[Peace-discuss] Marshall Island Atomic tests

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Vieques in solidarity with Marshall Islands

Nilda Medina, founding member of the Committee for the Rescue and Development 
of Vieques, travelled to the Marshall Islands to participate in the 
conmemoration of Bravo Day:  March 1, 1954 - day of the first hydrogen bomb detonation 
by the US military.  The 'marshallesel, like our people of Vieques, struggle 
for peace:  for decontamination, demilitarization and health, democratic 
economy.  Nilda was invited by the Earth is Life group, survivors of the horrible 
effects of militarism around the world.  In representation of the CRDV, Nilda 
took a message of solidarity from Vieques and returned with a stronger 
committment to justice and peace for Vieques and the entire world. 


Remarks of Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi

Bravo Day, March 1, 2004, Marshall Islands

Today I stand before you as Mayor of Rongelap, but more importantly, I stand 
before you as a son of Rongelap - a true son of the "survivors". You are here 
because you have determined that today, as we commemorate the terrible and 
terrifying event of March 1, 1954, it is important that you come. We are grateful 
to you for being here. We are especially proud to welcome our friends from 
the World Councils of Churches, our friends from Japan, Europe, and America. We 
know of friends here from as far away as New Zealand and Puerto Rico. We thank 
you all. We welcome you all.

Some of you are from the islands which have born this tragedy for fifty years 
and more. some of you represent organizations and communities of people who 
feel strong ties to those of us who survived Bravo. 

Some of you represent governments and important organizations from throughout 
our world. Many of you have come to show solidarity with us today when we 
take a solemn pause to memorialize events of the past.. Events which forever 
changed our lives, and by the fact that you are here, your lives as well.

Throughout this day, and as you interact with each other during these 
commemorative services, your will undoubtedly hear various accounts of events 
surrounding Bravo. From this long list of stories and anectodes, you will witness the 
horror of the bomb, hear the multitude of reasons why this or that happened, 
and draw your own conclusions as to what to believe. Of course, you will hear 
from the apologists who will try as they always do to explain away our 
suffering and sorrow as byproducts of the cold war. The "accident" theorists will 
tell you about sudden shifts of wind and stronger yields than expected. Others 
will write us as of allies just bearing their share of the burdens of the cold 
war.

Local witnesses will tell you personal versions of what they saw and felt 
from the eyes and the understanding of human beings and not scientists or 
soldiers or politicians. They will tell you of how as children they ran and cried 
then played in the milky dust that fell on them. They will tell you of confusion, 
of fear, of thinking that the world had ended.

Leaders will tell you how they tried to do all they could do to deal with the 
matter. Representatives of governments will try to assure you that all that 
could be done to bring the matter to closure have been done. They will tell you 
that Washington no longer sees these islands on their radar screen and 
therefore our quest for fairness and justice is all in vain.

I wonder if they will tell you about Project 4.1. : The study of humans 
exposed to radiation. We began learning more about this program when previously 
classified documents pertaining to the testing program were released to us in 
1994 under the clinton administration. Among the thousands of documents 
declassified we discovered this frightening program plan. Drawn in 1953 for the planned 
1954 castle nuclear test series, Project 4.1 contemplated the study of 
exposed human beings months before Bravo. 

Throughout the years our people have had misgivings about the annual medical 
examinations they were subjected to byscientists from the United States. Our 
discovery of these descriptions of Project 4.1 have reinforced our conviction 
that we were being studied not treated by the scientists who examined us. If 
Project 4.1 was conceived, planned and funded prior to March 1, 1954, where were 
the study subjects supposed to come from? 

We have pictures showing "subjects" of the 4.1 study as early as March 16, 
1954. Could this project have been put in place in a matter of two weeks without 
requisite technical and logistical planning? American doctors have testified 
that they were treating our injuries and that the studies were an integral 
part of the treatment. Yet it was general knowledge from the beginning that they 
would not treat conditions which they considered unrelated to the tests and 
would refer such patients to the trust territory medical authorities. 

We have documents pertaining to studies where certain radioactive materials 
were given to subjects both" exposed " and " unexposed" . This resulted in 
previously unexposed subjects being exposed for the purpose of comparison and 
exposed persons getting even more radiation than they had been gotting from the 
bomb. If Project 4.1 was not a study why were there "control groups"?

Many documents pertaining to the tests have yet to be released. Others, like 
the photographs in the office of the district administrator here in Majuro 
were removed and set on fire by agents of the United States Government. Several 
other fires involving medical records of Marshallese exposed to radiation have 
been reported through the years.

Sufficient information regarding weather conditions surrounding Bravo has 
been gathered to convince us that there was no unexpected change in weather that 
caused radioactive fallout to reach inhabited areas. The generals and 
scientists in charge of the testing chose to ignore weather studies and forecasts 
which predicted unsafe conditions for the testing.

On earlier occasions, people were moved for safety reasons for prior tests 
with much smaller expected yield. For Bravo, there was no such precautionary 
relocation. People were left where they were, unaware that they were in harm's 
way, totally at the mercy of the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by 
man. 

For all these years under American guidance, we have learned principles of 
democracy and human rights under which all men aspire to live. Yet, when we seek 
to be treated with honor and dignity, we are denied the means to assure that 
fairness and justice is guaranteed to all. The United States continues to be 
less than forthcoming in its handling of information and dissemination of facts 
pertaining to the testing program. 

Here we are, fifty years after Bravo, and the people forcibly removed from 
their homes for the atomic tests, with the exception of Utrik, have yet to 
return home. The question of exposure as it affects other atolls of the Marshalls 
has yet to be fully addressed. Many claims are still being prepared. 
Adjudicated claims have not been paid in full as agreed upon by the United States. 
Medical and monitoring programs, promised by those who exposed us, have been 
severely curtailed or abandoned. Making "non-exposed" Marshallese responsible for 
the medical needs of "exposed" Marshallese is not a just solution. America must 
own up to the problems it created.

Bravo is not over. The people of Kwajalein, who sacrificed their home and 
society for America's nuclear ambitions, still live in squalid conditions on 
Ebeye, unable to live in peace and comfort in their own homeland. They have been 
subjected to many of the same treatment the islands of the tests suffered: 
displacement, loss of traditional skills, social disruption, and the contamination 
of their lands and seas. 

We became dependent on the us because the us claimed the power to govern us. 
We did not ask for it, but when it happened we came to understand the choices 
we had. After decades of living with the good and the bad under American rule, 
we decided that the greater good would be to cast our lot with the U.S. under 
the Compact of Free Association.

Today we are America' allies in the war on terrorism. We are America's allies 
in the development of the missile systems. We are allies in the u.n. And vote 
with you when all your other allies abandon the U.S. on issues of great 
importance. We do that of our own free will, without the exercise of extra-ordinary 
U.S. Powers under the Compact.

For all these reasons, I can say we appreciate and understand America. We 
understand what Fourth of July means to Americans. We understand what's Ford 
theater and December 7, 1941 mean to America. We understand what November 22, 1963 
means to America. We understand what September 11 will always mean to America.

What we are here today to ask is that America understand us as well as we 
understand it. For our people, for the Marshall Islands, March 1, 1954 is the 
defining moment in world history. 

That is the Fourth of July, the Assasination of President Lincoln and 
Kennedy, Pearl Harbor and 9/11 all wrapped into one.

That is the day the world stood still and also changed forever. That is the 
day we went from being an occupied nation to becoming a dependent nation. That 
is the day we went from being survivors of the world war to victims of the 
cold war.

March 1, 1954, is the day that defines a legacy that would not end when the 
testing ended. This on going legacy is recognized under section 177 of the 
Compact of Free Association. The "full and final settlement "under section 177 is 
not limited to the number of dollars deposited in the nuclear claims trust 
fund. The full and final settlement includes the on-going political and legal 
process recognized under the section 177 agreement as the path to reach truth 
and justice.

That includes the Article IX changed circumstances process as a matter left 
to be resolved by the US Congress. It also includes the adjudication of 
additional claims under law by the nuclear claims tribunal.

So what we ask today on this 50th Anniversary is not just that we remember 
the past. We ask that the us remember its commitments. We ask Americans to 
understand us as well as we understand them. We think they do. We think the US is a 
great nation that can do the right thing.

It is too simple to say that the wrongs done to us were justified by the good 
that the US has done for the Marshall Islands and the world. There must also 
be justice for our people. 

We believe it is significant that former US Attorney General Dick Thornburgh 
independently concluded the Nuclear Claims Tribunal operated by the US 
judicial standards. And we are pleased that Senator Domenici announced during 
hearings on the Compact renewal that the US Senate will hold hearings on the nuclear 
testing legacy.

At time when the US is spending billions to study nuclear clean up at 
mainland weapons production sites, and hundreds of billions to make the world a safer 
place, the US has a legal and moral obligation to finally resolve the legacy 
of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands- a democratic ally on all fronts 
in the current war that asks for nothing except just compensation for 
judicially determined claims.

That is all we ask. We respect and trust the United States to do what is 
right when it has the facts. Now is a moment in history when the facts can come 
out. The truth can be told. Our story needs to be told and the American people 
need to hear it.

So today, I tell you my friends - Bravo lives on. The terrible disruption it 
wreaked upon the lives of the people of Rongelap and the Marshall Islands 
still haunts us. But we shall not let that dampen our hopes or our determinationto 
seek justice wherever we shall find it. We have survived the greatest weapon 
of war man has ever devised. We will survive whatever is before us and we 
shall not rest until our quest for justice is found. That is our promise. That is 
our goal. With your help, and the help of free people everywhere, with the 
blessing of God, we shall prevail.