HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

233

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

TO COMMEMORATE THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARCH 1, 1954 DETONATION OF BRAVO H-BOMB ON BIKINI ATOLL OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS.

 

WHEREAS, on March 1, 1954 at 6:45 a.m., the United States of America tested an H-Bomb device on Bikini Atoll which is acknowledged as the greatest nuclear explosion ever detonated; and

WHEREAS, scientists involved in the test have maintained that they expected a yield from the test known as Bravo to equivalent to five megatons; and

WHEREAS, Bravo actually yielded 15 megatons, which was more than a thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb; and

WHEREAS, while U.S. service men on Rongerik Atoll were evacuated within hours of the blast, Marshallese residents of Utirik and Rongelap, all within the hazardous range of the explosion were left on their contaminated islands for at least a day longer, resulting in their exposure to significant radiation; and

WHEREAS, the men, women, and children of these atolls were already suffering burns and loss of hair at the time of their removal from their homes; and

WHEREAS, 23 crewmembers of the Japanese fishing boat, Lucky Dragon, were also exposed to severe radiation from Bravo; and

WHEREAS, including Bravo, 67 nuclear tests were conducted in Bikini and Enewetak between 1946 and 1958, exposing the people of the Marshalls to severe health problems and genetic anomalies during the tests and for generations to come; and

WHEREAS, if one were to calculate the net yield of all the tests conducted in the Marshalls, it would be equivalent to the detonation of 1.7 Hiroshima bombs, every day for twelve years; and

WHEREAS, Enewetak Atoll served as ground zero for 43 tests including the first ever hydrogen device, resulting in the loss of 8% of their land, and that even after a massive cleanup of program by the United States, have no safe access to more than 57% of their land; and

WHEREAS, the people of Enewetak were exiled from their home for more than 33 years in spite of assurances from U.S. officials that they would be repatriated in three to five years after their original removal in 1946; and

WHEREAS, similar promises made to the Bikini people forced the surrender of their land supposedly for the "betterment of mankind"; and

WHEREAS, on advice from the United States, the Bikini people were repatriated in 1967 only to be evacuated seven years later when high levels of radionuclides were discovered in their bodies; and

WHEREAS, the people of Rongelap and Utirik were returned prematurely to their atolls and received additional exposure, causing many to believe that they were used to study the effects of radiation on human beings as contemplated in the Atomic Energy Commission's now infamous Project 4.1; and

WHEREAS, information recently declassified contain strong indications that human experimentation using the people of the exposed atolls was indeed part of the nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands; and

WHEREAS, in the Compact of Free Association, the United States of America "accepts the responsibility for compensation owing to the citizens of the Marshall Islands... for loss or damage to property and person... resulting from the nuclear testing program which the Government of the United States conducted in the Northern Marshall Islands between June 30, 1946 and August 18, 1958"; and

WHEREAS, the pertinent provisions of the Compact were negotiated based on limited and misleading information provided by the United States Government to the Marshallese representatives, a fact only recently exposed in material declassified by the United States and acknowledged by their officials; and

WHEREAS, it has been established that the funds provided under the agreement are grossly inadequate to provide for health care and environmental monitoring, personal injury claims, or land and property damage; and

WHEREAS, the "changed circumstance" provisions of the Compact of Free Association provide that should it become manifestly clear that the agreement on nuclear matters (177) is grossly inadequate to meet the technological and financial requirements anticipated during the negotiations, or if new information emerges which render those agreements insufficient for the purpose of concluding full and just compensation, the Congress of the United States would consider a petition on the issue; and

WHEREAS, the Government of the Marshall Islands submitted such a petition on September 11, 2000; and

WHEREAS, just compensation and continued funding for promised medical and health programs for exposed survivors of the atomic tests depend upon Congress' favorable consideration of this petition; and

WHEREAS, over the past 15 years Hawaii has provided medical, educational, and other supportive services to lawful nonimmigrants from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, without reimbursement from the United States; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2004, the Senate concurring, that the United States Congress is respectfully requested to take appropriate measures to provide for the full compensation of awards, which have been made by the nuclear claims tribunal of the Marshall Islands, including property damage claims, and to provide for the costs of cleaning up nuclear sites in the Marshall islands; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature expresses deep regret for the nuclear testing legacy which the people of the Marshall Islands have inherited, and hereby requests the Governor to declare March 1 as a Day of Remembrance for the survivors of the United States nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, President of the United States Senate, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Governor of Hawaii, Speaker of the Marshall Islands Nitijela, and Mayor of Bikini.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

COMMEMORATING 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF H-BOMB ON BIKINI ATOLL