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[forcedamericans]

Newsreel footage describing the Bikini Atom Bomb. Journalists from around the world were invited to witness the “crossroads” of the nuclear age.

Source:  Bikini Atom Bomb - "Operation Crossroads"." British Movietone, Updated 07/21/2015, 2015, accessed 10/15/2019, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02DPCLEpe8I.

[forcedamericans]

“In a quiet moment before leaving, Bikinians pay final respects to loved ones at the Bikini graveyard. (Carl Markwith, © National Geographic Society)

Source: Weisgall, Jonathan. Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1994, 1994. Book.

[forcedamericans]

“Three Bikini girls carrying their possessions from the village on Bikini Atoll to the waiting Navy LST. (Carl Markwith, © National Geographic Society)”

Source: Markwith, Carl. Three Bikini Girls Carrying Their Possessions from the Village on Bikini Atoll to the Waiting Navy Lst. National Geographic Society, 1954. Photograph.

[forcedamericans]

The mushroom cloud that emerged as a result of the dropping of the Nuclear Weapon Test Bravo. The bomb’s load was five times greater than was predicted causing fallout to spread further than expected.

Source: Energy, U.S. Department of. Nuclear Weapon Test Bravo (Yield 15 Mt) on Bikini Atoll. Washington, D.C.: Energy, U.S. Department of, 1954. Photograph.

[forcedamericans]

I was in my late 20s at the time of Bravo. I was on Ailiginae with my husband, who has since died. All the older people, like my husband, have died. We lived on Rongelap, but we used to go to Ailinginae to gather food. We were on Ailinginae when the bomb dropped. We saw a light. It [the light] was to help find submarines my husband said [laughs]. Then the powder [fallout] fell on the lagoon side. We were looking for birds when the powder fell. The old man told the children not to play on the lagoon side. I was supposed to take care of the kids, but we were so sick it was like we were passed out. When they came to take us away from the island later, our clothes had powder on them. We saw the powder and though it was something to reduce poison from the bomb. We were happy because we said we wouldn't get as much poison... I stayed with the kids. We saw the boats coming and we wondered why the huge boat came. We had no idea what was happening... Some people hid from the Americans inside the cement water catchments because they thought they were coming because there was a war, not that people were coming to evacuate them. We didn't understand yet about bombs. On Ailinginae, they didn't stop us from eating and drinking after the powder fell. We blew the powder off of our food and ate it. We couldn't take care of each other, even the kids, because we were all sick. We ate sprouted coconut(1) because we were really nauseous, and when we ate, we got even more nauseous

Dorothy Emos, March 18, 1999

Note: Marshallese people often eat sprouted coconut to remedy upset stomachs

Source: Barker, Holly. Bravo for the Marshallese: Regaining Control in a Post-Nuclear, Post-Colonial World. Cengage Learning, 2004. 03/09/2012. 2004.

[forcedamericans]

It has a good-sized lagoon, a few large islands for observing stations, good access through wide channels and a reasonably shallow area a few miles off the island to anchor the target ships.

Excerpt from Operation Crossroads by Johnathan M. Weisgall

Source: Weisgall, Jonathan. Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1994, 1994. Book.

[forcedamericans]

As soon as the war ended, we located the one spot on Earth that hadn't been touched by the war and blew it to hell

American comedian Bob Hope, taken from "May 21, 1956: Bikini Is Da Bomb” Wired

Source: "May 21, 1956: Bikini Is Da Bomb." Wired, Updated 05/20/2010, 2010, accessed 10/15/2019, 2019, https://www.wired.com/2010/05/0521bikini-h-bomb/.

[forcedamericans]

Photo of a Project 4.1 Test Subject. Project 4.1 was a medical study and experimentation conducted by United States scientists on residents of the Marshall Islands exposed to radioactive fallout from the March 1, 1954 Castle Bravo nuclear test.

Source: Conard, R.A. Fallout: The Experiences of a Medical Team in the Care of a Marshallese Population Accidently Exposed to Fallout Radiation. Brookhaven National Lab (U.S. Department of Energy, 09/01/1991 1992). https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/10117645.

[forcedamericans]

“Photo of Nerje Joseph, standing beside her photo as a girl” along with “Photo of Project 4.1 test subject, after the Bravo Test”

Source (top): Conard, R.A. Fallout: The Experiences of a Medical Team in the Care of a Marshallese Population Accidently Exposed to Fallout Radiation. Brookhaven National Lab (U.S. Department of Energy, 09/01/1991 1992). https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/10117645.

Source (bottom): Barker, Holly. Bravo for the Marshallese: Regaining Control in a Post-Nuclear, Post-Colonial World. Cengage Learning, 2004. 03/09/2012. 2004.

[forcedamericans]

I recall seeing a woman named LiBila after our return and her skin looked as if someone had poured scalding water over her body, and she was in great pain until she died a few years  after ``the bomb.'' LiBila had a son two years after `the bomb' who died a few months after birth, and I remember that his feet were quite swollen and his body was burning--the AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) doctors said he died because of the "poison'' (radiation). Also, after our return to Utrok, Nerik gave birth to something like the intestines of a turtle, which was very sticky like a jellyfish. Soon afterward, many other women would be pregnant for about five months and then they turned out not to be pregnant after all. I too thought that I was pregnant and after three months I found I was not. This was quite new for the women here, and this never happened before the bomb.

Bella Compoj, in a 1981 interview about life after Bravo

[forcedamericans]

The BEIR VII report also updates the risk of dying from cancer for women and men, and for children compared to adults. According to the report, the risk of dying from cancer due to radiation exposure was believed in 1990 to be 5% higher for women compared to men; this latest report now updates the risk to 37.5% higher for women than for men. Furthermore, the risks for all solid tumors, like lung, breast, and prostate, added together are almost 50 percent greater for women than men.

Nuclear Testing Program in the Marshall Islands: Hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources United States Senate One Hundred Ninth Congress

This quote from a Congressional hearing emphasizes that women were significantly more likely to die from cancer as a result of atomic tests.

[forcedamericans]

I want readers to know that the Marshallese not as helpless victims rendered powerless by the events that took place in their land but as fighters and advocates for their communities they are. The Marshallese people deserve praise (bravo!) for the ways they resist U.S. government efforts to minimize or keep secret the true extent of damages and injuries from the testing program and their efforts to tell the world about their plight, to seek medical care and environmental restoration, and to return to their home islands

Holly M. Barker, author of Bravo for the Marshallese: Regaining Control in a Post-Colonial World

[forcedamericans]

I was not on Rongelap for the Bravo test, but I returned with everyone in 1957... It was around this time that I had my first pregnancy. My baby had a very high fever when he was delivered, and the attending health assistant conveyed his doubts as to whether my son would survive the night. He was so dehydrated from the fever that his skin actually peeled as I clasped him to me to nurse. The only thing we knew to do was to wrap him in wet towels. And so it was that I held him to my body throughout the night, changing the towels and willing him to fight for his life. He lost the fight just as dawn broke. My second son, born in 1960, was delivered live but missing the whole back of his skull - as if it had been sawed off. So the back part of his brain and the spinal cord were fully exposed. After a week, the spinal cord became detached and he, too, developed a high fever and died the following day. Aside from the cranial deformity, my son was also missing both testicles and penis. He passed water through a stump-like apparatus measuring less than an inch. The doctors who examined him told me that he would not survive. And sure enough, he died within a week... You know, it was heartbreaking having to nurse my son, all the while taking care his brain didn't fall into my lap. For in spite of his severe handicaps, he was healthy in every respect. It was good he died because I do not think he would have wanted to live a life as something less than human... If it were not for the bomb testing, I would not have had to watch helplessly as two of my children were taken from me. The health assistant who delivered the child sent a message to Kwajalein and I am certain these doctors came so they could see for themselves a live "bomb baby." In fact, they flew in the very same day the message was sent... They did a complete physical, took blood samples, and took the baby outside so they could take lots and lots of photographs. DOE [U.S. Department of Energy] ignored us. They did not want to admit the Rongelapese were contaminated. Or, they did not want the world to know about us so they ignored what we told them - saying that Rongelap was not contaminated and out health problems were unrelated to radiation... We don't believe them now.

Catherine Jibas, August 23, 1994

Source: Barker, Holly. Bravo for the Marshallese: Regaining Control in a Post-Nuclear, Post-Colonial World. Cengage Learning, 2004. 03/09/2012. 2004.

[forcedamericans]

Declassified and “Sanitized” U.S. Department of Energy film outlining details of Operation Castle from 1954.

Source: Energy, U.S. Department of. Operation Castle. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Energy, 1954. Film.

[forcedamericans]

This report presents a historical account of the experiences of the Brookhaven Medical Team in the examination and treatment of the Marshallese people following their accidental exposure to radioactive fallout in 1954. This is the first time that a population has been heavily exposed to radioactive fallout, and even though this was a tragic mishap, the medical findings have provided valuable information for other accidents involving fallout such as the recent reactor accident at Chernobyl. Noteworthy has been the unexpected importance of radioactive iodine in the fallout in producing thyroid abnormalities.

Abstract from “Fallout: The experiences of a medical team in the care of a Marshallese population accidentally exposed to fallout radiation.” It should be noted how the Brookhaven Medical Team describes the nature of the incident.

Source: Conard, R.A. Fallout: The Experiences of a Medical Team in the Care of a Marshallese Population Accidently Exposed to Fallout Radiation. Brookhaven National Lab (U.S. Department of Energy, 09/01/1991 1992). https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/10117645.

[forcedamericans]

the bikini

“The bikini advances the two-piece with the added attraction of an exposed belly button. It is a product of the Nuclear Age, and takes its name from the homeland of 167 grass-skirted Micronesian natives, an obscure part of the world called Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. On June 30, 1946, after the natives are evacuated, Bikini Atoll becomes the site of the fourth atomic bomb explosion on Earth, dropped from a B-29 aircraft over a fleet of 95 ships anchored in the lagoon, including the remains of the Japanese Navy. The event is broadcast worldwide and is spectacular.   The labeling of the bikini is attributed to the French. First, at Cannes, where a couturier uses a skywriter to label his new creation "L'atome--the world's smallest bathing suit," only to outdone by Parisian swimwear designer Louis Réard, who, on July 18, 1946, two weeks after the Bikini Atoll nuclear blast, introduces, "Bikini--smaller than the smallest bathing suit in the world."

Source: "1945-1950: The Very First Bikini." BikiniScience, Updated 06/27/2012, 2001, accessed 06/27/2012, 2012, http:/bikiniscience.com/chronology/1945-1950_SS/1945-1950.html.