Hawaii asks Congress for RMI compensation

From The Marshall Islands Journal
May 16, 2004

The resolution calls on the Congress to pay awards “to the fullest extent, as determined by the Nuclear Claims Tribunal, and to provide for the costs of cleaning up nuclear sites in the Marshall Islands.”

The four page resolution was sent to Bikini Mayor Eldon Note.

The resolution makes note of the declared US government responsibility for compensation in the Compact of Free Association. But it says that “the pertinent provisions of the Compact were negotiated on limited and misleading information provided by the US government to the Marshallese representatives, a fact exposed only recently in material declassified by the US and acknowledged by their officials.”

The compensation funds provided by the US government to date “are grossly inadequate to provide for health care and environmental monitoring, personal injury claims or land and property damage,” the resolution said.

The resolution also expresses the Hawaii State Senate’s “deep regret for the nuclear testing legacy which the people of the Marshall Islands have inherited.”

It also asks Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle to declare March 1 as a “Day of Remembrance for the survivors of the US nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands.”

In addition to Note, the resolution was sent to US President George W. Bush, Congressional leaders, Governor Lingle and Nitijela Speaker Litokwa Tomeing.

Hacker’s view

‘Now they claim that one of those bombs went off track because the winds were contrary to the expectations. No they weren’t. They were exactly what they expected. They knew ahead of time. There is no question in my mind. They went ahead with the test because they wanted the experiment.’

The following is a verbatim excerpt from Fr. Leonard Hacker, A Life, by Helen Claire Sievers. Hacker, a Jesuit priest who died last year, spent 50 years of his life working in the Marshall Islands: first, establishing the Catholic Church and school in Majuro in the early 1950s, then moving onto Ebeye, where he expanded the Catholic school into a high school.

Surely one of the most controversial episodes in the Marshallese history was the nuclear testing that went on between 1946-1958 on Bikini and Enewetak atolls where 67 nuclear tests were carried out by the United States. The United States had convinced the Marshallese that these tests would be “for the good of mankind.”

The first of these tests was on June 30, 1946 when the world’s fourth atomic bomb, the first of the post-war nuclear bombs, was dropped on Bikini Atoll. Code named “ABLE”, this bomb a 23 kiloton device was the first in series named “Operation Crossroads.” In 1952 the first of the thermonuclear or fusion bombs, “MIKE” a 10 megaton device, was dropped on Enewetak where it vaporized the entire island it hit.

The most tragic, by far, of all these test and also the most powerful at 15 megatons was the thermonuclear “Bravo” test on March 1, 1954 at Bikini Atoll. At 15 megatons this bomb had 1,000 times the destructive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

These northern atolls of the Marshall Islands had been selected for nuclear testing sites because of their location. The prevailing winds in this part of the Pacific are from the east. Therefore fallout from the tests would blow westward over the Pacific where there are no islands and so no population that could be exposed. The tragedy in this test was that several hours before the BRAVO test the winds changed, and instead of blowing toward the west, they blew in an east southeasterly direction over the inhabited islands of Rongelap and Ailingnae atolls in the Marshall Islands. These atolls received heavy doses of radiation and fallout that appeared to be “snow” to many innocent Marshallese. Hours later the fallout tell over Utrik and Ailuk atolls atolls as well. The controversy raging until today is over whether or not the United States knew the direction of the winds had shifted and so that the inhabitants of these atolls would likely be irradiated.

If you were on Majuro, you know the truth of this controversy. Every week when they were making the atomic bomb preparations a plane flew down to Majuro from Enewetak and brought a group of scientists and also anyone else to fill the plane. So you met the commanding officers, all the top brass, they all came down. They built up a group of eighty Army people to build a weather station on Majuro during the bombing, to catch the weather. They were really prepared. They really knew which way the winds were blowing. Now they claim that one of those bombs went off track because the winds were contrary to the expectations. No they weren’t. They were exactly what they expected. They knew ahead of time. There is no question in my mind. They went ahead with the test because they wanted the experiment. It was common knowledge around here. They had good weather analysis and the winds had changed hours before the test. Everyone here felt that the reason the test was carried out was that US wanted to know what the effects of the various dosages of radiation would be on people. For the US that was gravy! They didn’t have to set anybody near the bombs; the people were right there. Of course they knew all those things.

Little by little they’re releasing more of the data. Atomic Energy is releasing their secret papers. Now we found out that they knew. They said that they had a weather group on an island, and that’s where the fallout took place. They tell where they had the groups. They knew that there was going to be a fallout. So they knew the direction of the wind; they knew which way it was going to go, but they just kept it secret. Some guy’s going to suffer in hell for that later on because that was all known stuff. It makes you sick sometimes to realize that there were human guinea pigs on these islands. And it was like free experiments. They didn’t have to put anybody there and they just left them there.

We didn’t know a lot of details about the atomic testing here in the Marshalls. We were told it was secret, that we couldn’t talk about it. The planes would come down from Enewetak and you’d ask question, “Is there a big build up right now going on?” “Sorry we can’t tell you about that. But you know, the washroom this morning was so busy I could hardly get to brush my teeth.” Some guy would tell you that much. Other guys would just say, “Can’t talk about it.”

I never saw any of the effects of the testing in Majuro but on Likiep I saw the flash. It was little and then....oooh and out. It was a light and then it gradually went out again. It all lasted about a minute. We weren’t close enough on Likiep to notice any fallout.