Rongelap

   

Photograph: David Robie/Eyes of Fire

hero

The people of Rongelap lived on their atoll for hundreds of years. The 61 islands of the atoll have a total land area of just about 20 square kilometres, but it was home to more than 300 people, when the Rainbow Warrior arrived there 1985.

Marshall Islands (Pacific)

Marshall Islands (detail)

leader
An independent video slide show developed from photographs in David Robie’s photographic exhibition around the original Rainbow Warrior’s humanitarian voyage to Rongelap in the Marshall Islands in May 1985. It was broadcast on Tagata Pasifika.
Rongelap hero

In 1954, the United States detonated a nuclear bomb as part of its Castle Bravo test, knowing that the fallout would cover Rongelap. This bomb was 1,000 times more powerful than those used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Three days after the detonation, the US government evacuated the residents of Rongelap to Kwajalein Atoll. Three years later the government officials claimed that Rongelap Atoll was safe again, and they returned the islanders to their home.

part001

Over the next 30 years, the evidence of radioactive poisoning grew. Rongelap children were still born and many mothers experienced miscarriages. Just under 70% of the Rongelap children who were under 10 in 1954 developed thyroid tumours.

United States scientists continued to monitor the people of Rongelap, believing that the condition of the people of Rongelap afforded an opportunity to observe the effects of prolonged exposure to high radiation levels.

part002

After decades of pleading with the United States government, in 1985 the Rongelap people turned to Greenpeace for help. They asked that Greenpeace send a vessel to evacuate them from their home and move them to nearby Mejato Island.

part003

Greenpeace sent the Rainbow Warrior to Rongelap at the request of its people and in May 1985 moved them to Mejato Island, 180 kilometres away in Kwajalein Atoll. This operation, involving many trips, took 11 days.

Photographs of the evacuation

Read Bene Hoffmann's diary

post