Rongelap Atoll
 NASA picture of Rongelap Atoll |
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 Rongelap Atoll (Marshall islands)
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| Geography | |
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| Location | North Pacific |
| Coordinates | 11°19′N 166°47′E / 11.317°N 166.783°E |
| Archipelago | Ralik |
| Total islands | 61 |
| Area | 8.0 km2 (3.09 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 3 m (10 ft) |
| Country | |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 19 (as of 1998) |
| Ethnic groups | Marshallese |
Rongelap Atoll /ˈrɒŋɡəlæp/ RONG-gə-lap (Marshallese: Ron̄ļap, /rˠʷɜŋʷlˠapʲ/ or [r̴ʷɔŋʷɔ͡ʌɫɑ͡æp][1]) or Namorik Atoll is a coral atoll of 61 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is only 8 square miles (21 km2), but it encloses a lagoon with an area of 1,000 square miles (2,600 km2). It is historically notable for its close proximity to American hydrogen bomb tests in 1954, and was particularly devastated by fallout from the Castle Bravo test.
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[edit] History
Rangelap Atoll was claimed by the Empire of Germany along with the rest of the Marshall Islands in 1884, and the Germans established a trading outpost. After World War I, the island came under the South Pacific Mandate of the Empire of Japan. Following the end of World War II, Jaluit came under the control of the United States as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
From 1946 through 1958 the United States military conducted numerous atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, including hydrogen bomb tests, primarily at Bikini Atoll, about 120 kilometers from Rongelap Atoll. On March 1, 1954, the test of the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb generated radioactive fallout which killed a crewmember of a Japanese fishing boat, the Daigo Fukuryū Maru, and contaminated Rongelap, with snow-like irridated debris falling up to 2 cm high over the island. A United States military medical team visited the island with geiger counters the day after the fallout fell, but left without telling the islanders of the danger they had been exposed to.[2] Nearly all inhabitants of the atoll subsequently complained of itchiness and sore skin; they vomited, suffered from diarrhea and fatigue. Their symptoms also included burning eyes and swelling of the neck, arms, and legs.[3] The inhabitants were forced to abandon the islands, leaving all their belongings, three days after the test. They were relocated to Kwajalein for medical treatment.[3][4] The United States was subsequently accused of having used the inhabitants in medical research (without receiving consent) to study the effects of nuclear exposure.[2]
In 1957, three years later, the United States government declared the area 'clean and safe' and allowed the islanders to return,[5] though they were told to stick to canned foods and avoid the northern islets of the atoll.[2] Evidence of continued contamination mounted, however, as many residents developed thyroid-tumors,[2][3] and many children died of leukemia.[3] The magistrate of Rongelap, John Anjain, whose own son died of leukemia, appealed for international help, without significant response.
In 1985, Greenpeace, on request of the locals, helped evacuate the people from Rongelap and aided their resettlement on the islets of Mejato and Ebeye on Kwajalein-atoll, approximately 180 kilometers away, in 'Operation Exodus'. In four trips, the Rainbow Warrior moved approximately 300 people and 100 tons of building material.[2] Ebeye is significantly smaller than the islands of Rongelap, and joblessness, suicide, and overcrowding have proven to be problems following the resettlement.
In September 1996, the United States Department of the Interior signed a 45 million dollar resettlement agreement with the islanders, stipulating that the islanders themselves will scrape off a few inches of Rongelap's still contaminated surface. However, this is an operation deemed impossible by some critics.[according to whom?] In recent years, James Matayoshi, the mayor of Rongelap claimed that the cleanup was successful and envisioned a new promising future for the inhabitants and for tourists.[6]
[edit] In popular culture
- Mike Harding's 1989 folk protest song Shaky Isles mentions the fate of the atoll in the lines "Black mist on Maralinga, grey snow on Rongelap, white sun under Mururoa. Whitewash to cover the cracks.".
[edit] References
- ^ Marshallese-English Dictionary - Place Name Index
- ^ a b c d e The evacuation of Rongelap (from the Greenpeace website. Accessed 2009-11-07.)
- ^ a b c d Isobelle Gidley and Richard Shears (1986). The Rainbow Warrior Affair, Unwin, p. 155.
- ^ Gerald H. Clarfield and William M. Wiecek (1984). Nuclear America: Military and Civilian Nuclear Power in the United States 1940-1980, Harper & Row, New York, p. 207.
- ^ McCool, Woodford C. (1957-02-06) (– Scholar search), Return of Rongelapese to their Home Island - Note by the Secretary, United States Atomic Energy Commission, http://worf.eh.doe.gov/ihp/chron/A43.PDF, retrieved 2007-11-07[dead link]
- ^ Rongelap Atoll Local Government - Marshall Islands
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rongelap Atoll |
[edit] External links
- Marshall Islands site
- Entry at Oceandots.com
- Rongelap Atoll official site
- Radio Bikini : Oscar-nominated 1987 documentary on the 1946 atomic bomb tests on Bikini Atoll and the effects on the Bikinians as well as the US sailors who witnessed the tests.
- Het Einde van de Wereld The End of the World (1995/VPRO-tv/Theo Uittenbogaard) a Dutch documentary on the history of the people of the island Rongelap, who were evacuated due to fallout from the Bikini nuclear tests and their (inc. John Anjain) hearing by a Senate Committee in Washington DC
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