[E-rundbrief] Info 417 - Remembering the Marshall Islands.

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 417 - Jane Goodall/ Rick Asselta: Remembering the 
Marshall Islands. June 30, 1946 marked the first of 67 deadly US 
nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands - tests that brought 
untold sorrow to the people of the Marshall's.

Bad Ischl, 3.7.2006

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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June 30, 1946 marked the first of 67 deadly US nuclear weapons tests 
in the Marshall Islands - tests that brought untold sorrow to the 
people of the Marshall's. The article below by Jane Goodall, a member 
of the Foundation's Advisory Council, and Rick Asselta, was published 
in today's San Francisco Chronicle. Please take a moment to read it 
and to consider the suffering and death we have inflicted with the 
hubris of our nuclear policies.

Remembering the Marshall Islands

Jane Goodall, Rick Asselta

Friday, June 30, 2006

As a result of nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands 60 years ago, 
many of the Marshallese Islanders still suffer today. Yet, few 
Americans know about this shameful chapter of history. Today, June 
30, which marks a painful anniversary for many in the South Pacific, 
is just another day for those unaware of the atrocities that took 
place there. This year, I hope the anniversary might open the eyes of 
people in America and around the world: We must acknowledge the 
damage done in the past and rise up out of our apathy to ensure such 
horrors are not perpetrated again.

I became aware of the nuclear testing program initiated after World 
War II from a friend who witnessed the aftermath of the devastation 
first hand. Rick Asselta was sent to the Marshall Islands as a Peace 
Corps volunteer to help comfort islanders whose homes and lives were 
destroyed by the testing. Between 1946 and 1958, the American 
military tested 67 nuclear weapons at Bikini and Enewetak. Prior to 
the first of these tests, the islanders were evacuated to other 
atolls, more than 100 miles away, and, as a precaution, the 
inhabitants of three other atolls were moved temporarily.

In 1952, the first hydrogen bomb was tested -- at 10.4 megatons, it 
was some 750 times larger than the Hiroshima bomb. In 1954, an even 
larger hydrogen bomb was detonated. On the eve of this test, 
code-named Bravo, weather reports indicated that atmospheric 
conditions were deteriorating, and on the morning of the test, the 
winds were blowing strongly toward a number of U.S. ships as well as 
several inhabited islands, including Rongelap and Utrik. 
Nevertheless, despite the clear danger to the people on these 
islands, the bomb, 1,000 times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb, 
was detonated. Great clouds of gritty, white ash rained down on 
several atolls, affecting many people, including some American weathermen.

It would be two days before people were moved from Rongelap, the 
worst affected island, and another day passed before Utrik was 
evacuated. The islanders suffered skin burns, and their hair fell 
out. Yet, in a statement to the press, the U.S. Atomic Energy 
Commission stated that some Americans and Marshallese were 
"unexpectedly exposed to some radioactivity. There were no burns. All 
were reported well." Subsequently, the commission drafted a report, 
not publicly released, in which it concluded that the Bravo fallout 
may have contaminated as many as 18 atolls and islands. Some years 
after that, an additional survey by the U.S. Department of Energy 
revealed that yet other atolls and islands had been affected by one 
or more of the tests, including five that were inhabited.

Three years after Bravo, in 1955, the inhabitants of Utrik were 
allowed to return because their island "was only slightly 
contaminated and considered safe." Two years later, Rongelap was 
declared safe "in spite of slight lingering radiation" and the people 
returned. A chilling report was issued at this time by Brookhaven 
National Laboratory scientists, who stated that although the 
contamination was considered perfectly safe "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" (my italics).

In 1963, nine years after their exposure to Bravo, the first thyroid 
tumors began appearing among the people of Rongelap. Thirteen years 
later, 20 of the 29 Rongelap children who were under 10 years old at 
the time of Bravo had developed these tumors. At the same time, it 
became clear that people exposed to lower levels of radiation were 
still at risk -- there was simply a longer latency period before 
health problems appeared.

Eleven years after the last nuclear tests, in 1969, the commission 
announced that Bikini was safe for rehabilitation. However, the 
Bikini council was not satisfied by this assurance and only a few 
families returned to their homes. How fortunate -- six years later, a 
U.S. Department of the Interior official reported "higher levels of 
radioactivity than originally thought" -- some ground wells were too 
radioactive for safe use, and several types of staple foods had to be 
prohibited. Six years after returning home, the few families who had 
returned to Bikini were moved yet again when additional testing 
showed that they had sustained an "incredible" 75 percent increase in 
radioactive cesium.

Before staging this ghastly series of tests in the Marshall Islands, 
home of a gentle people with an ancient culture, the United States, 
in its role as administrator of the area, undertook to "protect the 
inhabitants against the loss of their lands and resources". 
Unfortunately, this promise was hardly fulfilled.

Eventually, in 1977, Congress approved a nuclear cleanup of Enewetak 
Atoll. Of course, compensation in dollar amounts has been negotiated 
for the abused and exploited islanders, though not nearly enough.

Nor was nuclear testing the only horrifying test program inflicted on 
the Marshall Islands. Project Shipboard Hazards and Defense was part 
of a United States chemical and biological warfare test program that 
was conducted during the 1960s. Project SHAD was designed to test the 
vulnerability of U.S. warships to attacks by biological and chemical 
agents and to develop procedures to respond to such attacks. In 1968, 
biological agents, live staphylococcal enterotoxin type B, Bacillus 
globigii and uranine dye, were sprayed in aerosolized form, not only 
over six military ships, but also over part of the Enewetak Atoll. 
Those tests were linked to a sudden nationwide outbreak of a very 
severe flu-like disease in the Marshall Islands, which caused some deaths.

Subsequently, many U.S. servicemen complained of health problems they 
believed had resulted from their involvement in SHAD. It was the 
complaints of these veterans that eventually led to the above 
disclosures by the U.S. Department of Defense, through the Freedom of 
Information Act.

How many other people, in how many other countries have suffered, I 
wonder, during the testing of nuclear, chemical and biological 
weapons? That governments are still developing and testing nuclear 
bombs -- along with chemical and biological weapons -- is a crime 
against humanity that surely can never be justified or forgiven. On 
June 30, I hope you will pause and reflect on the events which 
happened more than half a century ago, the long-lasting effects of 
which continue to afflict many people of the Marshall Islands today.

I have a small wooden carving made by an old man who, despite the 
risk of radiation, returned to his island. It was his home, he said, 
where he had known a carefree childhood until foreign nations 
determined to use it to test their devil's weapons. He gave it to 
Rick, who has given it to me. I carry it with me as a symbol of the 
indomitable human spirit, and also as a reminder of the atrocities 
that were perpetrated that we must, somehow, prevent from ever 
happening again.

Jane Goodall is a U.N. Messenger of Peace and a recipient of the 
Gandhi-King Peace Award for Nonviolence. To learn more about the Jane 
Goodall Institute, go to www.janegoodall.org.

©2006 San Francisco Chronicle

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