Pod Insights ABC Rewind 06 | Rainbow Warrior | Legacies About this episode After help from the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, the people of Rongelap atoll, in the Marshall Islands, have a new, safer place to live. But at what cost? What does the future hold for them? And will they ever be able to go home?
Credits:
Writer, producer, host: James NokiseWriter, script editor: Sophie TownsendWriter, producer: Justin GregoryHead ABC Radio Australia: Justine KellyExecutive Editor Audio RNZ: Tim WatkinContent Director ABC Radio Australia: Faleagafulu Inga StünznerRNZ Production Coordinator: Briana JuretichABC Production Manager: Alison BarclayAudio engineer RNZ: Rangi PowickDesign RNZ: Dexter EdwardsEditorial Policies advisor ABC: Tiger Webb
Transcript 5,924 words · 16 speakers
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0:39 Speaker 00 In the last episode, the Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior, is sunk in Auckland Harbour. And with the help of some unexpected Kiwi ingenuity, New Zealand police arrest two French government agents. Meanwhile, in the Marshall Islands, Jetta Nanjan and the people of Rongelapato have continued in their struggle for recognition and aid from the United States, all while being affected as they see it by the continuing effects of US nuclear testing.
1:17 Speaker 00 Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands, 2024.
1:22 Speaker 02 But some have the, you know, attitude by saying, oh, the nuclear testing is over. We don't want to deal with it anymore under Compact Three. Like, how can you say that just like that?
1:35 Speaker 00 That's Rongelap Mayor James Mateoshi. He's voicing what a lot of Rongelapis feel, that while for the US, the story of nuclear testing in the Pacific feels over, for those still alive after the evacuation, the legacy is far from finished.
1:52 Speaker 00 Let's take you back to the days and weeks that followed the July 10, 1985 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. There's a terrible sadness amongst the people of Rongelap that the ship that evacuated them had been attacked and sunk, and that their friend Fernando had been killed. When word first comes through about the bombing, though, there's something else. While it becomes very clear, very fast to New Zealand investigators that the French were responsible for the explosions, the recently evacuated Rongelapese draw an entirely different conclusion.
2:26 Speaker 02 My reaction was, "Man, they really hate us for being nuclear advocates."
2:34 Speaker 00 James Mateoshi, then assistant to Jetta Nanjain, remembers the senator took the news hard.
2:40 Speaker 02 He was devastated. He just really felt down that he's walking a real tough fight, just like walking up a mountain, man. One of the toughest mountains in the world.
2:54 Speaker 00 We know the French carried out Operation Satanic. We know President Myitran signed off on it. We don't know if he knew they were going to blow the ship up. We know why they did it: to stop Greenpeace protests and to send a message to others who might want to interfere in their nuclear testing. Given all that, then yeah, maybe the belief of the Rongelap people that it was the US trying to punish them for the evacuation, that could seem odd, or paranoid even. But given the relationship between the US and the people of Rongelap, with its inherent power imbalance, with the emotions of fear, and with the lack of trust that imbalance caused,
3:35 Speaker 00 would it be unreasonable for people from Rongelap to believe that this attack was punishment?
3:43 Speaker 00 In the wake of the evacuation, an argument broke out between the US and the Rongolapis. You can see it taking place in the pages of the Marshall Islands Journal at the time. The United States' position is clear. Based on their data, there's no need for the people of Rongolap to have fled from their home. Jettan is furious at officials who have publicly said that the radioactivity on Rongolap is no higher than in many American cities. In an open letter in the Marshall Islands Journal, he asks: "Then why does the US government spend lots of money coming to Rongolap using my people as guinea pigs?" The Marshall Islands Journal quotes the US Ambassador to the United Nations Harvey Feldman,
4:27 Speaker 00 who said in his report to the UN Trustee Council: "It is tragic that the people of Rongolap have been victimized by outside forces without the benefit of the available scientific information."
4:46 Speaker 00 When you comb through the documents, you can see that there is scientific evidence showing that the Rongolapis could have stayed. That evidence, though, came from the US. Only the Americans have consistently had the power, resources, and access to produce the numbers, the figures, the reports. We know that Jettan and others are seeing birth defects, illness, cancers. We know that they fear for their future based on what's going on around them. They don't have the economic or scientific power to match report for report, study for study. That doesn't mean they should be discounted. They are, after all, living it. They are the study.
5:33 Speaker 00 And at least in some quarters in the US, there's a concession that while the evacuation may be unnecessary, it could have been avoided altogether if the US Department of Energy had treated the Rongolapis with just a little more respect. A memo to the DOE dated 22 July 1985 by Tommy McGraw of the Office of Nuclear Safety is damning of the way they've behaved in their relationship with the Rongolapis, calling it: "A new low in the annals of radiation protection standards implementation that should serve as a warning to those who follow narrow self-serving interests."
6:09 Speaker 00 He says that for years, US staff had provided advice that was contradictory and inconsistent. Also, he points out there was a three-year gap where there was no effective liaison between the DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency, a gap where Brookhaven Labs were recording significant increases in whole-body exposures for the Rongolapis. McGraw's memo highlights how those increased readings and communication misfires would be fueling distrust and, frankly, maddening to the people living on Rongolap, people who simply wanted an assurance that their land was safe to live on, or alternatively, to know that they should leave.
6:49 Speaker 00 In years where the Rongolapis have asked for clarity and truth, they've instead received little more than equivocation, buck passing, and contradictory advice. McGraw says the US gave the right to each Atoll to make their own judgements, and they did. "The Rongolap people followed the advice they were given," says McGraw. "Made the judgement not to accept the risk, and left the Atoll." He finishes with this. "Not providing them information on their total radiation exposure condition, information that is available, amounts to a cover-up."
7:28 Speaker 00 For ABC Radio Australia and RNZ, I'm James Nokise and this is The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior. This is episode six, our final episode, Legacies.
7:54 Speaker 00 We began this series with an explosion. The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior on July 10, 1985 shocks the world with its shamelessness. Unfortunately, what it also does in all the absolutely justified outrage causes is obscure once again the powerlessness of a people who have borne the brunt of a programme of nuclear weapons testing that destroyed their way of life. But let's face it, the story of Rongolap hardly needed anything to obscure it.
8:25 Speaker 00 In order to make international headlines, Pacific stories usually require one of three things: some amazing physicality, be it sport or dancing, a saga relating to some embarrassing local politics, or the opening of a new Disney film. Sicily Islanders and US post-war bureaucracy don't exactly get the juices going. Dwayne DeRoc Johnson isn't making that film, and he made Black Adam. In making this series, and focusing on the evacuation of Rongelap, we could not help but ask: Why had such an incredible story linked to such an important moment in both New Zealand history and the history of the ANZUS relationship gone relatively unheard?
9:08 Speaker 00 For anyone outside of Micronesia, it comes back to what you think of when you think of the Pacific. Is it the people? The land? The sea? Are you worried the sea is swallowing the land? Are you worried the people are being displaced? Are you worried that hotel prices always peak at the wrong time? Whatever you worry about, let's go back to the people of Rongelap in 1985, now living on Mesotol, still arguing for some sense of justice and power in the relationship between themselves and the United States of America. Jatanan Jain's task is clear: to argue for just terms for the 1986 signing of the Compact of Free Association
9:53 Speaker 00 between the US and the Marshall Islands. He goes to work, fighting both US officials and the Marshallis government for fair compensation for his people. The first signing of the Compact of Free Association, or COFA, in 1986, set out new parameters for the relationship between the Marshall Islands and the US. Kathy Jethnil Keshina, the Marshall Islands' current environmental envoy, explains.
10:20 Speaker 03 It allows the relationship between the Marshall Islands and the US where we're still an independent country, we still have a seat at the UN, but we're allowed free entry into the US and they also have, they also hold certain rights over our military. The US's military use of our Kuaodalian Atoll, one of our biggest atolls, and it also provides compensation for the nuclear legacy as well, as a part of it. It also funds most of our government and most of our country's budget.
10:54 Speaker 00 This compact will be renewed approximately every 20 years. The US gets to keep its military position in the Marshalls and has say over what other countries' armed forces can enter the region. US citizens can live in the Marshalls and vice versa. The Marshalls also get access to US Medicare, domestic postal rates, education programs, federal disaster response. They also get money, some of which is for the "nuclear legacy." That 1986 compensation is a payment of $150 million US dollars to the atolls affected by the Pacific Nuclear Test Program. Some would say that amount is generous, others
11:35 Speaker 00 might point out it came 46 years after events and was considered a one-time payment for issues that are still ongoing 33 years later. That was certainly Jethan Anjain's ongoing argument with the US.
11:52 Speaker 00 Moving into the 1990s, it's important to understand that the people of Ronglab are going into international hearings and into government meetings to debate the findings of the world's only superpower. It's not a fair fight, and Jethan Anjain, who is the man leading his people, is feeling the toll it takes.
12:12 Speaker 02 And at some point, you know, while being a strong advocate, you know, he suffered cancer.
12:19 Speaker 00 When James Mateoshi was a young man, he traveled a lot with Sen Srinath as he advocated for his people around the globe. Sometimes, James carried his bags, sometimes he helped him with his pain.
12:32 Speaker 02 And that was the hard part as well.
12:36 Speaker 02 He'd wake up at night and, you know, ask me if I could help lift to elevate, you know, one of his legs to help alleviate the pain.
12:46 Speaker 00 Jethan Anjain spent his life working for the people of Rongelap, earning him international acclaim. In 1991, he was awarded the Swedish-based Wright Livelihood Award, whose most famous modern recipient is probably Greta Thunberg. A year later, he won the Goldman Environmental Prize, a major international award for grassroots environmental activism. Abeka Anjain Madison, Jethan's daughter, remembers he never gave in.
13:15 Speaker 04 My father was so determined to seek justice that there was nothing that would prevent him from pursuing what he thought that was the right thing to do.
13:30 Speaker 00 Jethan hadn't sought the prizes. They weren't important to him. What they did do was shine a light on the plight of his people, because everything was about his people. Giff Johnson, editor of the Marshall Islands Journal and Anjain's close friend.
13:46 Speaker 05 But I think the point about this is that Jethan, by the senator, by facilitating the evacuation in 1985 on the Rainbow Warrior, set in motion a series of events that led to the US Congress putting up a big chunk of money in a trust fund that the Rongelap local government has used, continuing to this day, to support Rongelap people in various ways, building houses and a whole bunch of other things. And, I mean, that's a huge accomplishment and a legacy.
14:27 Speaker 00 That legacy was hard-won and didn't come without a price. Jethan was suffering and in pain. James Matayoshi again.
14:36 Speaker 02 And, you know, sometimes he'd drink, you know, a couple of shots just to minimize it.
14:42 Speaker 02 But he was determined. I mean,
14:46 Speaker 02 if he had to do it on his knees, he would do it to fight for the cause.
14:52 Speaker 00 As Jettan got sicker, he continued to fight the US for an assurance that they would continue further health and radiation surveying for the people of Rongelap. Finally, they agreed. He died in 1993 at just 60 of prostate cancer. He was never an enemy to the United States, was never a Greenpeace dupe. He was simply a man moved to do something audacious and difficult and extreme through sheer desperation.
15:31 Speaker 06 When the Pravu explosion occurred, my people did not understand what was going on.
15:38 Speaker 00 This is Jettan in 1992, accepting the Goldman Environmental Prize. It's about a year before his death.
15:46 Speaker 06 We did not understand the effect of the testing in our country.
15:56 Speaker 06 But few years later, we began to know that certain important things were taken away from us. One, our human right was taken away. Two, our health was also taken away. Before the testing, we were very healthy people. Today, we are sick. And the last, but not the least, is our land.
16:33 Speaker 00 For the people of Rongelap, his death was not only a loss of a leader, but a symbol of the loss they continued to live with, the loss of a way of living and of being. On Kwajalein, the people of Rongelap continue to feel displaced, aware that they are living on someone else's land.
17:08 Speaker 07 We call ourselves Ramehto. We're ocean people. So there is no difference between marshallese and ocean. We are ocean.
17:18 Speaker 00 This is Alson Kellen, former mayor of Bikini, master navigator, talking to me on the day we first met, having an oddly familiar conversation. So if they nuke the ocean, they nuke the people?
17:35 Speaker 07 Yeah.
17:36 Speaker 00 There's a famous quote, at least within the Pacific, from the late academic activist and poet Dr. Tere Sia Ti Awa. It goes, "We sweat and cry saltwater so we know the ocean is really in our blood."
17:51 Speaker 07 He can take away me from the ocean, but he cannot take the ocean away from me.
18:03 Speaker 00 The US's nuclear testing program poisoned the ocean. And for the people of Rongelap, this poison was a fundamental break in trust. And it may well be that you're assuming the trust I'm talking about is the one between the Marshall Islanders and the US. It goes deeper than that. The trust is between the people and the land and ocean itself, which is far more painful because for Marshall Islanders, there's not a distinction. There's no border that separates a marshallese woman or a marshallese man and the ocean from which they are created. Here's Kathy Zettnell-Kitchen's take on that relationship and the importance of understanding it.
18:42 Speaker 03 Land is life for a lot of us. It's not just a commodity. It's not something that you just buy and you own and you sell and that's it. You know, it's a part of your identity. It's a part of who you are and it's how you trace your lineage to your family.
18:57 Speaker 00 All of this kept circling around me till one night, after a week in Majuro, things boiled over. My producer, Justin Gregory, did what any sympathetic producer would do in that situation. He switched the mics on. James, what's on your mind? There's a lack of peace among these people. They're very calm. They're living happy lives with family as much as you can. But...
19:25 Speaker 00 With Rongelap, we've been talking about the physical wounds with the health and the mental wounds that comes from trauma and intergenerational effects of both those things, but there's also a different kind of wound which is a spiritual wound. I don't mean that in a Christian sense, even though we've been into churches, it's the connection, cultural spirituality between people and geography. So you don't have to be a Pacific person to understand that. You can be from Canterbury, you can be from Czech Republic. There is an enhanced spiritual connection between people and their land. And it's not
20:08 Speaker 00 just that the people of Rongelap don't seem to trust the US or at the very least their health sectors. What I realize is the lack of peace comes, these people can't trust their land and their water. You know, it's not that they don't want to go back, they want to go back, but they're scared. And they're scared because the trust between themselves and where they're from has been broken. I've been trying to articulate it, and it's the lack of peace that these people are carrying around with them. Not in a, I don't want
20:47 Speaker 00 to make them seem like hopeless victims, but it's to encounter it in another collection of people is to face a wound which is incredibly daunting. And you realize that the depth and the hurt of that wound is going to take something major, more than money, more than simply going back. They've got to figure out how to feel trust in their ancestral land again.
21:24 Speaker 00 We can say that the US did not know the unexpected dangers of their Pacific testing programme, that they were relying on their best scientific advice at the time and simply couldn't predict the effects of the bombs. There are US officials who will say, and have said, that their government has tried to remediate past errors. And while there are all sorts of judgements about whether those efforts have been enough, there has been medical help and there has been financial aid. In the end, it doesn't matter much, because the fundamental issue is that broken trust. It is the radiation poisoned tree that bears its radiation poisoned fruit.
22:06 Speaker 00 So what do you do to repair this?
22:08 Speaker 08 We did everything. We got up there.
22:11 Speaker 00 This is Jerry Kramer, whose company, Pacific Construction Incorporated, began to rebuild Rongelap in 1999, after the Rongelap resettlement act was passed that year. It was an idea spearheaded by James Mateyoshi and proved to be somewhat controversial amongst his community.
22:30 Speaker 08 We cleaned the vegetation, we scraped off all of the hotspots as far as we understood it. We put in a power plant, we paved the road, we built an airfield, we put in a reverse osmosis water supply sewage system, we did a sheet pile dock and a ramp for vessels.
22:53 Speaker 00 From 1998 to 2003, Jerry's team built up Rongelap with the idea of resettlement. Having been in the marshals since the 1960s, he was familiar with the community and their issues, and also what they might need waiting for them to return. He filled me in, with only the slightest hint of his original Boston accent coming through.
23:16 Speaker 08 Were there particular challenges to doing Rongelap? Were there challenges?
23:23 Speaker 08 On Rongelap, we scraped a foot of soil off the top and used it to widen an area where we eventually built the runway. And then we replaced that with crushed coral that we drilled and blasted on the ocean side and laid out, and the different hot areas were identified.
23:46 Speaker 00 You can find the pictures of the completed work online. It looks really good. There's just one snag. Nobody wanted to go because nobody trusted it was safe.
23:58 Speaker 03 You know, they got really sick and they got to the point where they just couldn't, they didn't know who to trust anymore, and the US weren't telling them, you know, why they were getting sick. They were just testing and testing and testing and not explaining anything to them, not sharing any information with them.
24:14 Speaker 00 The 2003 compact between the US and the Marshals was signed just after the work on Rongelap finished. The process of negotiations did not soothe the US-Marshall Islands relationship. Even though by 2002, a lot of documents about the nuclear testing program had become declassified, making it clear in much more detail what had happened in the Marshals, the compact was signed without reference to the nuclear legacy. There are, as of right now, no plans for the Rongelapis to go back to their homeland. It's not a decision that sits lightly with anyone.
24:53 Speaker 09 I would rather be on Rongelap in an instant.
24:56 Speaker 00 This is Grace Ebon, talking to me in Mesut. Do you think you'll be able to move back in your lifetime?
25:04 Speaker 09 Um, no, I don't think so.
25:07 Speaker 00 How does that make you feel?
25:09 Speaker 09 Sad.
25:12 Speaker 09 Yeah.
25:14 Speaker 00 While producing this series, we spent a lot of time trying to talk to US officials who could help us understand the reasoning behind America’s decision to use the Marshall Islands as the testing ground for its nuclear weapons, and to talk to us about the current relationship. We weren’t after anything controversial, not searching for some gotcha moment. We just wanted someone to be able to explain to us their government’s point of view, hopefully in handy soundbites we could pass on to listeners. We never really got that. We approached the US embassies in Wellington and consulate in Sydney. Discussions were had and interview requests were sent to the State Department in Washington, DC on our behalf.
25:58 Speaker 00 But the interviews were declined. So, we sent a list of eight written questions in which we asked simple things like: Did the US take sufficient care of the Atos safety in 1954? Did they see the exposure of Atos to Bravo fallout as intentional, careless, or something else? Was it safe for the Rongolapis to return in 1957? Why did they oppose the evacuation in 1985 and do they still oppose it? Were the 1986 compact negotiations fair and transparent, considering how many documents were withheld? Finally, we asked about Jeter’s brother, Jean Aujin, being told by a US serviceman
26:40 Speaker 00 that his life was “smaller than a fingernail,” and if that represented American attitudes involved with the Rongolapis at the time. But the State Department also declined to answer those. They did send a document from the late 80s, titled “Report Evaluating the Request of the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands Presented to the Congress of the United States.” Catchy. Of course, the producers on this podcast read that and several other US government reports, academic papers, dozens of newspaper and magazine articles dating back to the
27:19 Speaker 00 1950s, all trying to walk a mile in the shoes of those American scientists and politicians. Without comment or contextualization from the US, it felt at times like we were swimming in those shoes, in murky water, with our hands behind our backs.
27:41 Speaker 00 And then, quite late in the process, and much to our surprise, a response popped into our inbox from Tom Udall, US Ambassador to New Zealand. I won't read all of it to you, but in it, Ambassador Udall says: The United States acknowledges the many sacrifices of the people of the Marshall Islands. As United States Ambassador to Aotearoa, New Zealand, I am committed to advancing President Biden's vision to strengthen disarmament and nonproliferation. Maintaining the international norm against nuclear explosive testing remains in the interest of all states. We must continue efforts to advance multilateral disarmament measures
28:23 Speaker 00 and seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. We have a shared responsibility to make the world a safer place.
28:34 Speaker 00 It's not the answer we wanted. It didn't answer any of the questions we asked. Acknowledging the sacrifice of the people of the Marshall Islands strikes a weird note for a start, because sacrifice doesn't feel the same as suffering. When you make a sacrifice, you make it. You decide. The people of Rongelap were never given a choice. While in the Marshalls, we asked for an interview with the US Chargé d'affaires, Lance Posey. We were told it was not possible at this point. Colonel Andrew Morgendi, officer in charge of the US Army Garrison at Quajline, happened to be staying at our hotel. Producer Justin Gregory asked him for an interview. He politely declined.
29:19 Speaker 00 "There are levels on levels to this kind of thing," he said. I'm sure that's true. The army band playing at the Boljai celebrations were also staying there. We struck up a conversation, asked if we could record them playing the Star Spangled Banner at their next public event. They centered up the chain of command. Affirm "no" came back. In short, before going to the Marshall Islands, while we were there, and afterwards, we tried just about every way to get an interview or even a comment. It's possible we are still in an active email chain trying to schedule a meeting while you're hearing this. When the voice you're asking for comment from is as big as the United States,
30:04 Speaker 00 its absence is loud. Its absence has weight.
30:22 Speaker 00 The current compact between the Marshalls and the US, Comp 3, signed fresh and new in 2024, is for 20 years. It was initially meant to be renewed in 2023, but talks fell down over the nuclear issue. This was, despite the fact, it was hardly going to break the bank, as noted in a 2017 United States Congress report on managing the cost of nuclear forces up to 2046. Compared to the nearly 1.2 trillion that will be spent on modernizing the US nuclear forces, the payout for remaining awarded claims from the Nuclear Claims Tribunal would be minuscule.
31:01 Speaker 00 The Marshallese held firm and secured a 2.3 US billion-dollar deal that involves 15 million for education on nuclear activities and 700 million for the "extraordinary needs" of those affected by the nuclear legacy. Those extraordinary needs include the ongoing health issues in the Marshalls and particularly the ever-present specter of cancer.
31:35 Speaker 10 I think if you kind of grow up in the community, like the Rongla peace community, and constantly hear stories of health issues and whatnot, you kind of become really conscious of it.
31:48 Speaker 00 You remember Eve Burns, local reporter and Rongla peace.
31:51 Speaker 10 And it kind of becomes your priority to make sure that, like, as a young adult, you're doing okay. So I kind of do the same with my daughter, but it's once a year, just the normal blood work, x-rays.
32:09 Speaker 10 But yeah, I I'm really conscious about it, so.
32:13 Speaker 00 Eve's daughter is six years old.
32:16 Speaker 11 My mom, she had a thyroid cancer.
32:19 Speaker 00 This is Grace Abbott, talking to me in Rongi Town, where many Ronger Lapis live on Majuro.
32:25 Speaker 11 And my grandma had too, same same problem. My and my grandpa had leukemia. He was not treated for it because we didn't know what it was until, you know, he was already gone. He was already passed away. We just found out later.
32:45 Speaker 11 And, you know, numerous other family members that had cancers.
32:50 Speaker 00 And this is Ariana Tibon, Chair of the National Nuclear Committee. She's descended from survivors of the Bravo shot.
32:58 Speaker 12 The thought of having cancer is definitely frightening to me. But the thought of any of my children or, you know, future grandchildren having cancer is just, you know, it's already breaking my heart.
33:20 Speaker 00 According to the World Health Organization, cancer remains one of the two leading causes of death in the Marshall Islands. The other is diabetes. The two diseases are more connected than you think. If I can read from the Pacific's favorite magazine, Primary Care Diabetes. Nuclear radiation from the explosions contaminated the local food ecosystems that were central to the sustenance farming lifestyle of the Marshallese people. As a result, inhabitants of the RMI involuntarily shifted their diet to one reliant on high carbohydrate commodity foods imported by the US. And physical activity related to food acquisition was greatly reduced.
34:06 Speaker 00 It's heartbreaking and again, maddening. Nuclear testing has helped destroy the ability for a people to look after themselves. And sure, there's been financial aid and medical aid and post aid and access to US education, which depending on your international view can be seen as aid. But what many of the people of Rongolap really want, quite simply, is an apology.
34:34 Speaker 00 Here's Grace Eibon, talking to me in Majuro. What would it mean to you to hear an acknowledgement and an apology?
34:49 Speaker 11 I think it will build a sense of relief, knowing that they acknowledge that, you know, they made a mistake.
34:59 Speaker 11 And, you know, they just need to apologize, that's all.
35:03 Speaker 00 Grace echoes a sentiment that has come through from each of the Rongolapis people we've talked to, from survivors of the Bravo shot to people like Abika Anja in Madison, daughter of Jeten, former senator for Rongolap. Wouldn't apology help?
35:20 Speaker 04 Yes, it would. It would.
35:26 Speaker 04 But when will it come?
35:30 Speaker 00 Kenneth Keddie, former Speaker of the House for the Marshall East Government and Rongolapis, elaborates.
35:36 Speaker 13 Dealing with the biggest country in the world, that will never admit that they made a mistake, because they don't apologize, they haven't apologized, they're here to apologize.
35:47 Speaker 13 Of course, you will get roadblocks. You hit obstacles almost every time you try to resolve the issue. During the compact negotiation, the third compact that just concluded, they could not address, first and foremost, our request to apologize, recognizing that you made a mistake, especially to your friends and younger brothers and sisters in the Marshall Islands. That's a moral, should have been a very simple action.
36:22 Speaker 13 But they just couldn't do it.
36:25 Speaker 00 We don't know why the US have been so reticent about making an apology to the people of Rongelap. Earnestly, we would have liked to talk to them about it. Perhaps the United States feels that the hundreds of millions of dollars committed as part of the first and third Corfor agreements already said sorry. Perhaps the US worry about a formal apology opening the possibility of further demands for compensation. Perhaps, in this very complicated geopolitical environment we're all living in, the people of Rongelap are simply not important enough.
37:11 Speaker 00 Yes, part of the lasting nuclear legacy for the Rongelapis is trauma, but there's a lot of resilience there, too. A hell of a lot. You can see and hear it as recently as the Republic of the Marshall Islands' performance for the opening ceremony of the 2024 Festival of Pacific Arts in Hawaii.
37:31 Speaker 14 They dropped 67 nuclear weapons.
37:39 Speaker 14 They destroyed our way of life. They relocated our people. And yet, we still have our culture. We still have our legacy. We still are. We're still here. We are still here.
37:58 Speaker 00 The cheering you can hear? It's not from Marshall Islanders. It's from the rest of the Pacific, because, as we've said before, many islands, one ocean.
38:11 Speaker 00 That resilience brings out, I think, an incredible, and you might say unexpected, given what's happened, source of energy: humor.
38:21 Speaker 00 The late Iberly Holfer, one of the Pacific's greatest academics and writers, said, "This capacity for laughter, for grabbing moments of joy in the mists of suffering is one of the most attractive things about our islands."
38:37 Speaker 00 I keep coming back to the interview we did with Ella Edmund, with Rongla Peace reporter Eve Burns translating for us. And this particular exchange. ...
38:49 Speaker 10 After a few years, they returned us back to Rongla.
39:04 Speaker 00 That laughter, that affection, that shared joy you're hearing are two people who've been personally affected by absolutely mind-boggling US government logistics. They see the absurdity of it all and choose to laugh. It's a gallows humour, instantly recognisable by any people who have suffered oppression. You have to laugh. When the powers that be have taken so much, you can't let them have your sense of joy too.
39:31 Speaker 00 I asked Eve about that.
39:32 Speaker 10 I see it as a sign of healing for my people. For me to be able to joke around with someone like that and just have a light conversation over something so heavy, it's refreshing.
39:47 Speaker 00 There's a power in laughter, and a particular healing power in an intergenerational laugh. That's something you might have experienced yourself.
39:56 Speaker 12 When the time comes, what I will tell my children, "Oh, this is so hard", I will teach them as much as I know. And I've already started teaching my eight-year-old. I take her along with me when I do my presentations or discussions with the community. I take my three-year-old with me when I go out to the neighbouring atolls to meet with the community members there, because I want them to be as involved and informed more than I was growing up. And so I'm not sure when that time will be, because I think the time has already started years ago.
40:49 Speaker 00 The survivors of the Day of Two Suns and their descendants continue to live. They are a small community of Pacific Islanders who are part of a larger global community of survivors of nuclear fallout. Of that large community, they are the most unknown, the hardest to find, the hardest to see. But if you choose to, you can see them. You can see their determination that the price they've paid for the cost of US nuclear testing not be forgotten.
41:20 Speaker 12 Prior to the establishment of the National Nuclear Commission, a majority of our population were not fully informed. I'd say we're still not fully informed about the impacts of nuclear weapons testing. But, for example, we did not study this history in school. It was not mandatory to learn about the nuclear weapons testing program or the long-lasting effects of it, such as how it has impacted our health and our environment.
41:57 Speaker 12 I just feel like if the marshallese were silent about this issue, it would be easier for the big countries to engage in, like, nuclear warfare.
42:26 Speaker 00 Freedom has always been a complicated word for the United States. But in the 21st century, hopefully the words apology and accountability will be more straightforward. What is the price of dislodging a people from their land in all ways without consent? The Rongolapis, those still alive from the Day of Two Suns, March 1st, 70 years ago, and their remaining descendants, are still hoping to find that answer. In the meantime, as they heal, they'll keep questioning, laughing, and telling their story to bureaucrats, to US Congress, to the UN, than to others who would listen: journalists, Greenpeace.
43:11 Speaker 00 And now to you.
43:19 Speaker 00 The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior was written, produced and presented by me, James Nokise. Sophie Townsend is the script editor and writer. Justin Gregory, writer and producer. The Last Voyage is a co-production between ABC Radio Australia and RNZ. Justine Kelly is the head of ABC Radio Australia. Tim Watkins is executive editor, audio for RNZ. Faleanga Fulu Inga Stunza is the content director for ABC Radio Australia. Viana Juretic-Gregg is the production coordinator for RNZ. Alison Barclay for the ABC. RNZ's Rangi Paulick engineered the series. Designed by Dexter Edwards. Website by Hingi Kong
44:00 Speaker 00 for RNZ. Huge thanks to Eve Burns, Hilary Hosiah, Giff Johnson from The Marshall Islands Journey. Our respect and love to all the people we met in the Marshall Islands.
44:15 Speaker 15 You've been listening to an ABC podcast. You can discover more ABC podcasts, live radio and exclusives on the ABC Listener.
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