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No Promised Land: the Shared Legacy of the Castle Bravo Nuclear Test

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No Promised Land: the Shared Legacy of the Castle Bravo Nuclear Test By April L. Brown LOOKING BACK No Promised Land: The Shared Legacy of the Castle Bravo 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 Marshall Islands. 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 Pacific Proving Grounds 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 Bikini Atoll, was 1,000 times the force of the choice. A month prior to the filmed exchange, U.S. President Harry Truman Hiroshima bomb. had already approved Bikini Atoll as the test site for Operation Crossroads, a series of two tests in 1946 designed to study The explosion sent irradiated coral dust the new governance as the Japanese the effects of nuclear weapons. With throughout the atolls. 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 Rongerik Atoll, 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 United States 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 Micronesia.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 Hawaii and Australia, 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 World War I. At that time, with Bikini Atoll inhabitants and their and journalists was on hand to witness Japan began seizing German possessions leader to “ask” for use of their atoll “for the tests, and thousands of cameras ODAY March 2014 March ODAY T until it took formal control under the the good of mankind.” Wyatt came to the captured the spectacular events. The League of Nations 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 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 U.S Department of Energy 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 March 1, 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—Operation Sandstone the falling “snow” and how unsuspecting that there would be no long-term in 1948, Operation Greenhouse in 1951, children played in the fallout and women effects on the native Marshallese from and Operation Ivy 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 Enewetak Atoll. 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 Majuro 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 lithium 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 mushroom cloud 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 2014 March ARMS CONTROL TODAY 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 nuclear fallout, 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.
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