In episode two of 'Ozarks ri-Majel' host April Brown, co-founder of the nonprofit Marshallese Educational Initiative headquartered in Springdale, talks with MEI's Executive Director Benetick Kabua Maddison who travels extensively speaking to world leaders and non-governmental organizations about the enduring impact of U.S. Military Cold War nuclear weapons tests on his island nation, as well as a looming climate change impacts.
Benetick Kabua Maddison: "The Marshall Islands are located about halfway between Hawaii and Australia in the north-central Pacific, above the equator. There are 29 atolls and five islands within an exclusive economic zone of one million square miles. So it's pretty much an ocean nation. The land is about 70 square miles, so about the size of Washington, D.C."
April Brown: "Your ancestors survived for millennia prior to colonial contact. Your homelands were first claimed by Spain, in the early 1600s, and then renamed by British Captain John William Marshall before being colonized by Germany and then Japan. Before colonization, what did your ancestors call your homeland?"
Maddison: "Yeah. So before they were called the Marshall Islands, they were actually called — and to this day we still refer to it — as 'Aelon Kein Ad.' And if you were to break down the name, the traditional name of the islands, the first two letters, 'Ae' means ocean current. The last three letters, 'lon' refers to the skies or the heavens. And then the next word is 'Kein,' means vegetation, referring to the land. And then, of course, you have 'Ad' which means 'ours,' referring to our responsibility for our islands. And so, it's a holistic view of the Marshallese realm. It's not just the land, but also the ocean and the sky."
Brown: "In 1944, U.S. military forces seized control of the Marshall Islands from Japan during World War II, and soon after selected Bikini Atoll as a site for nuclear weapons tests. Could you tell us about the Bikini experience in those first years? And then what happened, from 1946 to 1958?"
Maddison: "So initially, in January of 1946, the United States had already designated Bikini Atoll as a nuclear testing site. But they sent over the U.S. Navy the following month to ask the Bikinian people if they could give up their homelands for nuclear weapons development. And knowing that the Bikinians were Christian, they used the Bible as a means to convince the population to give up their homelands. A few weeks after that visit, they were removed from their homelands. And then about a few months after that, on July 1st of 1946, the first test was conducted at Bikini Atoll, code name 'Abel'."
Brown: "But then things sort of ramped up over the years, right?"
Maddison: "Yea, so the United States began testing more powerful weapons, one of them being 'Castle Bravo' which was the largest [high-yield thermonuclear weapon] tested by the United States on March 1st of 1954 at Bikini Atoll. In total, about 67 large scale nuclear weapons were tested in the Marshall Islands, which is equivalent to about 7,200 Hiroshima bombs. And of course, that resulted in environmental destruction, numerous health issues including cancer, and other chronic illnesses that we collectively refer to as 'nuclear-related illnesses'."
"And then, of course, communities are still displaced to this day. Migration started within the country, initially from the nuclear testing program, but now we have many Marshallese, about two thirds of the Marshallese population are living outside of the Marshall Islands today, a majority of them in the United States. And of course, the largest concentration is here in Arkansas. And we will continue to see larger numbers of Marshallese moving here not just from the islands, but also from other states that are expensive for many families, in this case, California, Hawaii, places where Marshallese first migrated to in the 80s."
Brown: "Can you speak a little bit more to the [nuclear testing] ecological, environmental impact?"
Maddison: "In terms of the environmental impact, the fact that there's still nuclear waste in the Marshall Islands; the fact that the radiation is still there; and that in many of these places where people have been relocated from, you won't find people living, residing there, you know, enjoying life like they used to before the nuclear testing program."
"And then, of course, with the cultural impact, Bikinians were removed from an environment that they knew for thousands of years to Kili, a small island that does not have a lagoon where people could fish, or push their canoes into the lagoon to travel from one island to another. And so, Kili is where the Bikinians were permanently relocated to."
Brown: "Right. And I think it's somewhat known about Runit Dome. Can you explain what that is and that impact?"
Maddison: "So Runit Dome is located on Enewetak Atoll, which is one of the two places in the Marshall Islands used for nuclear weapons testing. And, in the 1970s, the United States and 8,000 U.S. servicemen and non-servicemen, built this nuclear waste site, that is unfortunately leaking nuclear debris into the environment. This has been a concern for the Marshallese people for decades. And in fact, back in December of 2019 Congress instructed the Department of Energy to assess the Dome. And a report came out in June of 2020 pretty much downplaying the concerns of the Marshallese and the reality of the Dome. Scientists have warned that if the Marshall Islands are submerged underwater due to rising sea levels, the structure would break open and release all its contents."
Brown: "And there are people that right now live just a few miles away. Correct?"
Maddison: "Right, there is a population of Enewetakis who live about 15 miles away from the Runit Dome. And they're there because, the U.S. told them it's safe for them to return. However, they cannot eat or drink anything from the land or ocean."
Brown: "So has the U.S. Government provided adequate financial compensation to the Marshallese people for damages caused by more than a decade of weapons testing?"
Maddison: "The United States has not provided adequate funding to address their ongoing nuclear legacy impacts on Marshallese culture, health and the environment. And so, yes, the nuclear legacy has yet to be addressed."
Brown: "So, early on in this period of U.S. nuclear weapons testing, the United Nations designated the U.S. as trustee of the Marshall Islands. The U.S. held the Marshall Islands in this trusteeship from 1947 until 1986 when a Compact of Free Association was signed. In 1979, the Marshallese people wrote a constitution, voting to be separate from the United States. This Compact that went into effect in 1986 was just renewed this year, 2024. So tell us about the Compact and its importance to Marshallese migration and diaspora, and did it address the nuclear legacy?"
Maddison: "After we had declared ourselves an independent nation in 1979, the United States did not recognize our sovereignty, our independence. And it may have been out of fear that here's a new nation that we used for nuclear weapons testing, a few decades ago. And the possibility of them suing us, you know, I think that may have prompted them to say, okay, there needs to be an agreement between the United States and the Marshall Islands. And in this case, that's the Compact of Free Association. Now, the Compact allows Marshallese to migrate here to the United States, without a visa. And, in return, the United States has a U.S. Military base on Kwajalein Atoll. And so, it has military rights in the Marshall Islands. And in fact, when it comes to the defense of the United States, that's the same country that used the Marshall Islands for nuclear weapons testing, and refuses to address these ongoing issues from their program."
Brown: "And so, still, in 2024, the United States still denies responsibility. Is that correct?"
Maddiosn: "That's correct. So, the United States continues to deny their responsibility to their nuclear testing program. And we have yet to receive an official apology or an acknowledgment with serious actions to say that they will address many of these ongoing problems."
Brown: "So what else does the Compact do?"
Maddison: "So the compact also provides economic assistance to the Marshall Islands. And then for those of us living here in the U.S., we're eligible for federal benefits, which were recently restored."
Brown: "Benefits that were originally in the first Compact and then because of U.S. legislation were basically written out.
Maddison: "Yeah, we were kicked off in 1996. But again, you know, we have sacrificed so much: our lands, our culture and our bodies, for the United States to be the powerful country that it is today."
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. To hear more about the current impacts of climate change on the Marshallese archipelago, as well as more episodes of "Ozarks Ri-Majel" visit: https://www.listeninglabkuaf.com/marshallese
'Ozarks ri-Ṃajeļ,' a new Listening Lab/KUAF Public Radio multimedia series, reveals how waves of legally-present Marshallese migrants have navigated new lives on the Arkansas Ozarks over the past thirty years. The series is directed by Listening Lab's Emerson Alexander, written and produced by KUAF news reporter Jacqueline Froelich, with production assistance from KUAF news reporter Sophia Nourani, in partnership with the nonprofit Marshallese Educational Initiative.
