Rongelap Atoll

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Rongelap
NASA image from Rongelap
NASA image by Rongelap
Waters Pacific Ocean
archipelago Marshall Islands
Geographical location 10 ° 21 ′  N , 166 ° 50 ′  E Coordinates: 10 ° 21 ′  N , 166 ° 50 ′  E
Rongelap Atoll (Marshall Islands)
Rongelap Atoll
Number of islands 61
Main island Rongelap
Land area 7.95 km²
Lagoon area 1 000  km²
Residents 79 (2011)
Template: Infobox Atoll / Maintenance / HoeheFehlt

The Rongelap Atoll is located in the northwest of the Marshall Islands and geographically belongs to the Ralik chain . The area consists of 61 islands that cover an area of ​​7.95 km². The lagoon has an area of ​​about 1000 km².

The average annual rainfall is 1527 mm.

geography

The atoll is located in the Ralik chain between the atolls Ailinginae (W) and Rongdrik (O) to the south, a fault extends into the Lewonjoui Guyot ( Guyot , deep sea mountain ). And in the extension of this line in the southwest is the Wotho -Atoll (Schantzinseln). The Bikini Atoll nuclear weapons test site is about 40 km to the west. The reef crown of the atoll is vaguely reminiscent of the outline of the Iberian Peninsula . The southernmost point is Jaboan Point on the eponymous island of Rongelap , from there the reef crown stretches to the east and west. At Burok the reef turns north to Naen and then further east to the eastern point at Anielap . With a few curves, the reef crown then stretches south to Rongelap.

Rongelap Island

The island forms a lying "L" that extends far to the west. In the far west is Jaboan Point . This is where the South Pass joins. At the “heel” in the southeast is Rongelap Airport , a church and two settlements with approx. 19 inhabitants each are listed. The closest motu are Arubaru to the west and Rugoddagai (Busch Island) to the northeast.

history

The following important information is missing from this article or section:
The time before 1948 is missing, e.g. B. First settlement.
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In 1948 the island of Rongelap had 106 inhabitants.

The main island of the Rongelap atoll became famous for the radioactive contamination of 64 islanders as a result of radioactive fallout . On March 1, 1954 (February 28, 1954, 6:45 p.m. GMT ), the United States detonated a hydrogen bomb ( Operation Castle ) on Bikini Atoll to the west . The bomb with the code name "Bravo" (also " Bravo bomb ") had an explosive power of approx. 1300 Hiroshima bombs ; it was the most powerful atomic bomb the US ever detonated. It was detonated two meters above the ground.

Rongelap is about 160 km from Bikini. The residents saw a second sun appear in the west and heard the "thunder" of the explosion, as John Anjain, the island's mayor, described in a 1977 hearing. The wind carried contaminated dust to Rongelap Atoll in five and a half hours . He sent out β and γ radiation . It should have looked like snow or ashes. The 64 inhabitants of the islands had not been warned. They drank the contaminated water from the cisterns, children smeared the radioactive dust in their hair and pretended it was soap.
The residents of Rongelap used to treat their hair with coconut oil, and this is how the dust settled in the hair. The fallout caught in the houses made of mat fabric and thus also contaminated the toddlers. The residents of Rongelap were exposed to an average of 45 mC / kg  (175 x-rays ) of radiation. Soon most of the islanders suffered from nausea (approx. 75%), some from vomiting and diarrhea. The skin was burned (necrosis) and the people suffered from unquenchable thirst due to cell death in the gastrointestinal tract - all signs of acute radiation sickness caused by γ radiation. The north of the island was most heavily contaminated. Another 18 people were on the nearby island of Ailinginae , including four pregnant women.

US Army units visited the island and measured the radiation. They advised residents not to drink the water from their cisterns - although there was no other source of drinking water on the island. The residents of the atoll were taken two days later by the US Navy, along with the residents of Utirik and the 28 American soldiers who had observed the bomb explosion from Rongerik for medical observation by members of the hematology department of the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda in a military base on the Kwajalein Atoll ( project 4.1 ).

Treatment of radiation sickness is practically impossible; many of the contaminated died a slow and painful death. The symptoms of the gamma radiation had subsided during the transport to Kwajalein. After about two weeks, most radiation victims lost their hair, especially the children. This was a result of the beta radiation. Painful ulcers and open wounds formed on the skin, especially in areas that were not protected by clothing. The number of white blood cells dropped sharply and many people developed a severe runny nose. A decision was made against treatment with penicillin . After 18 months there were no deaths and the children of the four pregnant women were judged to be “normal”. The radiation exposure through food was estimated to be low.

The residents of Utrik were allowed to return to the contaminated island after three months, the soldiers were released as healthy after six months at the latest, while the residents of Rongelap were brought to Ejit Island in the Majuro Atoll in the center of the Marshall Islands and there by the American Navy continued to be observed. The residents of Rongelap had suffered more serious damage than the soldiers on Rongerik, who had been informed about the dangers of radioactivity and had regularly washed off the dust. They suffered fewer wounds from radioactivity.

At Rongelap itself, the residues of the explosion were scientifically examined. The American Atomic Energy Commission found in 1957 that the return of residents offered a unique opportunity to study how radiation spreads through the food chain and in the human body. The survivors of Rongelapis were assured that the islands were now safe and they were returned to Rongelap Atoll in February 1957. They had been exposed to an average of 2 Gray . They were advised not to eat palm thieves.

As a result, the residents suffered from thyroid cancer , leukemia and miscarriages. Children were born mentally handicapped , dwarfed or otherwise deformed. Brookhaven National Laboratory's medical professionals examined the residents' health annually. Many residents have had their thyroid removed. It wasn't until 1982 that the American Environmental Protection Agency admitted that the islands were still highly contaminated. However, the American government refused to relocate the residents - the island is safe.

In 1985 the ship Rainbow Warrior of the environmental protection organization Greenpeace transported the islanders to Kwajalein . Jeton Anjain, the island's mayor, emphasized that this was done at the request of the islanders. They mistrusted American scientists and still felt they were being treated as laboratory animals.

Today the Rongelapese live mainly on Mejatto in the Kwajalein Atoll, as well as in Ebeye on the Kwajalein lagoon and in the island capital Majuro . However, they feel that because of the radiation damage and the birth of malformed children, they are being shunned by other residents of the Marshall Islands. They continue to suffer from tumors, an increased cancer rate , especially thyroid cancer, and diabetes , heart disease, hyperthyroidism , osteoarthritis and hypercholesterolemia are more common. The bodies of deceased former residents, excavated by Australian archaeologists as part of a US Congress-sponsored program on the health of the residents of Rongelap on Mejatto, contained radioactive transuranic elements .

In 1986 the Marshall Islands received $ 150 million from the US government to cover all claims for compensation for radiation damage. In July 1989, the island's mayor, Jeton Anjain, visited Washington to request $ 6.6 million for environmental studies at Rongelap. He was supported by the German biologist Bernd Franke . In 1988 the US government determined that the south of the island was "safe for adults", but this did not persuade the residents to return. In September 1996, the US Department of the Interior signed a $ 45 million agreement to allow resettlement on Rongelap. In 2007, the Nuclear Claims Tribunal awarded the residents of Rongelap $ 1,031,231,200 in compensation.

To this day, the victims of the nuclear tests in the Pacific are waiting for adequate compensation payments or for recognition of the damage that the bombs caused to their health and their land. Many people developed cancer and other serious illnesses that appear to be related to the tests (they are also seen in other former nuclear weapons test sites ). Some islands have become uninhabitable due to nuclear radiation. The residents lost their homeland, their cultural roots and their economic independence.

administration

The current mayor of Rongelap is James Matayoshi , the current Iroij of the atoll is Imata Kabua , and the current senator is Abbaca Anjain-Maddison .

Culture

The official language on the atoll is English .

literature

  • Barbara Rose Johnston, Holly M. Barker: Consequential Damages of Nuclear War. The Ronge Lap Report . Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, 2008.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Ian Williamson and Michael D. Sabath, Small Population Instability and Island Settlement Patterns . In: Human Ecology , 12/1, 1984, p. 29.
  2. ^ Geography of the Marshall Islands. Retrieved March 23, 2015 .
  3. ↑ geonames.org .
  4. ↑ geonames.org .
  5. ↑ geonames.org . Rongelap Village.
  6. ^ A b c John Anjain: "I Saw the Ash Fall on Him" ​​Excerpt from Testimony before the United States Senate, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, June 16, 1977 . In: Anthropology Now , 1/2, SPECIAL ATOMIC ISSUE (September 2009), p. 10.
  7. ^ A b Steven L. Simon, André Bouville and Charles E. Land: Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Tests and Cancer Risks. Exposures 50 years ago still have health implications today that will continue into the future . In: American Scientist , 94/1, 2006, p. 52.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f Radioactive Fallout in the Marshall Islands . In: Science, New Series , 122 (No. 3181 Dec. 16) 1955, p. 1178.
  9. ↑ a b c d e Stuart Kirsch: Lost Worlds. Environmental Disaster, "Culture Loss," and the Law . In: Current Anthropology , 42/2 (April 2001), p. 169.
  10. ^ A b c d Eliot Marshall: Fallout from Pacific Tests Reaches Congress . In: Science, New Series , 245 (No. 4914, Jul. 14, 1989), p. 123.
  11. ^ A b Barbara Rose Johnston: Atomic Times in the Pacific . In: Anthropology Now , 1/2, Special Atomic Issue (September 2009), 2. JSTOR 41203536
  12. ↑ a b c Radioactive Fallout in the Marshall Islands . In: Science, New Series , 122 (No. 3181, Dec. 16) 1955, p. 1178 (based on interviews with Robert A. Conard from the Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda)
  13. ↑ "A small amount of fallout was absorbed internally with food and water, but the amount has been calculated to be too small to be harmful." Radioactive Fallout in the Marshall Islands. Science, New Series 122 (No. 3181, Dec. 16) 1955, 1178 (based on interviews with Robert A. Conard of the Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda)
  14. ^ A b John Anjain, "I saw the Ash fall on him" Excerpt from Testimony before the United States Senate, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, June 16, 1977. Anthropology Now, 1/2, SPECIAL ATOMIC ISSUE (September 2009) , P. 11.
  15. ^ Barbara Rose Johnston: Atomic Times in the Pacific . In: Anthropology Now , 1/2, Special Atomic Issue (September 2009), 3. JSTOR 41203536
  16. ^ Stewart Firth: The Nuclear Issue in the Pacific Islands . In: Journal of Pacific History , 21/4, 1986, p. 209.
  17. ↑ Stuart Kirsch: Lost Worlds. Environmental Disaster, "Culture Loss," and the Law . In: Current Anthropology , 42/2 (April 2001), p. 170.
  18. ^ Barbara Rose Johnston: Atomic Times in the Pacific . In: Anthropology Now , 1/2, Special Atomic Issue (September 2009), 7. JSTOR 41203536
  19. ^ Barbara Rose Johnston: Atomic Times in the Pacific . In: Anthropology Now , 1/2, Special Atomic Issue (September 2009), 8. JSTOR 41203536
  20. ↑ csusap.csu.edu.au
  21. ↑ B. Franke, R. Schupfner, H. shaker, Dirk HR Spennemann: transuranics in Bones of deceased former residents of Rongelap Atoll, Marshall Islands . In: Applied Radiation and Isotopes , 46/11 (1995), pp. 1253-1258.
  22. ↑ csusap.csu.edu.au
  23. ^ Barbara Rose Johnston: Social Responsibility and the Anthropological Citizen . In: Current Anthropology , 51 / S2, 2010 (special issue: Engaged Anthropology: Diversity and Dilemmas), p. 241.
  24. ↑ Stuart Kirsch: Lost Worlds. Environmental Disaster, "Culture Loss," and the Law . In: Current Anthropology , 42/2 (April 2001), p. 186.