| Radio Bikini | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Robert Stone |
| Produced by | Kevin Rafferty Robert Stone |
| Cinematography | John Rayter Robert Stone |
| Edited by | Robert Stone |
| Distributed by | PBS |
Release date |
|
Running time | 56 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | English Marshallese |
Radio Bikini is a 1988 American documentary film directed by Robert Stone. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1988 for Best Documentary Feature. [1] [2] It was later aired on the PBS series The American Experience .
The film documents the nuclear tests performed around Bikini Atoll during Operation Crossroads in 1946, and their effects on the indigenous population and American servicemen involved.
The film was produced in-part by attorney Jonathan Weisgall. In 1975, he had been sent by Covington & Burling to meet with displaced Bikini Islanders from the 1946 atomic tests. He eventually published a book on the subject, “Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll.” [6] [7]
The Los Angeles Times wrote, “The film by British film maker Robert Stone (an Oscar nominee for feature documentary) is an outstanding achievement on all levels. Stone conveys an enormous body of facts, figures, attitudes and effects in the most organically subtle fashion. There’s also a uniquely emotional quality thanks to the participation of two witnesses--Kilon Bauno, the chief of 162 Bikinians who were relocated throughout the Marshall Islands to clear the way for the nuclear invaders, and John Smitherman, a Navy pilot involved in dropping the bombs.” [8]
The Washington Post wrote, “Stone's film is an eloquent, if harrowing, examination of the psychic and physical fallout of the testing, both on Bikinians and on unprotected American servicemen who were drenched in radioactive mists while monitoring the blasts. The most surreal footage comes from government archives -- never-before- seen film shot for a propaganda epic that was never made. Seven hundred and fifty cameras and half the world's existing movie film were shipped to Bikini to capture the Felliniesque events. Men shear lambs, grease them with Flashpoint cream and strap them to the decks of "target" ships in the Bikini lagoon to test the effects of the blasts. There is footage of uncomprehending Bikinians leaving their home, of fresh-faced sailors walking, naked, into showers jokingly labeled "Radio Active," of military men hand-painting the name "Gilda" on a fat 20-kiloton bomb. It's all perky, upbeat—Beaver Cleaver Drops the Bomb.” [9]
Michaela Pontellini wrote in Vancouver Weekly, “Radio Bikini, which is named for the temporary radio station positioned on the island shortly before Operation Crossroads began, is firmly against the destructive powers of nuclear energy. There are no interviews with anyone other than the victims of the disaster, and the focus is entirely on what is portrayed to be completely useless nuclear testing and the sheer callousness of the United States government for putting its servicemen at risk. Smitherman notes that none of the servicemen were informed as to what the tests were, nor the possible dangers of their involvement. The complete lack of consent is galling, and highlights the American governments decision to sacrifice a few for the ‘greater good’.” [10]
Bikini Atoll, known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 19th century and 1946, is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a 229.4-square-mile (594.1 km2) central lagoon. The atoll is at the northern end of the Ralik Chain, approximately 530 miles (850 km) northwest of the capital Majuro.
Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity on July 16, 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The purpose of the tests was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on warships.
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance, yield, and effects of nuclear weapons. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by different conditions, and how personnel, structures, and equipment are affected when subjected to nuclear explosions. However, nuclear testing has often been used as an indicator of scientific and military strength. Many tests have been overtly political in their intention; most nuclear weapons states publicly declared their nuclear status through a nuclear test.
Operation Castle was a United States series of high-yield (high-energy) nuclear tests by Joint Task Force 7 (JTF-7) at Bikini Atoll beginning in March 1954. It followed Operation Upshot–Knothole and preceded Operation Teapot.
Operation Sandstone was a series of nuclear weapon tests in 1948. It was the third series of American tests, following Trinity in 1945 and Crossroads in 1946, and preceding Ranger. Like the Crossroads tests, the Sandstone tests were carried out at the Pacific Proving Grounds, although at Enewetak Atoll rather than Bikini Atoll. They differed from Crossroads in that they were conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission, with the armed forces having only a supporting role. The purpose of the Sandstone tests was also different: they were primarily tests of new bomb designs rather than of the effects of nuclear weapons. Three tests were carried out in April and May 1948 by Joint Task Force 7, with a work force of 10,366 personnel, of whom 9,890 were military.
Rongelap AtollRONG-gə-lap is an uninhabited 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 8 square miles (21 km2). It encloses a lagoon with an area of 1,000 square miles (2,600 km2). It is historically notable for its close proximity to US hydrogen bomb tests in 1954, and was particularly devastated by fallout from the Castle Bravo test. The population asked the US to move them from Rongelap following the test due to high radiation levels, but with no success; so they asked global environmental group Greenpeace to help. The Rainbow Warrior made three trips moving the islanders, their possessions and over 100 tons of building materials to the island of Mejato in the Kwajalein Atoll, 180 kilometers away.
Castle Bravo was the first in a series of high-yield thermonuclear weapon design tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as part of Operation Castle. Detonated on March 1, 1954, the device remains the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States and the first lithium deuteride-fueled thermonuclear weapon tested using the Teller-Ulam design. Castle Bravo's yield was 15 megatons of TNT [Mt] (63 PJ), 2.5 times the predicted 6 Mt (25 PJ), due to unforeseen additional reactions involving lithium-7, which led to radioactive contamination in the surrounding area.
"Duck and cover" is a method of personal protection against the effects of a nuclear explosion. Ducking and covering is useful in offering a degree of protection to personnel located outside the radius of the nuclear fireball but still within sufficient range of the nuclear explosion that standing upright and uncovered is likely to cause serious injury or death. In the most literal interpretation, the focus of the maneuver is primarily on protective actions one can take during the first few crucial seconds-to-minutes after the event, while the film of the same name and a full encompassing of the advice also cater to providing protection up to weeks after the event.
Operation Hardtack I was a series of 35 nuclear tests conducted by the United States from April 28 to August 18 in 1958 at the Pacific Proving Grounds. At the time of testing, the Operation Hardtack I test series included more nuclear detonations than the total of prior nuclear explosions in the Pacific Ocean. These tests followed the Project 58/58A series, which occurred from 1957 December 6 to 1958, March 14, and preceded the Operation Argus series, which took place in 1958 from August 27 to September 6.
Daigo Fukuryū Maru was a Japanese tuna fishing boat with a crew of 23 men which was contaminated by nuclear fallout from the United States Castle Bravo thermonuclear weapon test at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954.
The Pacific Proving Grounds was the name given by the United States government to a number of sites in the Marshall Islands and a few other sites in the Pacific Ocean at which it conducted nuclear testing between 1946 and 1962. The U.S. tested a nuclear weapon on Bikini Atoll on June 30, 1946. This was followed by Baker on July 24, 1946.
The flag of Bikini Atoll, a member of the Marshall Islands, closely resembles the flag of the United States and was adopted in 1987. The flag is symbolic of the islanders' position that a great debt is still owed by the U.S. government to the people of Bikini because in 1954 the United States detonated the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb on the island, poisoning islanders and others with nuclear fallout.
USS Carlisle (APA-69) was a Gilliam-class attack transport that served with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. She was sunk as a target ship during Operation Crossroads in July 1946.
USS LSM-60 was a World War II era landing ship, medium (LSM) amphibious assault ship of the United States Navy. It was notable for being used as the float to suspend a fission bomb underwater during the Operation Crossroads BAKER test, becoming the first naval vessel to deploy a nuclear weapon.
Operation Redwing was a United States series of 17 nuclear test detonations from May to July 1956. They were conducted at Bikini and Enewetak atolls by Joint Task Force 7 (JTF7). The entire operation followed Project 56 and preceded Project 57. The primary intention was to test new, second-generation thermonuclear weapons. Also tested were fission devices intended to be used as primaries for thermonuclear weapons, and small tactical weapons for air defense. Redwing demonstrated the first United States airdrop of a deliverable hydrogen bomb during test Cherokee. Because the yields for many tests at Operation Castle in 1954 were dramatically higher than predictions, Redwing was conducted using an "energy budget": There were limits to the total amount of energy released, and the amount of fission yield was also strictly controlled. Fission, primarily "fast" fission of the natural uranium tamper surrounding the fusion capsule, greatly increases the yield of thermonuclear devices, and constitutes the great majority of the fallout, as nuclear fusion is a relatively clean reaction.
The Bomb is a 1995 novel by Theodore Taylor written about the protest against nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll after the natives are forced to move. The story mainly follows the life of Sorry Rinamu and the effect of the Able bomb tests on the natives. The imagery and historical relevance truly contributes to the heartbreaking story of the islanders. The novel is divided into three books. It was first published by Harcourt Children's Books in October 1995. The book won the 1996 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. According to Taylor, the novel is based on his own experience aboard the USS Sumner.
An atomic veteran is a veteran who was exposed to ionizing radiation while present in the site of a nuclear explosion during active duty. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs defines an atomic veteran "who, as part of his or her military service: Participated in an above-ground nuclear test, 1945–1962; or was part of the U.S. military occupation forces in/around Hiroshima/Nagasaki before 1946; or was held as a POW in or near Hiroshima or Nagasaki ."
Half Life: A Parable for the Nuclear Age is a 1985 Australian documentary film directed by Dennis O'Rourke, concerning the American Castle Bravo nuclear testing at the Marshall Islands in 1954.
Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll consisted of the detonation of 23 nuclear weapons by the United States between 1946 and 1958 on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Tests occurred at 7 test sites on the reef itself, on the sea, in the air, and underwater. The test weapons produced a combined yield of about 77 Mt of TNT in explosive power. After the inhabitants agreed to a temporary evacuation, to allow nuclear testing on Bikini, which they were told was of great importance to humankind, two nuclear weapons were detonated in 1946. About ten years later, additional tests with thermonuclear weapons in the late 1950s were also conducted. The first thermonuclear explosion was much more powerful than expected, and created a number of issues, but did demonstrate the dangers of such devices.
No Place to Hide is a 1948 book by American writer David J. Bradley published by Little, Brown and Company. The book is a Harvard Medical School graduate's autobiographical tale of his work in the Radiological Safety Section in the Pacific in the aftermath of the Bikini atomic bomb tests, Operation Crossroads.
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