Bravo for the Marshallese: Regaining Control in a Post-Nuclear Post-Colonial
The competition between Russia and the United States heightened the determination to
use nuclear power during the Cold War. Testing and developing nuclear weapons happened
within the area of the United States. The Marshall islands were actually in a perfect location to
use as a testing site. It is in the middle of the ocean and is in between Japan and Hawai’i. The
most famous islands that were used as ground zero atolls for the United States were Bikini and
Enewetak. The anthropologist that visited these islands noted that they were ultimately
inhabitable and opposed a “great[est] challenge to human occupancy” (Barker, 9). For the
Marshallese, this wasn’t just a strip of land that was going to be easy to hand over. Although the
islands had scarce material and seemed impossible to adapt to, they were able to do it. For the
Marshallese, land was extremely important, but not in the way people in the United States view
land. They connected ritual and cultural beliefs with land and their ancestors. Not one single
person is allowed to own land but everyone had a deep rooted connection with the plants, people
and land.
Americans introduced the Marshallese to Christianity and Missionaries. This was a huge
turnover, many people converted to Christianity and devoted their lives to God. This was
especially strategic by the United States considering this could be leveraged when introducing
the idea to using their land for nuclear weapon tests. Ben H. Wyatt calculated the way he
introduced this to the people of Bikini. He mentioned God and the dangers others could bring if
the wrong people got ahold of the nuclear weapons. Easily convinced, “the Bikinians saw the
United States as a friend and ally after it liberated them from the brutal Japanese military
regime” (Barker, 20). For the first few tests, people were evacuated from their islands but the
United States purposely kept crucial information to themselves, including basic information like
the number of tests. The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was created in 1947 and was
promoted as a relationship between the Marshall Islands and Americans to prioritize the health of
citizens due to the loss of land. May 1st, 1954 is when the impact of these nuclear tests created a
permanent loss for everybody. This was the Bravo Test. The explosion caused radioactive
particles to be released into the atmosphere that led to destroying resources people depended on
(Barker, 23). Coincidentally, the United States government did not evacuate the Marshallese
even though this was the biggest test to date. It came to be known as the “largest thermonuclear
weapon ever” (Barker, 24). The habitants of the Marshall Islands were not warned or told to take
precaution, therefore they continued to eat, drink, and sleep where it was most contaminated. The
government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands began to speculate that people were not
warned because the United States would gain information about the effects on human life based
on radioactive warfare. Consequently, this radioactive fallout was the start of a downhill health
decrease which altered life for these people, forever.
As a result of the nuclear weapons, communities struggled building back their homes and
agriculture. The United States government decided to provide the people of these islands $150
million to help with the damages that happened and continue to happen. Which is also known as
The 177 Agreement. The damages that arose included varied types of cancers, thyroid diseases
and skin or bone marrow problems. Since the United States withheld information about the
details of nuclear effects, they were able to choose which specific people were harmed. The
funding of the 177 Agreement was deemed inadequate, especially after years following the
termination of the trust with the United States. The government of the Republic of the Marshall
Islands introduced the petition to receive more compensation from the United States and argues
that people continue to die due to radiation effects (Barker, 116). Since the Bravo Test, the
government of the Republic of the Marshall has proved that they are strong advocates for the
health and well-being of their people. They continue to petition for what they stand for and voice
their opinions for the people who aren’t and weren’t able to.
Holly Barker was able to describe the aftermath of the Bravo Test from the perspective of
both the government and the people. She utilized witness testimonies to describe just how hard it
was for the people on the Marshall Islands. They were not seen as humans and the United States
government proved that time and time again.
The introduction of the book is about Holly Barker first hearing and seeing The Marshall
Islands. As I continued to read the book, I kept referring back to a statement she made about the
family she was brought into. The family welcomed her with open arms, even knowing the
history the United States presented. The Marshallese were taken advantage of but yet the people
who reside there still obtain optimism. Their lives were completely changed and the United
States is to blame. They completely trusted them but when it came to answers they were left in
the dark. It’s easier to assume that the United States didn’t intentionally leave people on testing
sites because it’s hard to imagine a government betraying people they were supposed to protect.
Unfortunately there are things that disprove that. One being the fact that the United States
government immediately after the fallout occurred, sent a plane to pick up the weather
forecasters that were present. This is extremely difficult to hear considering the island habitants
weren’t escorted out until two days later. Two complete days is what it took the United States to
make action towards people just like us. This brings in the topic of racism. To the government,
this wasn’t an experiment that led to disaster with humans, it was an experiment that led to
disaster but strategically to people they deemed less. These people described themselves as
“guinea pigs” because of the way they felt and were treated. The Marshall Islands mattered to the
United States when they needed to use islands as bomb sites, but when they decided whether or
not they would be considered for more serious radiation cleanups, that is when they decided they
did not matter. There is a double standard when it comes to the people on that island, and the
people that live in America. If there were to be waste storage sites in the United States certain
safety precautions would be applied, but since the Marshallese people were seen as below them
they did not experience the same privilege. Another example of this double standard was that
within hours after the fallout began, the U.S. government sent airplanes to Rongerik Atoll and
picked up the weather forecasters. As compared to the people who lived on the island, they got
absolutely no warning and had to wait two days to be told to leave. Once again, with absolutely
no explanation or update on what was happening. The United States was able to say whatever
they wanted about the seriousness and the specific details about the nuclear tests because the
Marshallese people knew absolutely nothing, and if they were told anything, they were supposed
to believe it. The United States did not listen to their concerns, and the Marshallese people
assumed it was because they had no medical knowledge. In reality, they were just purposely
ignored because they wanted to continue these experiments and did not want to admit their
faults. Reading all the ways the government approved of human radiation experiments is hidden
under this huge explosion. It seems to be a reoccurring theme when it comes to human radiation
experiments, it’s not a handful of things that could’ve accidentally happened. It’s a list of events
that happened under the water of American rulers who were supposed to be in relation to the
trust of the Marshall Islands. The declassified documents that were finally open to the public
describe that the “government understood that environmental sources of radiation posed a health
threat, particularly to the communities that returned to highly contaminated lands” (Barker, 45).
Willingly putting people in danger and being fully aware of the consequences is what the
Marshallese want people to understand. This wasn’t an accident, it wasn’t something that could
have been planned more. It was something already planned to fail for certain people. In the
perspective of the United States, they gained more from the information and knowledge they
learned than the lives that were lost.
The effects of the fallout as said earlier, introduced diseases that weren’t normal to
people. Unfortunately that was just one of many health problems people had there. One story in
particular that caught my attention was the testimony of the birth defect a woman had to endure
with her child. Three years after the Bravo Test, a pregnant woman returned to Rongelap and
soon delivered her son. She witnessed her son's skin peeling and struggled to stay alive. Her
second child was born three years after the first, which was 1960 and unfortunately was missing
a part of his skull, both testicals, and his penis. Later on his spinal cord became detached. Having
to picture that was incredibly sad, let alone having to live with it knowing that somehow this
could have been prevented. This was just one of many deformities that people saw every single
day. It’s also important to note that she was not at the testing site when the Bravo Test was
performed therefore she would not be considered when it came to the money they were given. It
wasn’t fair the way the government determined who was affected by the bomb. It’s almost as if
they believed that the fallout only occurred one day and no one but the people who were there
could possibly get ill. As Barker states, the documents that show the studies and statistics of the
bomb do not account for the lives that were lost. It doesn’t “discuss the pain involved in losing a
child, mother, father, sister, or brother. They do not discuss the pain involved in battling cancer
and other serious medical conditions” (Barker, 59). It wasn’t just the people that were physically
and mentally affected, it was also the land, food and animals that were targeted. Absolutely
nothing was able to escape the effects of the testing sites. The animals, plants, soil, people and
future generations all experienced this. The way the United States treats land is very different to
the way the Marshallese did. They saw land as an opportunity to use the resources in every way
possible, and considered everyone family, not just neighbors. Many rituals were created and one
mentioned was the ritual in which the people ask for permission from the tree god, known as the
kanal. They showed respect in many ways and appreciated their culture in different ways. Land
was referred to as past, present, and future needs. It was something everyone was born into and
believed no one could put a price on something so special. Even after the rongelapese moved to a
different island they were still reluctant to eat from that territory because they had no rights and
still viewed land as sacred territory that not just anyone is able to use. The United States assumed
that since they were already used to living and adapting to their agriculture, moving to a different
island was going to be the same thing. But it absolutely wasn’t. The transition was not slow, it
was very abrupt and started causing people to go into exile. It completely stopped them from
living self sufficiently. The Marshallese had no other choice but to eat the food and water that's
contaminated. Even when growing fruit, the radioactive soil destroyed and altered what was
supposed to be food. They created a community and lived off of each other. This wasn’t a city
that had power lines and malls, it was a close-knit community with close people that were seen
as a family, not numbers. Something as little as sharing food and water was normal for them but
in the United States it’s something people to this day still fight for.
Although people lost their lives and homes, it caused the people to grow and adapt to
things they probably weren’t expecting to face. The Republic of the Marshall proves to be for the
people. They advocate for the people who have died, for the people who were disrespected, for
the people who lost family members and for the people that were taken advantage of. To this day
the people who were injured and effected by the afternath of the bomb site have not been looked
after. There’s no reason as to why while communities continue to live in exile because of
something the United States chooses to ignore. The same way the United States kept information
from the public, is the same way they will continue to do the same with the petitions from The
Republic of the Marshall. The rough amount they believe they deserve is $3 billion. Although
that does sound like an insane number, it is only two years worth of funding the United States
offered for the cleanup of the Hanford plutonium manufacturing faculty (Barker, 115). The
blatant racism a foreign country receives proves that the United States creates relationships only
to better themselves, regardless of what the consequences may be. Why do people who have less
get affected more? We see this everywhere when it comes to vulnerable communities and
countries. This isn’t the first time this has happened and I don’t believe it will be the last unless
people begin to educate themselves on the dangers of working with people who benefit from the
pain and death of others. We wouldn't have known this if it weren’t for the anthropologists that
put themselves in that environment and listened to the witness’s testimonies and fixed the history
that was once corrupt. Fortunately as said earlier, the Marshallese has become very active with
challenging the United States government. Although it’s easy to see the Marshallese as victims
because of what someone else did to them, but if we see them as victims they will never get out
of the situation they are in right now. A survivor is able to “flourish despite obstacles they must
overcome” (Barker, 154).
The United States took advantage of the kindness of the Marshallese people and
destroyed their homes and nearly wiped their culture. Unfortunately they knew the Marshallese
were naive and a mention of God could prove to change their mind. Even after proof of
contamination, the United States insisted that Rongelap was safe for humans to live there again.
They did less than the bare minimum to even repair what they had broken. The difference in
power structure proves that The Marshall Islands were able to get manipulated by the United
States in more than just one way. It started off with saving them from annihilation by Japan. It
continued right after by introducing them to missionaries and Christianity and seemed like
mentors. They were extremely religious and were tricked into believing God wanted this to
happen. They truly believed God decided that these islands were going to be the reason how the
United States defeats Russia and learns more than ever about nuclear war and nuclear weapons.
Although they did gain more knowledge it was at a huge expense of the people that had
absolutely no idea it was happening. It was regular people living literally day by day. Knowing
this is still something they are fighting for proves the ill intention the United States has toward
people who aren’t American. Which was their entire livelihood. Something also important was
that the Marshallese people were not interested in getting money from the government to prove a
point, they used said money to hire contractors and lawyers to find a way to fix their land, not
discard it. Although it still wasn’t enough to repair all the damage that was done. One day is
what it took to destroy the lives of innocent people who only wanted to grow more within their
quarters.