Page 11 - Islands Business March 2024

Nuclear Legacy Nuclear Legacy

not interested,” she said. “We only learned about American the bloodiest world war, I learned about American history
history, but we never learned about our history. My bubu and world history, but none of this had anything really about
would say, ‘They knew what they were doing, they used nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands. Once in a while, you
us.’ But as kids, we ignored her, thinking she was talking would run into things that said, ‘America dropped the bomb
to herself. If I could turn back time, to have a better on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to stop the war’. But anything
understanding while she was still alive, I would sit there and beyond this was not part of American history.
listen to her all day. So now, in my heart, she is the reason we “I thought that was kind of shocking and brought it up
stand up today, for our history.” with my classmates and teachers, but they’d look at me and
say, ‘What are you talking about?’” he laughed. “In those
For the good of mankind days, people in Hawai’i didn’t know much about the Marshall
Soon after the end of the Second World War, the US military Islands or even where the Marshalls was located – even though
displaced hundreds of people from the northern atolls in the we’re right next door! So, I think that nuclear testing in the
Marshall Islands, in order to test nuclear weapons and conduct Marshalls and nuclear testing everywhere in the Pacific should
other military activities. be included in Pacific history courses.”
In 1946, US Commander Ben Wyatt asked the people of For Bikinians like Kelen, the long exile from their home
Bikini Atoll if they would leave their islands temporarily, to island reverberates across the generations.
allow the testing of atomic bombs “for the good of mankind “My mom just passed away not too long ago, very
and to end all world wars”. The United States went on to peacefully,” he told me. “But for a long time, she’d been
conduct 67 nuclear tests over the next twelve years, before asking me, ‘When are we going back?’ I told her that I didn’t
relocating operations to Christmas Island, where they held know. But in my heart, I do know. From the articles and
another 24 atmospheric tests in 1962. studies that I’ve read, it’s hard to see. So I don’t know, but I
The largest thermonuclear test, codenamed Bravo, was do – I was lying and not lying at the same time.
held on 1 March 1954 on Bikini Atoll. The hydrogen bomb test “It saddened me to look at my mother in the face and lie
had an explosive yield of nearly 15 megatons, a thousand to her,” he said. “I was guilty because I felt I was lying, even
times more powerful than the US atomic bomb dropped on though I do not have the full information about whether we’re
Hiroshima. It sent plumes of radioactive fallout across most ever going back. My daughter heard all this and answered her
islands of the Micronesian nation, especially impacting the grandmother, ‘Bubu, I don’t know if we’re going back’. But
northern atolls of Rongelap, Utirik, Enewetak and Ailininae. then she turned to me and asked, ‘Will we?’ In my mind, I was
All across the Ratak and Ralik archipelagos, atolls received crying. The truth is, I don’t know. But another truth is, we’re
varying amounts of low-level radiation. not going back.”
In subsequent years, many Marshallese were relocated from Today, people displaced from their islands by US nuclear
their contaminated islands. Some returned to their homes testing are once again threatened by displacement caused
after US assurances that the islands were safe, but many by the adverse effects of climate change. Through his work
weren’t and they fled again. As a result, there are many with the RMI National Nuclear Commission, Kelen wants young
elderly survivors living in exile to this day. Their descendants people to understand how the nuclear legacies connect to the
often identify with their lost homeland, even though they’ve climate emergency.
never visited, and live in the capital Majuro or other islands He explained that when they moved from Bikini to Ejit
like Kili and Mejatto. island, “my grandfather and his siblings agreed that everyone
Some elderly witnesses of the US testing program, buried on Ejit would have a concrete frame [for the coffin].
uprooted from their islands for decades, want to return home They thought that Ejit was a temporary site, so when we
before dying. However, parts of the northern atolls remain return to Bikini, we can take everyone with us. But today,
contaminated to this day, as US and RMI scientists debate around that very graveyard, land is eroding so fast to the
whether the decaying radioactive isotopes are still hazardous point where people want to build a seawall there so our
to human health. people don’t drift off. The ocean is eating up the land that
displaced people are buried in.”
Inter-generation truth-telling
Alson Kelen is a founder of the Waan Aelõñ in Majel Going home
program, working with young people on the construction The trauma of displacement is echoed amongst many
of Marshallese canoes, and encouraging pride in indigenous survivors who were relocated from other northern atolls to
culture and knowledge. A master navigator, storyteller and live on Kili, Ejit, Mejatto or in the national capital Majuro.
former Mayor of Bikini, he serves as a Commissioner of the Kathy Joel was six years old when the Bravo nuclear test
RMI National Nuclear Commission. spread radioactive fallout over Rongelap and other atolls.
For Kelen, it was encouraging to see the activities of Today, 70 years on, she lives in Majuro but still dreams of
students and young people during the lead-up to the Nuclear returning.
Victims Remembrance Day on 1 March, as they discussed the Speaking through a translator at an event hosted by RMI
history of 70 years ago. President Hilda Heine, Joel recalled the events of 1954: “I
“I went to school in Hawai’i,” he said. “I learned about remember when I saw planes flying over my island. I was

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