Pacific Magazine > Magazine > July 1, 2002

Letter From Majuro

The Shocks Keep On Coming

Nuclear Tests And Chemical Gas Experiments: What's Next For Marshall Islands?

By Giff Johnson

Giff Johnson

Did Marshall Islanders get sick and die as a result of secret American nerve gas and chemical agent experiments in the islands in the 1960s? If that question seems to smack of hyperbole, consider this: In late May, the Pentagon revealed that it had planned and/or conducted 113 secret experiments in the 1960s in which it doused American military personnel with nerve gas, as well as chemical and biological agents. They were testing the effectiveness of the military’s protective equipment. At least one of those tests took place on Enewetak Atoll, and one Marshall Islands official believes it is related to an outbreak of influenza that led to two deaths in 1968.

Desert Test Center Test 68-50, was intended to determine the casualty levels from an F-4 Phantom jet spraying SEB, a crippling germ toxin. The test of SEB was done in the Marshall Islands in September and October of 1968. The jet sprayed the deadly mist over part of Enewetak Atoll. SEB, which came from a bacteria that causes a common type of food poisoning, is an incapacitating agent that can knock people out for one or two weeks with fever, chills, headache and coughing.

Recent testimony before the Nuclear Claims Tribunal, although making no reference to the Enewetak test, described a nationwide outbreak of flu in 1968, with food-poisoning-like symptoms that had an extremely rapid onset. An anthropologist described attending a baseball game where everyone was hit with cramps and many were vomiting.

These latest revelations confirm the point made in a Marshall Islands petition to the U.S. Congress seeking additional nuclear test compensation. The truth is, 56 years after the first nuclear test was conducted at Bikini, this central Pacific nation still does not have all the facts about the multitude of U.S. tests in the country.

Ironically, though perhaps predictably, U.S. officials have in recent years attempted to dismiss the contention that America still has an outstanding obligation to Marshall Islands nuclear test victims. U.S. officials argue that the 1986 Compact of Free Association, with its 15-year, $270-million settlement, resolved all past and future claims.

The U.S. Congress spent 18 months ignoring a petition submitted by the Marshall Islands about nuclear test compensation, replying only recently after much prodding by Marshall Islands attorneys and government leaders.

With Marshall Islanders continuing to grapple with severe health problems associated with nuclear test exposure and difficult nuclear cleanup and resettlement decisions, the U.S. clearly has an incompletely paid debt in the Marshall Islands.

Now, this latest revelation about biological agent tests in the Marshall Islands raises a new set of questions. “This isn’t directly related to the nuclear testing program, but it clearly demonstrates that we still don’t know all the facts about what the U.S. government did in the Marshall Islands during the Cold War,” commented Bikini attorney Jonathan Weisgall. Amen to that observation.

Contact Giff Johnson at: pacmag@ntamar.com