A 2019 Columbia University study showed that some areas of the Marshall Islands are 10 times more radioactive than Chernobyl and Fukushima despite decades of clean-up efforts by the United States.
Yet, few young Marshallese are aware of the terrible price their atoll homes paid as the world’s superpowers raced during the Cold War to secure nuclear supremacy.
Many Marshallese still suffer from the biological and ecological effects of radiation exposure, forced relocations, and loss of land.
Thyroid abnormalities and unknown illnesses continue to plague the people of Rongelap who were initially relocated before being returned to their home islands by the US authorities in 1957.
Visiting relocated communities 15 minutes across the lagoon from Majuro in June, Pacific church leaders heard firsthand how the tests had been written out of history and the education curriculum.
Marshallese youth activist Ariana Kilner said: “It’s in the curriculum as of 2020 but it’s 2023 and the curriculum is still being piloted with several schools because we have not been able to work with the teachers to fully understand the information.
“I think there’s less than 20 schools that the curriculum is being piloted through right now. The hope is for all schools throughout the country to start learning about this. But the level of education and awareness that we’re at now … prior to the National Nuclear Commission there were three generations that knew nothing about this.’’
Presbyterian minister, Reverend Dr Bruce Yeates is not surprised.
“Well, you see they’re (rewriting history) in the US – certain parties in the US are doing that now,’’ Yeates said.
“Internally in the US they’re writing out the history of the Black American population on the history of slavery. So, you have that not only domestically, but you have it also in its foreign policy.’’
So what’s the Christian response to that? Yeates observes: “It’s very diverse, of course. [In the US]
you have the Christian nationalists taking Christianity – well, it’s no longer Christianity, it’s some sort of distorted extremism.’’
