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Home , Ailinginae Atoll, Bikini Atoll, Castle Bravo, Kwajalein Atoll, Operation Greenhouse, Operation Ivy

By April L. Brown LOOKING BACK No Promised Land: The Shared Legacy of the Nuclear Test

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Castle Bravo to the children of Israel who had been saved by their enemies and led to the nuclear detonation in the . The U.S. military Promised Land. With the leader’s response that “everything is in God’s hands,” the conducted 67 nuclear tests in the cameras cut, and the military began preparations to relocate the 167 Bikinian from 1946 to 1958. The Castle Bravo test, conducted on March people to another island.4 Realistically, the Bikinians had no 1, 1954, at , was 1,000 times the force of the choice. A month prior to the filmed exchange, U.S. President Harry Truman bomb. had already approved as the test site for , a series of two tests in 1946 designed to study The sent irradiated coral dust the new governance as the Japanese the effects of nuclear weapons. With throughout the . Neighboring atoll worked to build up an infrastructure, no understanding of atomic weapons, populations, who were neither informed including schools, and to increase radiation, or the likelihood of permanent of the tests nor relocated prior to the economic trade. With the outbreak of displacement, the Bikinians acquiesced detonation, today continue to experience World War II, the Japanese military and were relocated to , an health issues, cultural upheaval, took over administration and began uninhabited island 125 miles to the east and physical dislocation due to the fortifying several of the atolls. When where they lacked sustainable food and environmental degradation produced by the fighting in the Pacific intensified in potable water supplies. the test and the effects of climate change. 1942, the Marshallese suffered as the The two atomic tests were Able, an The Bravo detonation remains the largest Japanese military began to brutalize the airdrop test conducted on June 30, and nuclear test ever conducted by the United population as food sources became scarce.2 Baker, an underwater detonation that States.1 Although the tested In February 1944, U.S. Marine and Army took place on July 24. The Navy placed an additional 55 nuclear weapons in the forces invaded Japanese strongholds 95 vessels, including aircraft carriers and Marshall Islands, Castle Bravo is the most on Kwajalein and Enewetak atolls and destroyers, in Bikini Atoll’s lagoon, and notorious due to its impact, primarily on turned both into U.S. military bases, the hundreds of animals were strapped to the people of the Marshall Islands. former being the Army’s largest air base the decks to monitor the blast’s effects. The Marshall Islands, two chains of 29 in .3 After months of intense Thousands of U.S. soldiers were positioned low-lying coral atolls situated north of the fighting in the Pacific theater, the United on naval ships outside the blast zone and equator between and , States dropped atomic bombs on the then brought in to survey the damage, were occupied by the U.S. military during Japanese industrial cities of Hiroshima and retrieve the irradiated animals, and World War II and in 1947 became a Nagasaki in August 1945. decontaminate the vessels that were UN trust territory administered by the Attracted by its remote location, sparse exposed to high levels of radiation.5 United States. Prior to the U.S. control, population, and nearby U.S. military The U.S. military took pains to impress the islands, whose first inhabitants likely bases, the United States made plans to on the international community the arrived on the atolls some 4,000 years test its most powerful weapons in the point that the tests were of a scientific ago, were claimed by Spain in 1494 and Marshall Islands. U.S. Navy Commodore nature and not saber rattling. A large administered by Germany from 1885 until Ben Wyatt, with cameras rolling, met contingent of international observers the outbreak of . At that time, with Bikini Atoll inhabitants and their and journalists was on hand to witness began seizing German possessions leader to “ask” for use of their atoll “for the tests, and thousands of cameras ODAY March 2014 March ODAY until it took formal control under the the good of mankind.” Wyatt came to the captured the spectacular events. The charter in 1920. island on a Sunday after church services tests overshadowed the U.S. military’s Initially, many Marshallese welcomed and, at one point, likened the Bikinians movement of Marshallese populations

ARMS CONTROL T April L. Brown is co-founder and executive director of the Marshallese Educational Initiative, a nonprofit organization based in northwest Arkansas. She is a professor of history and director of the honors program at Northwest Arkansas Community College. 40 to different islands to prevent their contamination by radiation. These islands rarely held the food or water supplies necessary to sustain their temporary populations. In 1947, a year after the two Crossroads detonations, the United Nations awarded trusteeship of the Marshall Islands to the United States. Part of the U.S. charge was

to “protect the inhabitants against the Energy of Department U.S loss of their lands and resources” and to “protect the health of the inhabitants.”6 Once operations in the Pacific Proving Grounds switched from military to U.S. civilian control in 1947 under the newly formed Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), a new cloud of secrecy shrouded future The 15-megaton Castle Bravo nuclear test in the Marshall Islands on , tests. The AEC ramped up testing to create 1954, is the largest nuclear test ever conducted by the United States. increasingly powerful weapons. Its next three series of tests— the falling “snow” and how unsuspecting that there would be no long-term in 1948, in 1951, children played in the fallout and women effects on the native Marshallese from and in 1952—detonated rubbed it in their hair.8 The residents of Bravo contamination, based on medical fission and thermonuclear weapons over Rongelap and Ailinginae atolls bore the estimates. The report said the evacuated . The last test in the Ivy brunt of the radioactive fallout. Rongelapese appeared happy and content series, Mike, was the first hydrogen bomb; According to Rongelapese magistrate and were provided with better housing on it had a yield of 10.4-12.0 megatons. John Anjain, two Americans arrived on Atoll than on their home island.11 the island by plane and hastily inspected The report estimated that the displaced Impact of the Bravo Test the damage to the atoll on the afternoon population would be returned to Rongelap The Castle test series, begun in 1954, was of March 2, the day after the blast, but Atoll within six months to a year. In intended to test deuteride as a left without warning anyone of the reality, the Rongelapese in particular thermonuclear fusion fuel. Islanders had danger posed by the radioactivity.9 The had been exposed to near-lethal doses of been relocated prior to early tests, but the U.S. military arrived on the morning of radiation. A calculation of the radiation Bravo test was conducted secretly with no March 3 to evacuate the residents, who intake of the population shows that relocations beforehand. Winds that were were already suffering from radiation Rongelapese adults likely were exposed to noted as favorable by weather forecasters poisoning. internal doses of ionizing radiation of 60- three days prior to the blast were deemed The U.S. military evacuated other 300 rem. Doses at that level typically cause unfavorable six hours before the test. Still, populations on Rongerik and Ailinginae many kinds of physiological damage. Major General Percy Clarkson, the head of atolls. Weathermen stationed on Rongerik According to the study, five to 10 rem can the military team responsible for carrying Atoll were instructed on March 2 to stay alter blood chemistry and cause genetic out the testing, ordered the detonation to inside their metal-lined bunkers until damage, while 400 rem would likely kill proceed as planned despite the likelihood they could be evacuated later that day. 50 percent of the exposed population.12 that winds would carry the fallout over Marshallese residents received no such The Rongelapese quickly became test inhabited atolls. warnings. The Marshallese inhabitants of subjects of a U.S. government-sponsored At 15 megatons, the Bravo shot created Rongerik Atoll were not evacuated until program, Project 4.1, entitled “The Study a that rose as high as March 4. of Response of Human Beings Exposed to

130,000 feet and spread over an area more The Bravo event itself might have Significant Beta and Gamma Radiation ARMS CONTROL TODAY March 2014 than 25 miles in diameter in less than 10 remained unknown to the U.S. public Due to Fallout from High Yield Weapons.” minutes.7 Detonated over Bikini Atoll, the at the time if it were not for a Japanese The team conducting the study did not explosion vaporized three islands. The fishing vessel, theDaigo Fukuryū Maru ask the Marshallese for their consent or , made up of crushed coral, (Lucky Dragon) and its 23 crewmen who even explain to them that a study was water, and radioactive particles, rained were caught inside the contamination being conducted, which caused even more down over inhabited atolls. Witnesses zone. Panic spread throughout Japan that confusion as Marshallese were shuttled described watching the sun rise in the the contaminated tuna brought aboard between the islands and testing facilities west the morning of the detonation and the vessel had entered the market.10 in the United States. The Marshallese were fascinated by the red and orange A report submitted by the AEC to the were told they were being treated for colors that lit up the sky. They then U.S. representative on the UN Trusteeship their various illnesses, but rarely was a described their terror as the shock wave Council on June 9, 1954, downplayed the translator present to explain what tests hit. Hours later, the Marshallese described impact of the Bravo test by emphasizing were being conducted or for what purpose. 41 Marshallese were given pills to take with States had encouraged resettlement years movement of Marshallese between atolls no accompanying explanation as to why earlier. or the lingering effects of radiation. This they were supposed to take them. As litigation, mostly instigated by is an obvious point of consternation of The impact of radiation was evidenced Bikinians, continued in the U.S. court the many Marshallese who live on atolls by Marshallese who were returned to their system, the majority of the Marshallese other than the designated four and believe atolls as well as atoll populations that the people voted to establish a new political their atolls were similarly affected by U.S. AEC considered to be unaffected by the relationship with the United States. The nuclear testing but go unrecognized. Bravo test. Exposed women gave birth Republic of the Marshall Islands was The “changed circumstances” provision

Hours [after the Bravo test], the Marshallese described the falling “snow” and how unsuspecting children played in the fallout and women rubbed it in their hair.

to severely deformed babies, some with established in 1979. In 1986 the Compact in the compact allows for the Marshall abnormally large heads and translucent of Free Association between the republic Islands to petition the U.S. Congress for skin, none of whom survived more than and the United States was signed into additional financial assistance if they a number of days. Not knowing the cause law, ending the trusteeship arrangement can provide proof there were additional of their illnesses, the Marshallese sickened and ushering in a new period of political damages to property and injuries from the by radiation were often ostracized and independence. The compact allows testing program unknown during the time suffered psychological trauma. Marshallese citizens to enter, work in, of the compact negotiations and in excess As the U.S. nuclear testing continued and go to school in the United States and of the original $150 million provided. in the Marshall Islands through 1958, gives the United States the responsibility Years later, the Marshallese believed they displaced Marshallese, particularly those for the islands’ defense. An affiliated had their evidence.14 from Bikini and Enewetak atolls, suffered agreement gives the United States full and During the administration of President from malnutrition and sometimes continued control over military facilities Bill Clinton, congressional pressure starvation as the islands on which on to conduct military to declassify AEC documents related they were placed could not sustain the maneuvers. One section of the compact to domestic nuclear testing increased. population. In 1957 the AEC returned provides for continued medical care of Prompted by a series of newspaper the Rongelapese to their atoll, where the remaining 176 Marshallese directly articles alleging that U.S. citizens had they remained for nearly 30 years despite affected by the Bravo detonation. been injected with without pleas to the United States to remove them Section 177 of the compact provided their consent, Secretary of Energy because of the prevalence of disease. In for a separate agreement to deal with Hazel O’Leary declassified thousands of the decades following the testing, the settlement issues. The agreement called documents, many of which dealt with Marshallese suffered high rates of growth for the establishment of a $150 million testing in the Pacific Proving Grounds, abnormalities in children and other birth trust fund set up by the U.S. government under the “Openness Initiative.” In 1994, defects. Thyroid tumors, especially among in exchange for the dismissal of all Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman Rongelapese women, have resulted in pending court cases and a pledge not of the House Committee on Natural numerous surgeries, which affected their to pursue any future litigation. It also Resources, held a hearing to review abilities to speak and sing, the latter of established the National Claims Tribunal the information contained in the AEC which serves as an important aspect of to hear Marshallese cases of personal documents. .13 injury and damages to or loss of property. One of the documents that elicited Due to the number of claims, the $45 an outcry and potentially provided Political and Legal Steps million provided by the United States to the Marshallese with official evidence After the Bravo test, the U.S. government the tribunal has mostly been spent and of damage and injury was a 1973 U.S. provided cash payments and established is considered by the Marshallese to be government report stating that fallout

ODAY March 2014 March ODAY trust funds for the Enewetakese, Bikinians, insufficient. from the Bravo test possibly affected 13 and Rongelapese for radiation exposure. The U.S. government narrowly defines atolls, including Ailinginae, Kwajalein, In the 1970s, the United States began the affected atolls as Bikini, Enewetak, Wotho and Wotje and that subsequent cleaning up Enewetak Atoll in an attempt Utrik, and Rongelap and affected may have hit some of the to make it habitable. Studies by the U.S. individuals as those who were on the same areas. Miller charged the United government deemed Bikini Atoll too four atolls during the testing period, States with having “deliberately kept that ARMS CONTROL T radioactive to inhabit although the United failing to take into account the frequent information from the Marshallese,” which 42 Figure 1: The Castle Bravo Test The Castle Bravo nuclear test conducted by the United States on March 1, 1954, had a profound impact throughout the Marshall Islands. Marshallese efforts to obtain acknowledgment of and redress for the effects of this test and others continue to the present day.

X site of Castle Bravo detonation (Bikini Atoll) tAongi Atoll sn Capital of marshall islands (majuro)

X rongerik Atoll Bikini Atoll enewetAk Atoll utrik Atoll

kwAjAlein Atoll

mArshAll islAnds hAwAii mAjuro Atoll

Pacific Ocean

AustrAliA ARMS CONTROL TODAY March 2014 100 miles

Source: Worldatlas.com, Marshallese embassy to the United States

he argued, “clearly constitutes a cover- regard to government openness. Many as lacking adequate proof. up.”15 of the documents that were not already More recently, Marshallese officials Based on this new information, in 2000 reclassified in the backlash to O’Leary’s have sought to make the United Nations the Marshall Islands formally submitted a massive declassification project were taken take responsibility for its part in allowing petition invoking changed circumstances, off the shelves at the National Archives the United States to conduct nuclear as allowed by the compact. Following the and Records Administration.16 In 2005 the testing while serving as a UN trustee September 11 attacks, the U.S. government Bush administration formally denied the and assist in pressuring the United States took on a more defensive posture with petition submitted by the Marshall Islands to provide adequate compensation. In 43 September 2012, Calin Georgescu, the blast and that claims that the 15-megaton blast Commission (Nichols) to the Assistant Secretary UN special rapporteur on human rights exceeded expectations therefore were false. Giff of State for United Nations Affairs (Key),” June 9, and toxic waste, encouraged the United Johnson, Don’t Ever Whisper; Darlene Keju: Pacific 1954, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952- States to fulfill its responsibilities to the Health Pioneer, Champion for Nuclear Survivors, 1954, United Nations Affairs, Vol. III (Washington, people of the Marshall Islands affected (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, DC: Government Printing Office, 1983), pp. by the nuclear testing. He said the U.S. 2013), pp. 370-371. 1491-1494. government should provide “full funding 2. Holly Barker, Bravo for the Marshallese: 12. Johnson and Barker, Rongelap Report, p. 97 for the Nuclear Claims Tribunal to award Regaining Control in a Post-Nuclear, Post-Colonial (citing Hans Behling, John Mauro, and Kathleen adequate compensation for past and future World, 2nd ed. (Belmont: Wadsworth, 2013), p. claims” and health care to those residing Behling, “Reassessment of Acute Radiation 18. in the United States.17 Doses Associated With BRAVO Fallout: Report to Today, nuclear issues remain at the 3. Jonathan M. Weisgall, Operation Crossroads: the RMI Nuclear Claims Tribunal” [McLean, VA: center of the complex geopolitical The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll (Annapolis: Naval S. Cohen and Associates, 2000]). Institute Press, 1994), pp. 42-43. relationship between the United States 13. Barker, Bravo for the Marshallese, pp. 45-46; and the Marshall Islands. The Marshallese 4. The U.S. government invited journalists Schwartz, “A ‘Voice to Sing.’” on the islands suffer from health issues, and Hollywood film crews to Bikini Atoll including high cancer rates and the 14. For a detailed examination of the Compact to record the exchange. See Barker, Bravo highest rate of diabetes in the world, and of Free Association, the section 177 agreement, for the Marshallese, p. 20. Newsreel footage high unemployment.18 and the “changed circumstances” petition and the various takes may be viewed in the The Marshallese who have relocated submitted by the Marshall Islands to Congress documentary filmsThe Atomic Café, directed to the United States continue to struggle in 2000, see Barker, Bravo for the Marshallese, by Pierce Rafferty, Jayne Loader, and Kevin as well. Due to economic pressures to pp. 34-39, 111-116. For the original compact, Rafferty from 1982, and , directed find work and their lack of proficiency see http://www.fsmlaw.org/compact/. For the by from 1987. For information and with English, few within the Marshallese 2003 amended version, see http://www.gpo. photographs related to the nuclear testing there, community pursue higher education. Like gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-108publ188/html/PLAW- see http://www.bikiniatoll.com/. the Marshallese that have remained in the 108publ188.htm. islands, the U.S. community suffers from 5. Barker, Bravo for the Marshallese, pp. 20-21. high rates of diabetes and cancer, and it 15. Gary Lee, “Postwar Pacific Fallout Wider 6. Legal Information System of the Federated lacks adequate access to medical resources. Than Thought; New Data Show Radiation States of Micronesia, “Trusteeship Agreement for Because of limited information Spread Beyond Limited Area,” The Washington the Former Japanese Mandated Islands,” n.d., about the nuclear tests, few within the Post, February 24, 1994. art. 6, nos. 2 and 3, http://www.fsmlaw.org/ United States are aware of the challenges miscdocs/trustshipagree.htm. The agreement 16. Scott Shane, “U.S. Reclassifies Many facing this diasporic community. The was approved by the UN Security Council on Documents in Secret Review,” The New York Marshallese themselves are conflicted. April 2, 1947, and ratified by the U.S. Congress Times, February 21, 2006; Scott Shane, “National They appreciate the opportunities on July 18, 1947. Archives Pact Let CIA Withdraw Public provided to them by the United States, but Documents,” The New York Times, April 18, cannot understand how their closest ally 7. Barker, Bravo for the Marshallese, p. 23. 2006. can deny the obvious effects of nuclear 8. Jessica A. Schwartz, “A ‘Voice to Sing’: testing on their population in areas such 17. UN General Assembly, A/HRC/21/48/Add.1, Rongelapese Musical Activism and the as health issues and loss of land, which September 3, 2012. Production of Nuclear Knowledge,” Music and contributes to a loss of cultural identity. Politics, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Winter 2012). 18. Steven Simon et al., “Radiation Doses and While reflecting in 1978 on Wyatt’s Cancer Risks in the Marshall Islands Associated religious appeal to the Bikinians to allow 9. Barbara Rose Johnston and Holly Barker, The With Exposure to Radioactive Fallout From the United States the use of their island for Rongelap Report: Consequential Damages of Nuclear Bikini and Enewetak Nuclear Weapons Tests: testing, Bikinian representative Tomaki War (Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2008), Summary,” Health Physics, Vol. 99, No. 2 (August Juda said, “[W]e are sadly more akin to the p. 12. Children of Israel when they left Egypt 2010): 105-123. 10. Ten days after the March 1 blast, the U.S. and wandered through the desert for 40 Atomic Energy Commission reported that 28 19. Juda was speaking to members of a House years. We left Bikini and have wandered Americans and 236 natives of the Marshall Appropriations subcommittee during a hearing through the ocean for 32 years and we will Islands “were unexpectedly exposed to some to discuss the U.S. government’s recent findings never return to our Promised Land.”19 radiation” but had not suffered burns and were that radiation levels were much higher on Bikini

ODAY March 2014 March ODAY in good health. “Fishermen Burned in Bikini Atoll than it had previously claimed. Bikinians ENDNOTES Test Blast,” Associated Press, March 16, 1954. living on had been asking the U.S. 1. Citing a February 23, 1954, memorandum Press reports of the sailors’ illnesses and the government to relocate their kinsmen for years contained in U.S. documents hand-delivered to irradiated fish generated pressure on the U.S. due to the unsafe living conditions there. Walter the Marshall Islands in 2013, Marshall Islands government to pay $2 million in damages to the Pincus, “Bikinians Must Quit Island for at Least Journal editor Giff Johnson argues that U.S. Japanese government in 1955. 30 Years, Hill Told,” The Washington Post, May ARMS CONTROL T officials had planned for a 12- to 20-megaton 11. “The General Manager, Atomic Energy 23, 1978. 44