Remembrance Day (Marshall Islands)

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Remembrance Day, formally known as Nuclear Victims' Day and Nuclear Survivors' Day, occurs on March 1 and is a national holiday in the Marshall Islands. The day honors the victims and survivors of nuclear testing done in the area in the 1950s. [1]

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Castle Bravo was the code name given to the first U.S. test of a dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb device, detonated on March 1, 1954 at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as the first test of Operation Castle. Fallout from the detonation poisoned the islanders who had previously inhabited the atoll. [1]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bikini Atoll</span> Coral atoll in the Marshall Islands

Bikini Atoll, known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 1800s 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enewetak Atoll</span> Coral atoll in the Marshall Islands; site of U.S. nuclear testing during the Cold War

Enewetak Atoll is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with its 296 people forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. With a land area total less than 5.85 square kilometers (2.26 sq mi), it is no higher than 5 meters (16.4 ft) and surrounds a deep central lagoon, 80 kilometers (50 mi) in circumference. It is the second-westernmost atoll of the Ralik Chain and is 305 kilometers (190 mi) west from Bikini Atoll.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Crossroads</span> 1946 nuclear weapon tests at Bikini Atoll

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Castle</span> Series of 1950s US nuclear tests

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ebeye Island</span>

Ebeye is the most populous island of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, as well as the center for Marshallese culture in the Ralik Chain of the archipelago. Settled on 80 acres of land, it has a population of more than 15,000. Over 50% of the population is estimated to be under the age of 18.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rongelap Atoll</span> Coral atoll in the Marshall Islands

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 with no success so they asked global environmental group Greenpeace to help. The Rainbow Warrior made four trips moving the islanders, their possessions and their homes to Majeto 180kms away.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castle Bravo</span> 1954 U.S. thermonuclear weapon test in the Marshall Islands

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 megatonnes of TNT (63 PJ), 2.5 times the predicted 6 megatonnes of TNT (25 PJ), due to unforeseen additional reactions involving lithium-7, which led to radioactive contamination in the surrounding area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rongerik Atoll</span>

Rongerik Atoll or Rongdrik Atoll is an unpopulated coral atoll of 17 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and is located in the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands, approximately 200 kilometers (120 mi) east of Bikini Atoll. Its total land area is only 1.68 square kilometers (0.65 sq mi), but it encloses a lagoon of 144 square kilometers (56 sq mi).

<i>Daigo Fukuryū Maru</i> Japanese fishing boat

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utirik Atoll</span> Atoll in the Marshall Islands

Utirik Atoll or Utrik Atoll is a coral atoll of 10 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is only 2.4 square kilometers (0.94 sq mi), but it encloses a lagoon with an area of 57.7 square kilometers (22.29 sq mi). It is located approximately 47 kilometers (29 mi) east of Ujae Atoll. The population of Utirik Atoll was 264 at the 2021 census. It is one of the northernmost Marshall Islands with permanent habitation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castle Yankee</span> 1954 nuclear test of thermonuclear bomb by USA

Castle Yankee was the code name given to one of the tests in the Operation Castle series of American tests of thermonuclear bombs. It was originally intended as a test of a TX-16/EC-16 Jughead bomb, but the design became obsolete after the Castle Bravo test was successful. The test device was replaced with a TX-24/EC-24 Runt II bomb which was detonated on May 5, 1954, at Bikini Atoll. It released energy equivalent to 13.5 megatons of TNT, the second-largest yield ever in a U.S. fusion weapon test.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ailinginae Atoll</span> Atoll in the Marshall Islands

Ailinginae Atoll is an uninhabited coral atoll of 25 islands in the Pacific Ocean, on the northern end of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is only 2.8 square kilometers (1.1 sq mi), but it encloses a lagoon of 105.96 square kilometers (40.91 sq mi). It is located approximately 13 kilometers (8.1 mi) west of Rongelap Atoll. The landscape is low-lying with only the top 3 meters (9.8 ft) above sea level. The two entrances into the lagoon are 'Mogiri Pass' and 'Eniibukku Pass'. These are 1.45 and 0.48 kilometers wide respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Proving Grounds</span> Name of several sites in the Marshall Islands used for American nuclear testing from 1946-62

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project 4.1</span> Radioactive fallout exposure study and experiment

Project 4.1 was the designation for a medical study and experimentation conducted by the United States of those residents of the Marshall Islands exposed to radioactive fallout from the March 1, 1954 Castle Bravo nuclear test at Bikini Atoll, which had an unexpectedly large yield. Government and mainstream historical sources point to the study being organized on March 6 or March 7, 1954, six days after the Bravo shot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag of Bikini Atoll</span> Flag of a member of the Marshall Islands

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.

<i>Radio Bikini</i> 1988 film

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. It was later aired on the PBS series The American Experience.

Lijon Eknilang was a Marshallese activist and nuclear fallout survivor. Eknilang advocated on behalf of residents of Rongelap Atoll, who were victims of nuclear fallout stemming from the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll</span> US nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands

Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll consisted of the detonation of 24 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 42.2 Mt of TNT in explosive power.

Darlene Keju, also known as Darlene Keju-Johnson, was a Marshallese activist. She was born on Ebeye Island in the Marshall Islands group in 1951. The Northern Islands where she grew up were downwind from Bikini and Enewetak atolls where the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons. She witnessed the evacuation of Regelap and Utirik Atolls after they were contaminated by radioactive fallout. Keju is credited for bringing to the attention of the world the suffering of the Marshall Islanders as a result of the nuclear testing and that many more people were affected than acknowledged by the U.S. government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oishi Matashichi</span> Japanese writer (1934–2021)

Ōishi Matashichi (大石又七) was a Japanese anti-nuclear activist and author, and was a fisherman exposed to the radioactive fallout of the Bravo Nuclear Test in the Marshall Islands on March 1, 1954. He was one of twenty-three fisherman on the vessel Daigo Fukuryū Maru. Their catch of tuna and shark was also found to be contaminated with radiation, resulting in two tons of tuna buried at Tsukiji fish market instead of being sold. Members of the crew suffered from acute radiation syndrome, with Kuboyama Aikichi dying of a related infection six months later. Ōishi was hospitalized for several months. He quit the fishing industry and moved to Tokyo to open a laundromat, which he ran for fifty years. His first child was stillborn and he later developed liver cancer.

References

  1. 1 2 Losinio, Louella (2 March 2020). "RMI marks Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day". PNC News First. Retrieved February 7, 2021.