When Washington Needed The Marshalls

James Matayoshi

The people of Rongelap atoll and the Marshall Islands have a shared history with the people of America. The United States governed the Marshall Islands for almost half a century. We have been associated republics under a compact with the closest possible alliance for the past 17 years.

This shared history began during the Second World War. But war did not end for the Marshall Islands in 1945 as it did for most of the world. A different kind of war continued for the people of the Marshall Islands. It was called the Cold War.

The U.S. nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands was equivalent to several Hiroshima bombs every week for 12 years. Our islands were ground zero in the Cold War, and we were on the front line in the fight to win the Cold War.

The U.S. was able to save itself and the world from nuclear war, and the U.S. tells us that was made possible by the nuclear testing at Bikini and Enewetak. The U.S. beat the Soviet Union in the arms race, and the U.S. tells us that was made possible by long-range ballistic missile testing at Kwajalein atoll.

The U.S. needed the Marshall Islands to win the Cold War.

We understood that the stakes were high for all mankind. We understood better than most people because we were victims of radiation poisoning in our bodies and in our homeland. We understood that it was a struggle between good and evil, and that sometimes sacrifices have to be made in the pursuit of the good.

We understood, but that does not change the reality. We were not protected from danger when we could have been taken to safety. The U.S. failed to meet its legal responsibility under the U.N. trusteeship to protect our people. Our sacrifices were not recognized by measures that respected our humanity.

The record we now have from documents obtained in recent years tell us that there were people in the U.S. who knew we were in danger, that we should have been moved not only from Rongelap but from other islands as well. Instead of caring for us when we were victims and giving us medical care as human beings, our medical care was secondary to studies of the effects of radiation.

That was legally and morally wrong. We were harmed by the United States even as the United States acted for the greater good of humanity.

It was easy to be an ally of the U.S. when the Cold War ended. It is easy to be an ally of the U.S. when it means safety and security and prosperity.

But the Marshall Islands became the ally of the U.S. when it meant hardship and suffering. We became a U.S. ally even though it meant losing our ability to return to our way of life before the world intruded. We became dependent on the U.S. because the U.S. claimed the power to govern us.

We did not ask for it, but when that happened we came to understand the choices we had. After decades of living with the good and the bad under American rule we decided the greater good would be to cast our lot with the U.S. under the Compact of Free Association.

Today we are America's allies in the War on Terrorism. We are America's allies in the development of missile defense systems. We are allies in the U.N. and sometimes the RMI votes with the U.S. when all its other allies abandon the U.S. on issues of great importance. We do that of our own free will, without the exercise of extraordinary U.S. powers under the Compact.

For all these reasons, I can say we appreciate and understand America. What we are here today to ask is that America understand us as well as we understand it. For our people, for Marshall Islands, March 1, 1954, is the defining moment in world history.

The nuclear testing program began in 1946 and ended in 1958, but March 1, 1954, is the day that defined the new reality created by the nuclear testing program.

The on-going legacy is recognized under Section 177 of the Compact of Free Association. The "full and final settlement" under Section 177 is not limited to the number of dollars deposited in the Nuclear Claims Trust Fund. The full and final settlement includes the on-going political and legal processes recognized under the Section 177 Agreement as the path to reach truth and justice. It includes a U.S. responsibility to determine when fair and adequate compensation has been provided.

So what we ask today on this 50th anniversary is not just that we remember the past. We ask that the U.S. remember its commitments. We ask Americans to understand us as well as we understand them. We think they do. We think the U.S. is a great nation that can do the right thing.

It is too simple to say that the wrongs done to us were justified by the good that the U.S. has done for the Marshall Islands and the world. There must also be justice for our people.

At a time when the U.S. is spending billions of dollars to study nuclear clean up at mainland U.S. weapons production sites, and hundreds of billions of dollars to make the world safer and more democratic, the U.S. has a legal and moral obligation to finally resolve the legacy of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands. The Marshall Islands is a democratic ally on all fronts in the current war that asks for nothing except just compensation for judicially determined claims.

That is all we ask. Our story needs to be told and the American people need to hear it.

That is the resolve we must have today as we remember the past, honor those who have suffered, and face the challenges of today and the future. The real meaning of our memorial remembrance today is to go forward and deliver on the promise of justice for our people.

The writer is Mayor of Rongelap Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. This article is an excerpt of the speech he delivered on Feb. 28, 2004, to mark "Bravo Day," March 1. It commemorates the "Bravo Test" in 1954, during which radioactive fallout fell on Rongelap.