The Case of the Marshall Islands
By Sania Khazi
Overview
The Republic of the Marshall Islands, better known as the Marshall Islands, is a country in the easternmost islands of Micronesia in the central Pacific Ocean. The country is comprised of upwards of one thousand islands and chains of atolls. After being occupied by the United States in World War II, the Marshall Islands were made part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands under jurisdiction of the United States in 1947 (Kiste, 2022). For about 11 years later, until 1958, the Bikini and Enewetak atoll populations were removed to other atolls, and the land was used as testing ground for US nuclear bombs. While some cleanup efforts began in the late 60s, during the time of attempted resettlement, the Bikini atoll was found to be too contaminated with nuclear radiation to be inhabited, and by the late 70s, the Bikinians were evacuated once again (Marshall Islands, 2019). Since then, the Marshallese people have faced the effects of living in radiation levels exponentially greater than Hiroshima, manifesting in high rates of cancer with little policy efforts to relieve the pain.
Additionally, the Marshall Islands are hit from a different angle as sea levels continue to rise as an effect of climate change. The threat is especially high for islands like the Marshalls because while the rest of the world can act slower while acknowledging the visible effects of climate change, these effects manifest at an exponential rate on the islands, serving as a daily reminder of the closer-felt threat of a drowning nation. While the negative global warming effects are harbored most in smaller nations, these nations are also the ones with the least civic power. That is not to be said, however, that there are not strong voices which have emerged from these two long-felt crises among the Marshallese.
By reading poetry on the Marshall Islands by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner and by exploring the policy initiatives of climate activists Litokne Kabua and Tony de Brum, a broader array of understanding can be fostered regarding the Marshall Islands and policy initiatives to support to promote the Islands’ longevity geographically as well as demographically. By analyzing the history, as well as the current politics surrounding the effects of nuclear testing and climate change on the environment and residents of the Marshall Islands, one will gain a fuller understanding of historic American influence on the Marshall Islands versus the modern-day activists rallying for better treatment of the nation. Through a lens of lived experiences underscored in Iep Jaltok, this article will look to understand the nuances of the history of the Marshall Islands and how it is reverberated today, ultimately proposing what kinds of policies can be enacted to rectify the lack of substantial action, and significant destructions of the past.
Nuclear Testing
Under the authority of the United States from the 1940s to 60s, the Marshall Islands became known as the Pacific Proving Grounds, because of its use as a nuclear testing site. Coming off the end of World War II, the use of atomic weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki inspired a nuclear arms race. The US tested more than 20 nuclear devices at the Bikini and Enewetak Atolls, with the first of the testing series occurring under Operation Crossroads (Cowan et al., 2014). The purpose of this operation was merely for investigation of the effect of nuclear weapons on warships. Following Crossroads came Operations Greenhouse, Ivy, and most powerful, Operation Castle which included the Castle Bravo Test. This was the United States’ largest detonation ever, 1,000 times more powerful than Hiroshima’s “Little Boy” (Castle Bravo, 2017). Castle Bravo ended up as the blast responsible for most of the radioactive contamination, with an unfortunate combination of irregular wind patterns spreading radioactive particles east to other inhabited atolls. Traces of radioactive material were later found across the world from Japan to Australia, to some parts of Europe. Jeton Anjain, Senator in the Marshallese parliament testified: “Approximately five hours after the detonation, it began to rain radioactive fallout. Within hours, the atoll was covered with a fine, white, powder-like substance. No one knew it was radioactive fallout. The children played in the ‘snow.’ They ate it” (Castle Bravo, 2017).
Since the first instance of testing on the Islands, the Marshallese have been inhaling these radioactive particles, fallout appearing at such a rate that by the time a relocation effort was organized, it was too late. Further, as the years would go on, many residents were brought back to their respective atolls under the instruction that levels of radiation had decreased to a safe amount for return, only to be sent away a year later with the truth that they were still being exposed. Since the early 1950s, the Marshallese have undergone forced relocation, been wounded with burns, seen an increase in birth defects, and most notably, an increase in the rate of cancer. The National Cancer Institute has released a report with several jaw dropping estimates of the percentage of cancers due to the nuclear blasts, just between 1948 and 1970: “1.6% of all cancers (about 170 cases),” “55% of cancers for residents of the Rongelap atoll (the closest inhabited atoll to the testing,” “10% of all cancers in Utrik.” These statistics only account for the mid to late 1900s, however in actuality, the effects of radiation poisoning are intergenerational. As the decades progress, so do the cancer rates at fault of US nuclear testing.
In her poetry book dedicated to the Marshall Islands titled Iep Jaltok, Kathy Jentil-Kijiner writes a poem titled “Fishbone Hair,” expressing her grief after the death of her niece Bianca Lanki who passed away from leukemia at 8 years old. The reader learns “there had been a war/ raging inside Bianca’s six-year-old bones” persisting through the bone marrow treatments the young girl must have undergone: “The marrow should have worked/ They said she had six months to live.” Jentil-Kijiner expands her commentary on the cancerous effect of the radiation to the overall community, briefly providing some introspection on the experiences of those in the water at the time of Castle Bravo, like the fishermen “over 50 years ago” who were “out at sea just miles away from Bikini/ the day the sun exploded/ split open.” In including brief imagery of the fisherman on the day of a nuclear blast, Jentil-Kijiner highlights the lasting impacts of the radiation, specifically as a cause of cancer. Bianca Lanki was surely not alive for any of the blasts, yet she helplessly faces the same illness and ultimate death as those who were only miles away, in the same water as the blasts.
Climate Change
King tides are the highest tide coastal events of the year, caused by the alignment of the Earth, moon, and sun. A perfectly predictable phenomenon which historically took minor preparations for minor flooding, has since become one of the most extreme flooding events for coastal residents as sea levels rise at the hand of climate change.
In particular, the Marshall Islands have felt the effects of the growing king tides for quite some time now, as the Islands have a maximum elevation of only 10 meters of above sea level (Education Resources: Regional Information, Marshall Islands, n.d.). With such low-lying atolls, there is less time for the residents to discuss the encroaching sea level, as the complete submergence of the islands is coming sooner than the global climate change discussion cares to admit. In only 13 years, by 2035, the US Geological Survey projects “some of the Marshall Islands will be submerged… others will no longer have drinking water because their aquifers will be contaminated with saltwater… as a result, Marshallese would be forced to migrate away from their homelands” (Bordner & Ferguson, 2020). Rising sea levels is the biggest threat of climate change to the Marshall Islands.
The impeding danger of the submergence of the Marshall Islands is clearly not lost on the island’s residents, imposing a sense of urgency that has made space for climate activists like Litokne Kabua, Tony A. de Brum, and once again, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. In his post on the blog, The Elders, Kabua discusses how climate change is personal to him and other Marshallese people: “It will destroy their ways of navigation,… destroy their ways of fishing,… and destroy their legends and stories that have been passed down from ancestors” (Kabua, 2020). The fish die, so Marshallese eating habits must adapt; however, the sun is getting warmer, drought is more frequent, and the concept of fresh drinking water or produce is disappearing. For young Litokne Kabua, climate change relief efforts are focused on the more tangible aspects like island clean-ups picking up trash, spreading awareness through door-to-door conversation, and marching the streets of New York, calling for world leaders to act more seriously on climate change (Kabua, 2020).
Tony de Brum on the other hand was a much more influential policy actor because of his longtime standing as a political leader of the Marshall Islands before his death in 2017 at age 72. Upon his passing, Marshallese president Heine called de Brum a “national hero” for his “outsize voice in global climate-change negotiations” (Friedman, 2017). Over the years de Brum spoke to the United Nations dozens of times, speaking on independence, the suffering from nuclear testing, and the threat of rising sea levels. He linked climate change and nuclear testing together in his reasoning when speaking to and criticizing the higher governmental bodies, speaking on the repugnancy that would be the forced evacuation of the Marshallese people once again if seas rose any higher. Perhaps most importantly, de Brum served as an advocate for the little guys, or the little islands in this case. In 2015 when the Paris accord called for an effort to keep the global temperature no higher than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, de Brum argued, “even if the temperature increase were held at 2 degrees, a resulting rise in sea levels would be devastating for the Marshall Islands and other low-lying countries,” emphasizing how island nations feel the effects much sooner, but do not get any added protections without targeted outcry (Friedman, 2017).
In writing her poem “2 Degrees” as part of the poetry book Iep Jaltok, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner also serves as a climate activist. She wrote this poem in response to when CNN reporter John Sutter asked her to write a piece about the importance of the 2 degree number to climate change. While Sutter was likely expecting a piece on the importance of maintaining the maximum 2 degree increase to the climate rule, what he received was a great critique. Jetnil-Kijiner writes “for my islands 2 degrees/ is a gamble/ at 2 degrees my islands… will already be under water.” She goes on to describe how the Marshallese leader push for 1.5 degrees, and how even though 0.5 degrees “seems small,” like it “shouldn’t matter,” it’s adoption to global policy will be the indicatory of whether the world believes the Marshall Islands matter.
Looking Forward
While America doesn’t bear the full responsibility of both the nuclear and climate-related distresses of the Marshall Islands, the United States has failed to take ownership of the magnitude and extent to which they expedited the devastation of the nation. The Runit Dome, a cement structure covering the radiation speckled nuclear blast site is bound to crack and leak with time and rising sea levels. The Nuclear Claims Tribunal ruled in favor of the Marshall Islands awarding them more than $2 billion in damages, yet the US has paid only $4 million with no enforcement (Rust, 2010). It is time now more than ever for the US to follow through with promises to host a thorough clean up and provide compensation for health and environmental effects of nuclear testing. Most notably for the near future and the survivability of the Marshall Islands, is the fact that the 1986 Compact of Free Association is up for renegotiation in 2023. This international agreement of the 80s established governing relationships and free association between the United States, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. If the US federal government is not sticking to their promise for complete financial assistance, perhaps it is due time for the Marshall Islands to stand on their own. With activists like Jetnil-Kijiner and Kabua advocating on the grassroots level for the policy like that of de Brum’s and other powerful figures, there is hope for the sustainability of the Marshall Islands.
References
Bordner, A., & Ferguson, C. E. (2020, December 11). Marshall Islands could be wiped out by climate change — and their colonial history limits their ability to save themselves. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/marshall-islands-could-be-wiped-out-by-climate-change-and-their-colonial-history-limits-their-ability-to-save-themselves-145994
Castle bravo. (2017, March 1). Atomic Heritage Foundation. https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/castle-bravo
Cowan, G., Cunningham, F., Jones, T. O., & Warren, S. L. (2014, July 1). Operation crossroads. Atomic Heritage Foundation. https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/operation-crossroads
Education resources: Regional information, Marshall Islands. (n.d.). Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS). https://www.pacioos.hawaii.edu/education/region-rmi/
Friedman, L. (2017, August 25). Tony de Brum, voice of pacific islands on climate change, dies at 72. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/world/tony-de-brum-dead-climate-change-advocate.html
Jetnil-Kijiner, K. (2017). Iep Jaltok. University of Arizona Press.
Kabua, L. (2020, June 11). On the frontline of the climate crisis in Marshall Islands. The Elders. https://theelders.org/news/frontline-climate-crisis-marshall-islands
Kiste, R. C. (2022, March 9). Marshall Islands map, flag, history, language, population, & facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Marshall-Islands
Marshall Islands. (2019). Atomic Heritage Foundation. https://www.atomicheritage.org/location/marshall-islands
Marshall Islands research project and findings. (2010, August). National Cancer Institute. https://dceg.cancer.gov/research/how-we-study/exposure-assessment/nci-dose-estimation-predicted-cancer-risk-residents-marshall-islands
Rust, S. (2019, November 10). How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/projects/marshall-islands-nuclear-testing-sea-level-rise/
