Baby Radiation Burns
Incurable ills:
Photo by Adrin Snider/Daily Press
Copyright © 2004, Daily Press

Premature births and
unexplainable health
problems have
plagued the children
and grandchildren
ever since.

Veterans say family's
sickness is due to his
radiation exposure.
Marshallese Children
after recent radiation check
Dr.
Steve Simon with a highresolution gamma-ray
spectrometer, surrounded by
young Marshallese children
during one of the radiation
surveys.
Dr. Steve Simon was the
Director from its inception through
its completion.
RADIOLOGICAL STUDY

The MARSHALL ISLANDS NATIONWIDE
RADIOLOGICAL STUDY was the first
comprehensive radiological monitoring program
of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). It
was commissioned by the Government of the
Republic of the Marshall Islands in late-1989 and
was completed in mid-1995. Dr. Steve Simon was
the Director from its inception through its
completion.
Health Physics in July 1997 (Vol 73, Nol 1, 1997). The U.S. Department of Energy
has, with permission of the journal, made that publication available on the worldwide-web.
Children of the Marshallese



The U.S. Government accepted
responsibility and liability for the
consequences of all of the tests-sixty-seven (67) in all--conducted
from June 30, 1946 to August 18,
1958.
The people of Hawaii are impacted
by the migration of the Marshallese
for their healthcare and educational
needs.
The U.S. has been slow to repay
Hawai’i for the initial outlay of
money to finances the Nuclear
injured people.
What are the lasting effects of the 67 bomb tests on
this generation?


July 1976 –
A Brookhaven National Laboratory
report on Rongelap shows that 20 of
29, or 69 percent of the Rongelap
children who were under 10 years old in
1954 have developed thyroid tumors.
Long Latency Period

“The people of Utrik, whose original
exposure in 1954 of 14 rads of
radiation was less than one-twelfth
that of Rongelap, suddenly show a
higher rate of thyroid cancer than the
Rongelap people, indicating the long
latency period before health
problems develop from low level
radiation exposure.”
Republic of the Marshall Islands
Embassy,USA
Everyone received fallout





Ailuk, my Island, was totally
ignored by the Americans.
They came to us and asked how
many people were to be evacuated.
We said 400.
They told us that they would return
for us.
They never did.
See my brother's granddaughter in
the next picture.
Does she have the “mutated gene”?


“According to many Marshallese
communities, severe deformities,
such as this girl from Ailuk Atoll
who has no knees, a missing arm,
and three toes on each foot, did not
exist prior to the weapons testing
program.
Although, Ailuk and Likrip Atolls
are located outside of the
geographic area defined as
"exposed," the people vividly
remember the radioactive fallout
that dusted their islands.”
Republic of the Marshall Islands Embassy,USA
317 Nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific








Bikini Atoll (U.S.) 1946-1958
Christmas Island (U.S.) 1962
(U.S./U.K.) 1958 & 1962
Eniwetok Atoll (U.S.) 1946-1958
Fangataufa Atoll (Fr) 1966-1996
Johnston Atoll (U.S.) 1962
Malden Island (U.K.) 1957-1963
Maralinga (U.K. tests)1956-1957
Monte Bello Island (Australia)
1952-1956

Christmas Island 1962

Emu Fields (Australia) 1952-1956
Mororua Atoll (Fr). 1995-96
Our story needs to be told.
 “We respect and trust the United
States to do what is right when it has
the facts.
 Now is a moment in history when the
facts can come out.
 The truth can be told.
 Our story needs to be told and the
American people need to hear it.”
Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi
March 1, 2004
Rongelap Mayor
James Matayoshi
Marshallese Sunset
Sponsors: The Peoples Fund
Complied by:
Marsha Joyner
March 2004
[email protected]
Copyright 4/2004
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Coalition-Hawaii
Hawaiian National Communications Corporation
United Nations Association, Hawaii Division