Prior to December 1993, the explosive yields of 44 of 66 nuclear tests conducted by the United States in the Marshall Islands were still classified. Following a request from the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to the U.S. Department of Energy to release this information, the Secretary of Energy declassified and released to the public the explosive yields of the Pacific nuclear tests. This paper presents a synopsis of information on nuclear test detonations in the Marshall Islands and other locations in the mid-Pacific including dates, explosive yields, locations, weapon placement, and summary statistics.

It is well appreciated that the social determinants of health are intimately related with health outcomes. However, there is a paucity of literature that explores these themes comprehensively for the indigenous people within Micronesia. Certain Micronesia-specific factors, such as transitions from traditional diets, the consumption of betel nut, and exposure to radiation from the nuclear bomb testing in the Marshall Islands, have predisposed certain Micronesian populations to an increased risk of developing a variety of malignancies. Furthermore, severe weather events and rising sea levels attributed to climate change threaten to compromise cancer care resources and displace entire Micronesian populations. The consequences of these risks are expected to increase the strain on the already challenged, disjointed, and burdened healthcare infrastructure in Micronesia, likely leading to more expenses in off-island referrals. A general shortage of Pacific Islander physicians within the workforce reduces the number of patients that can be seen, as well as the quality of culturally competent care that is delivered. In this narrative review, we comprehensively underscore the health disparities and cancer inequities faced by the underserved communities within Micronesia.

Of the 1030 nuclear tests the United States conducted from 1945-1992, 210 were in the atmosphere; the more significant sites were at the Bikini and Enewetak atolls in the Marshall Islands and at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). Ecological effects of these tests consist mainly of short-and long-term contamination of surface soil, contamination of groundwater, and surface disturbance. One test in the Marshall Islands resulted in the evacuation of 241 Marshallese, including 12 pregnant women, as well as 28 military weather observers. Twenty-three Japanese fisherman were also exposed. Many of these persons suffered acute radiation sickness, but no immediate deaths occurred. The collective dose to these highly exposed persons was about 200 person Sv; no estimate is available for lesser exposed persons. At the NTS no persons were documented to be highly exposed, but the collective dose to the population living in the nearby downwind area has been estimated to be 12 000 person Gy. Observed health effects from the tests have included acute radiation sickness in the heavily exposed group in the Marshall Islands: One late death was due to infection possibly caused by multiple blood transfusions, and there was an increased incidence of thyroid cancer. Health effects in the population around the NTS have been difficult to detect; there is a statistically significant increase in the incidence of acute leukaemia in a subgroup of a case-control study and there is a statistically significant asso

Abstract The United States conducted sixty-seven nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands from 1946 through 1958. The program was shrouded in secrecy; information about the tests conducted on Marshallese bodies and their land remains classified. This essay considers how Marshallese women from Bikini Atoll and Rongelap Atoll musically sound physical and physiological disruptions and dislocations that expose broader damages caused by the nuclear testing program. Analyzing compositions and performances from a repertoire of Marshallese “radiation songs,” the essay proposes a stylistic framework that works to familiarize listeners with a sonorized logic of radiation which is compiled through recurring motifs of the disabled voice, text setting and silences, and the figure of the question, literal and rhetorical. I stress the political import of these songs as highlighting the failures of biopolitical controls on communities by exposing the production of confined disability at the level of cultural and structural violence.

The thyroid gland is one of the most sensitive organs for radiation-induced oncogenesis and the magnitude of the risk from external radiation is well understood. This is not the case for internal radiation derived from the radioiodines, a matter of practical importance because of medical use and potential accidental exposure. This article reviews current knowledge derived from the follow-up of patients receiving diagnostic or therapeutic 131I and populations exposed to radioactive fallout. The latter includes the nuclear power station accident at Chernobyl and the results of atomic bomb development and testing at Hanford, the Nevada Test Site and the Marshall Islands. The most cogent information comes from Chernobyl where an epidemic of childhood thyroid cancer has followed exposure to radioiodine that was mainly 131I. Although much has been learned from this experience about the nature of radioiodine induced thyroid cancer in young children, the reconstruction of thyroid radiation doses is too preliminary to provide accurate knowledge of the risk in comparison to that from external radiation. In the Marshall Islands, much of the exposure was from short-lived radioiodines as well as external radiation, obviating the possibility to determine the risk from 131I. Exposure to 131I in the continental United States from atomic bomb testing is expected to have caused some thyroid cancers, but only in the immediate vicinity of the Nevada Test Site has any evidence of radiation-induced thyroid neoplasms been adduced. This evidence is minimally significant statistically, and not significant for thyroid cancer per se. Medical use of radioiodine has not been observed to cause thyroid cancer but very few of the patients studied were young children, the group most sensitive to thyroid radiation. Despite these limitations, this information is sufficient to make some suggestions concerning protective measures in the case of nuclear accidents and the follow up of individuals who have been exposed.

Significance From 1946 to 1958, the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, a remote constellation of atolls in the Pacific Ocean that was then a US trust territory. Two atolls, Bikini and Enewetak, were used as ground zero for the tests, which caused unprecedented environmental contamination and, for the indigenous peoples of the islands, long-term adverse health effects. In addition to the populations of Bikini and Enewetak, the people of Rongelap and Utirik were also affected by radioactive fallout from the largest nuclear test the United States has ever conducted, the Bravo test held March 1, 1954. This article presents a picture of current radiological conditions by examining external gamma radiation and soil radionuclide activity concentrations.

The people were moved to the smaller Rongerik Atoll, which was uninhabited at the time. Over 42.000 people were taking part in the nuclear tests. In total, 67 tests were done. In the 1970s, about 100 people again moved to the islands, but they had to leave again, because high levels of Strontium-90 and Caesium-137 were found. Today, the atoll is largely uninhabited, except for a few caretakers. Problems with islanders returning Even though the atoll may be habitable again soon, there's a problem: Many of the Bikini islanders (or their offspring) have never lived on the island, and haven't even visited it. There's a high unemployment rate on the Marshall islands. As the Marshall islands have a special agreement with the United States, unemployed people from the Marshall islands can go look for jobs in the United States. It is therefore unclear how many of the original islanders or their offspring will return to the atoll. Gallery - American bunker located in the island - Rear of bunker - The island seen from above - Entrance sign to the island - View of the coast from above

World War II and the Cold War never ended in the Marshall Islands. A seamless continuum of colonialism, wars and nuclear testing destroyed their ancestral islands, traditions, as well as the physical and spiritual wellbeing of the people; it caused them profound personal and collective grief. This article considers the grieving of the Marshallese people, through the lens of a life story of a migrant to the Marshall Islands from Okinawa, Chutaro Gushi (1911–1977). The examination uses the concepts provided by grief studies, such as personal grief and collective grief, and applies the theoretical and conceptual framework presented by the social constructionists, such as meaning making, social validation, and moral injury, to frame the understanding of their grieving, coping and healing processes. The life story of pastor Chutaro revealed an intricate reflexive interface between his personal grief and collective grief in the Marshall Islands. His personal grieving and healing process was also closely linked with the healing of the collective grief that was also an element of his personal grief. In this process, Christian churches played crucial roles to bridge the two levels of grief. They facilitated the transformation of Chutaro’s profound personal grief and moral injury into a powerful public mission to give voices to the victims of the nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands.

Abstract: This thesis explores the themes of challenges and crises in the Marshall Islands. Through ethnographic data based on participant observation primarily in Majuro, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), I study how significant changes are contextualized into Marshallese narratives. I also draw on extended ethnography from the Marshall Islands and the Pacific region. The history of the Marshall Islands is characterized by significant changes due to colonialization, militarization, and climate change. In Marshallese narratives, people tend to connect their existence in the present to past events that have affected increased change in Marshallese manit (culture). The past is not the only concern in Marshallese narratives because of the increased global climate change; Marshall islanders also consider the future in narratives about their existence. Based on this, the thesis explores the past, present, and future through a historical account, which includes several perspectives on historical processes in the islands, including the study of history as sequences of events and as social and cultural transitions. Based on my observations from Majuro, I explore the material landscape as an ongoing process of ruination based on the historical processes that I argue continue to unfold in the Marshall Islands. The thesis explores how the Marshallese are deeply connected through their relationship with the land which is also considered the most essential part of their existenc

It is an honor for me to be able to speak to you today on behalf of indigenous people throughout the world whose lives have been dramatically affected by the proliferation of weapons. I bring you the greetings of the people of the Marshall Islands, and more specifically the paramount leaders of the Ralik chain, Iroijlaplap Imata Kabua, and Iroijlaplap Anjua Loeak, whose domains have borne the brunt of United States military weapons development - from the nuclear bombs of the Cold War to the missiles that carry them today.