Fight For A Nuclear-free Pacific

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) joins the peoples of Marshall Islands and of the Pacific Islands in remembering and honoring the victims and survivors of nuclear testing in the region.

On March 1, 1954, the United States began its series of high-yield nuclear tests called “Operation Castle” in the Bikini and Enewetak Atolls of Marshall Islands. One particular test, codenamed “Castle Bravo,” was conducted secretly with no prior consent and relocation of neighboring atoll populations. Castle Bravo detonated a nuclear device with 1,000 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb, vaporizing three islands and becoming known as the most powerful artificial explosion in history.

The present generation of Pacific Islanders, especially the Marshall Islands, bears the nuclear fallout’s brunt. The climate crisis exacerbates the impacts, and now, the pandemic. Indigenous Peoples were forcibly displaced, while those who returned to the islands were exposed to radiation. Exposed women gave birth to deformed babies, none of whom survived more than a number of days. Marshallese, sickened by the radiation without knowing the cause of their illness, were often ostracized and suffered psychological trauma.

The Marshallese people suffered forced exile from their homes and death and illnesses from the fallout during the nuclear testing. But the leaking dome of nuclear waste now threatens further harm to their ocean food supply, water, and the Marshallese people’s lives again.

In 2020, we joined Pacific Islanders and anti-war advocates worldwide in welcoming the ratification of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as a step towards nuclear disarmament. Nevertheless, our call for complete nuclear disarmament still stands, especially amid growing tensions among imperialist superpowers with the current Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Moreover, as the climate crisis and the pandemic persist, the world’s resources are better used in addressing the pressing issues of public health and education, food sovereignty, and environmental protection.

The struggle for an independent and nuclear-free Pacific is aligned with the international Indigenous Peoples’ struggle for self-determination. There is no collective peace for Pacific Islanders as long as there is conflict and occupation of other Pacific nations. Likewise, the Pacific peoples are vital in the global struggle for a sustainable, healthy, free, and just world.

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