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Rongelap Atoll ( ; , ) is an uninhabited coral atoll of 61 islands (or motus) in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is . It encloses a lagoon with an area of . 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 (several times) to move them from Rongelap following the test due to high radiation levels, but with no success; so they asked global environmental group Greenpeace to help. The Rainbow Warrior made three trips moving the islanders, their possessions and over 100 tons of building materials to the island of Mejato in the Kwajalein Atoll, 180 kilometers away.
The first sighting recorded by was by Spanish people navigator Álvaro de Saavedra on 1 January 1528.Brand, Donald D. The Pacific Basin: A History of its Geographical Explorations. The American Geographical Society, New York, 1967, p.121. Together with Utirik Atoll, Ailinginae and Toke Atoll atolls, they were charted as Islas de los Reyes (Islands of the Three Wise Kings in Spanish language) due to the proximity of Epiphany. Fourteen years later it was visited by the Spanish expedition of Ruy López de Villalobos.Sharp, Andrew. The discovery of the Pacific Islands. Oxford, 1960, p. 23.
Rongelap Atoll was claimed by the German Empire along with the rest of the Marshall Islands in 1885. After World War I, the island came under the South Seas Mandate of the Empire of Japan. The base became part of the vast US Naval Base Marshall Islands. Following the end of World War II, Rongelap came under the control of the United States as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
irradiation debris fell up to deep over the island. A United States military medical team visited the island with the day after the fallout, but left without telling the islanders of the danger they had been exposed to. Virtually all the inhabitants experienced severe radiation sickness, including itchiness, sore skin, vomiting, diarrhea, and fatigue. Their also included burning eyes and swelling of the neck, arms, and legs.Isobelle Gidley and Richard Shears (1986). The Rainbow Warrior Affair, Unwin, p. 155. The inhabitants were forced to abandon the islands, leaving all their belongings, three days after the test. They were relocated to Kwajalein for medical treatment.Gerald H. Clarfield and William M. Wiecek (1984). Nuclear America: Military and Civilian Nuclear Power in the United States 1940-1980, Harper & Row, New York, p. 207. Six days after the Castle Bravo test, the U.S government set up a secret project to study the medical effects of the weapon on the residents of the Marshall Islands.
The United States was subsequently accused of having used the inhabitants in medical research (without receiving consent) to study the effects of nuclear exposure. Until that time, the United States Atomic Energy Commission had given little thought to the potential impact of widespread fallout contamination and health and ecological impacts beyond the formally designated boundary of the test site.
In 2012, the US government under the Barack Obama administration reasserted its position that it had satisfactorily compensated the Rongelap victims.
In 2019 Chinese investor Cary Lan leased a large part of the atoll for a proposed special economic zone, in what was seen as part of ongoing efforts by China to expand its reach into the Pacific and conduct chequebook diplomacy against Taiwan. After his arrest in Thailand in 2020, the project was abandoned. He was deported to the United States in 2022 for allegedly bribing elected officials in this case.
Failed return to the atoll
In 1957, three years later, the United States government declared the area 'clean and safe' and allowed the islanders to return, though they were told to stick to canned foods and avoid the northern islets of the atoll. US scientists noted that "The habitation of these people on the island will afford most valuable ecological radiation data on human beings." Contrary to the US government's assurances, evidence of continued contamination mounted, as a number of residents developed thyroid-tumors, and many children died of leukemia. Rates of miscarriages and stillbirths in Rongelap were twice the rate of unexposed women in the Marshall Islands. The magistrate of Rongelap, John Anjain, whose own son died of leukemia, appealed for international help, without significant response.
Relocated by Greenpeace
In 1984, Marshall Islands senator, Jeton Anjain approached the environmental group Greenpeace to seek their help in relocating the people of Rongelap and in 1985, 'Operation Exodus' took place. In three trips, the Rainbow Warrior moved approximately 350 people and of building material. to the islets of Mejato and Ebeye on Kwajalein atoll, approximately away. The operation took 10 days, moving everyone from 80-year-olds to newborns, as well as their homes and belongings. Ebeye is significantly smaller than the islands of Rongelap, and joblessness, suicide, and overcrowding have proven to be problems following the resettlement.
Compensation
In September 1996, the United States Department of the Interior signed a $45 million resettlement agreement with the islanders, stipulating that the islanders themselves will scrape off a few inches of Rongelap's still contaminated surface. However, this is an operation deemed impossible by some critics. In recent years, James Matayoshi, the mayor of Rongelap, claimed that the cleanup was successful and envisioned a new promising future for the inhabitants and for tourists. Scientific measurements made in August 2014 verified a safe level of radiation on Rongelap.
Aftermath
In 1991, the People of Rongelap and Jeton Anjain received the Right Livelihood Award "for their steadfast struggle against United States nuclear policy in support of their right to live on an unpolluted Rongelap island."
Education
Marshall Islands Public School System operates Mejatto Elementary School, which serves descendants of the community in Mejatto that resided in Rongelap Atoll." Public Schools ." Marshall Islands Public School System. Retrieved on February 21, 2018.
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