Nuclear Testing in the Marshall
Islands: A Chronology of Events
From: Nuclear Testing in the
Marshall Islands: A Brief History . Majuro: Micronitor
News and Printing Company, August 1996.
Movement of Marshallese from Nuclear Testing
1946
March - The U.S. Navy evacuates 167
Bikini Islanders to Rongerik Atoll, 125 miles to the
east, to make way for the first post World War II
nuclear weapons tests.
May - As a safety measure, islanders
from Enewetak, Rongelap and Wotho atolls are relocated
for the duration of Operation Crossroads. July Operation
Crossroads is launched with "Able" and "Baker" nuclear
tests at Bikini. Both are Hiroshima-size atomic tests.
"Baker", an underwater test, contaminates target fleet
of World War II ships in Bikini's lagoon.
1947
July - The Marshall Islands and the
rest of Micronesia became a United Nations strategic
Trust Territory administered by the United States. Among
other obligations, the U.S. undertakes to "protect the
inhabitants against the loss of their lands and
resources." December Enewetak Atoll is selected for the
second series of U.S. nuclear tests, and the Enewetak
people are quickly moved to Ujelang Atoll. In 1947, the
Marshall Islands becomes a United Nations strategic
Trust Territory administered by the United States. Among
other obligations, the U.S. undertakes to "protect the
inhabitants against the loss of their lands and
resources."
1948
March - On the verge of starvation,
the Bikinians are taken off Rongerik Atoll and moved to
Kwajalein, where they stay for six months while a new
home is found for them. April Operation Sandstone begins
at Enewetak and includes three atomic tests. The Bikini
community moves to southern Kill, a single island with
no protected lagoon or anchorage.
1951
April - Operation Greenhouse starts
at Enewetak. Four atomic tests are conducted.
1952
November - Operation Ivy opens at
Enewetak and includes the first test of a hydrogen
device. The Mike test vaporizes one island and is
estimated at 10.4 megatons, or some 750 times larger
than the Hiroshima bomb.
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1954
January - Preparations commence at
Bikini Atoll for Operation Castle, to test a series of
megaton range weapons, including America's first
deliverable hydrogen bomb.
February 28 - 6 p.m. On the eve of
the Bravo test, weather reports indicate that
atmospheric "conditions were getting less favorable." At
midnight, just seven hours from the shot, the weather
report reports there are "less favorable winds at 10,000
to 25,000-foot levels." Winds at 20,000 feet "were
headed for Rongelap to the east."
March 1 - Bikini's weather outlook
downgraded to "unfavorable" and Joint Task Force 7
directs several ships to move 20 miles to the south to
remove them from the expected fallout zone. Despite
weather reports showing that winds are blowing in the
direction of inhabited islands, the March 1 Bravo
hydrogen bomb test is detonated at Bikini. At 15
megatons, it is 1,000 times the strength of the
Hiroshima bomb. Within hours a gritty, white ash is
enveloping islanders on Rongelap and Ailinginae Atolls.
A few hours later, American weathermen are exposed to
the snowstorm of fallout on Rongerik, and still later
the people of Utrik and other islands experience the
fallout "mist". Those exposed experience nausea,
vomiting and itching skin and eyes. March 3 Rongelap
islanders are evacuated 48 hours later, and Utrik is
evacuated 72 hours after Bravo. Both groups are taken to
Kwajalein for observation. Skin burns on the heavily
exposed people begin to develop, and later their hair
falls out. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission issues a
statement to the press calling Bravo a "routine atomic
test", and stating that some Americans and Marshallese
were "unexpectedly exposed to some radioactivity. There
were no burns. All were reported well."
March 7 - Project 4.1, "Study of
Response of Human Beings Exposed to Significant Beta and
Gamma Radiation due to Fallout from High Yield Weapons,"
establishes a secret medical group to monitor and
evaluate the Rongelap and Utrik people.
April - A Project 4.1 memo recommends
that the exposed Rongelap people should have "no
exposure for (the) rest of (their) natural lives." April
29 Department of Defense report states that the "only
other populated atoll which received fallout of any
consequence at all was Ailuk...It was calculated that a
dose...would reach approximately 20 roentgens. Balancing
the effort required to move the 400 inhabitants against
the fact that such a dose would not be a medical problem
it was decided not to evacuate the atoll."
May - Utrik Islanders allowed to
return home because, according to U.S. officials, "Their
island was only slightly contaminated and considered
safe for habitation."
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1956
May - Operation Redwing begins at
Enewetak and Bikini. A total of 17 nuclear tests,
including several hydrogen bombs, are detonated.
November U.S. officials give the Enewetak Islanders
living on Ujelang $25,000 cash and a $150,000 trust fund
(earning 3 1/3 percent annually) as compensation. Bikini
Islanders living on Kili are given $25,000 cash and a
$300,000 trust fund (yielding about $15 per person
annually). Throughout the 1950s, both the Bikinians and
Enewetakese face food shortages and repeated bouts of
near starvation, as their "temporary" islands prove
difficult and inhospitable.
1957
July - Rongelap is declared safe for
rehabitation "in spite of slight lingering radiation."
The Rongelap people, who have been living temporarily in
Ejit Island, Majuro, return to Rongelap. Brookhaven
National Laboratory scientists report about Rongelap:
"Even though the radioactive contamination of Rongelap
Island is considered perfectly safe for human
habitation, the levels of activity are higher than those
found in other inhabited locations in the world. The
habitation of these people on the island will afford
most valuable ecological radiation data on human
beings."
1958
May - Operation Hardtack begins at
Enewetak and Bikini, with 32 tests, including several
hydrogen bombs. August The last nuclear detonation in
the Marshall Islands takes place on August 18, bringing
to 66 the total of nuclear weapons tests at Bikini and
Enewetak.
1963
The first thyroid tumors begin
appearing among the Rongelap people exposed to the Bravo
test in 1954. Also, a higher than normal incidence of
growth retardation among young Rongelap Islanders is
noted by U.S. doctors.
1966
January - The U.S. Congress approves
an exgratia payment of $950,000 (about $11,000 per
capita) to the exposed Rongelap people for injuries
resulting from their exposure in 1954.
1969
October - Bikini Atoll is declared
safe for rehabitation by U.S. officials. "There's
virtually no radiation left and we can find no
discernible effect on either plant or animal life," says
the AEC.
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1972
October - Because it is not satisfied
with information provided by the AEC, the Bikini Council
votes not to return to Bikini as a community, but says
it will not prevent individuals from returning. Several
Bikini families move back to Bikini into newly built
homes.
November - John Anjain's son, Lekoj,
who was one year old when exposed to fallout on Rongelap
in 1954, dies of leukemia at the National Cancer
Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
1973
AEC draft report, not publicly
released, concludes that Bravo fallout may have
contaminated as many as 18 atolls and islands, including
Kwajalein and Majuro.
1975
June - During regular monitoring at
Bikini, radiological tests show "higher levels of
radioactivity than originally thought" and it "appears
to be hotter or questionable as to safety," states a
Department of Interior official.
August - AEC surveys suggest some
Bikini ground wells are too radioactive for safe use,
and that the consumption of pandanus, breadfruit and
coconut crabs needs to be prohibited.
October - The Bikinians file suit in
U.S. federal court demanding a complete scientific
survey of Bikini and other northern Marshall Islands be
conducted.
1976
July - The U.S. Congress approves $20
million and military logistic support for a nuclear
cleanup of Enewetak Atoll. A Brookhaven National
Laboratory report on Rongelap shows that 20 of 29, or 69
percent of the Rongelap children who were under 10 years
old in 1954 have developed thyroid tumors. The people of
Utrik, whose original exposure in 1954 of 14 rads of
radiation was less than one-twelfth that of Rongelap,
suddenly show a higher rate of thyroid cancer than the
Rongelap people, indicating the long latency period
before health problems develop from low level radiation
exposure.
1977
May - The nuclear cleanup at Enewetak
Atoll begins. About 700 U.S. Army personnel carry out
the cleanup's first phase, which includes scraping and
collecting 100,000 cubic yards of radioactive soil and
debris, and 125,000 cubic yards of uncontaminated debris
and dumping it in a bomb crater on Runit Island to be
sealed with a cap of cement.
June - A Department of Energy study
reports: "All living patterns involving Bikini Island
exceed Federal (radiation) guidelines for 30 year
population doses." About 100 Bikinians continue living
on Bikini. The U.S. Congress approves about $1 million
in compensation for Rongelap and Utrik ($100,000 each
goes to the Rongelap, Utrik and Bikini for building
community facilities; $1,000 each to the 157 exposed
Utrik people; and from $25,000 for people with thyroid
tumors to Q00,000 for people the families of those who
have died).
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1978
May - Interior Department officials
describe the 75 percent increase in radioactive cesium
found in the Bikini people as "incredible." Plans are
announced to move the people within 90 days.
August - A Department of Energy
survey of the northern Marshall Islands reveals that in
addition to Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Utrik, 10
other atolls or islands "received intermediate range
fallout from one or more of the megaton range tests."
These included inhabited atolls and islands of Ailuk,
Likiep, Mejit, Ujelang and Wotho.
September - The 139 people living on
Bikini Atoll are evacuated by U.S. officials. The U.S.
government funds a $6 million trust for the Bikini
people.
1980
March - The U.S. Defense Nuclear
Agency announces that the Enewetak nuclear cleanup is
completed. The estimated cost of the cleanup and
rehabilitation was $218 million. Enewetak Islanders
begin returning home to the southern islands in the
atoll.
1981
The Bikinians file a class action law
suit against the U.S. government in U.S. courts seeking
$450 million in compensation. Attorneys for the Marshall
Islands Atomic Testing Litigation Project file lawsuits
on behalf of several thousand Marshall Islanders seeking
about $4 billion in compensation from the United States
for personal injuries from the nuclear testing.
1982
The U.S. establishes a second trust
fund of $20 million for the Bikini people. Later, it
will increase this with an additional $90 million
appropriation in the late1980s.
1983
Compact of Free Association is
approved in a plebiscite by about 60 percent of Marshal
Islands voters. The Compact includes a Section 177 trust
fund of $150 million that is to provide $270 million in
compensation payments over the 15 year life of the
Compact (Bikini $75 million; Enewetak $48; Rongelap $37
million; Utrik $22 million; Nuclear Claims Tribunal $45
million; $2 million annually for medical care for the
"four atolls" 53 million for a nationwide radiological
survey; etc.).
1985
March - In a statement delivered to
Rep John Seiberling, chairman of the subcommittee on
public lands and national parks, Dr. Thomas Hamilton
states: "I have performed examinations on over 7,000
people from the northern atolls and from three southern
atolls...There are several northern atolls in which the
prevalence rates of thyroid neoplasia (benign and
malignant) are equal to or greater than those observed
by Brookhaven on Utirik Atoll where the radiation dose
is known."
May - Rongelap people evacuate their
atoll, moving to Mejatto, a small island in the
northwestern section of Kwajalein Atoll. Rongelap
leaders say they fear that continued residence on
Rongelap will expose them to dangerous levels of
radiation.
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1986
The U.S. Congress approves the
Compact of Free Association. The Compact includes an
espousal provision, prohibiting Marshall Islanders from
seeking future legal redress in U.S. courts and
dismissing all current court cases in exchange for a
$150 million compensation trust fund. October The
Compact between America and the Marshall Islands goes
into effect.
1991
August - The Nuclear Claims Tribunal
approves its first compensation awards, based on a list
of health conditions presumed to be caused by radiation,
and therefore eligible for compensation. Because of
concerns that the $45 million available may not be
adequate to pay all claims, the Tribunal limits initial
payments to 25 percent of the total awards.
1994
January - U.S. Rep. George Miller
writes to President Bill Clinton: "Some Rongelapese have
said they believe they were used as 'guinea pigs' to
further U.S. understanding of the effects of radiation
on humans. In light of recent disclosures regarding
actual radiation experimentation in the United States
during this period, that possibility cannot be ignored."
He also comments on an ongoing thyroid study in the
Marshalls. "The findings of the thyroid survey are
disturbing. The Committee has been informed that even if
only 50 percent of the survey results are verified...the
incidence rate is still significantly higher, by a
factor of 100, than the rate of thyroid cancer found
anywhere else in the world." The U.S. Department of
Energy begins releasing thousands of previously
classified nuclear test era documents, many of which
confirm the wider extent of the fallout contamination in
the Marshall Islands.
July - U.S. Representatives George
Miller and Ron de Lugo write to Dr. Ruth Faden,
chairperson of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation
Experiments: "...There is no doubt that the AEC
intentionally returned (Marshallese) to islands which it
considered to be "by far the most contaminated places in
the world,' but which it told the people were safe. Nor
is there any doubt that the AEC, through the Brookhaven
National Laboratory, then planned and conducted test
after test on these people to study their bodies'
reaction to life in that contaminated environment. "
December - A five-year study of 432
islands in the Marshall Islands shows that 15 atolls and
single islands -almost half of this nation were dusted
by radioactive fallout from the U.S. nuclear weapons
tests of the 1950s. However, the Nationwide Radiological
Survey -funded by the U.S. and conducted by the Marshall
Islands government -states that with the exception of
islands in Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Rongerik, "the
amount of radioactivity remaining in the environment has
diminished to levels that are not of concern." Paul C.
Warnke, formerly the chief nuclear arms negotiator for
the U.S. who held other high level positions for the
State Department, states his support for additional
compensation, observing that Marshall Islands
negotiators of the Compact were unaware of the magnitude
of radiation problems in the Marshall Islands when they
negotiated compensation levels with the United States.
1995
February - Marshall Islands officials
testify before President Clinton's Advisory Committee on
Human Radiation Experiments in Washington, D.C. stating
that fallout exposed many more than the four atolls
acknowledged by the U.S. government, and that islanders
were purposefully resettled on contaminated islands so
the U.S. could study the long-term effects of radiation.
October - The U.S. Advisory Committee
on Human Radiation Experiments issues its final report,
including observations and recommendations on the
Marshall Islands. The report recommends that at least
two more atolls, Ailuk and Likiep, be included in a
medical program, and that the Department of Energy's
program "be reviewed to determine if it is appropriate
to add to the program populations of other atolls to the
south and east of the (Bravo) blast whose inhabitants
may have received exposures sufficient to cause excess
thyroid abnormalities."
December - The Nuclear Claims
Tribunal reports that it has awarded $43.2 million,
nearly its entire fund, to 1,196 claimants for 1,311
illnesses.
1996
August - The Nuclear Claims Tribunal
projects that it will have $100 million in personal
injury claims by 2001, when the Compact ends. Land
claims for Bikini, Enewetak and other northern islands
are also pending before the Tribunal. The Tribunal's
claim claim fund, however, is limited to $45 million.
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Selected
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