On Marshall Islands Remembrance Day, Greenpeace Calls For Nuclear Justice And Reparations From The United States

Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands, 1 March 2025 - Seventy-one years since the most powerful nuclear weapons tests ever conducted were unleashed across the Marshall Islands by the United States, Greenpeace is calling for the US government to comply with Marshallese demands for recognition and nuclear justice.

On 1 March 1954, the Castle Bravo nuclear bomb was detonated on Bikini Atoll - the explosion 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. On Rongelap Atoll, 150 kilometers away, radioactive fallout rained onto the inhabited island, with children mistaking it as snow.

Today, communities continue to endure the physical, economic, and cultural fallout of the nuclear tests; compensation from the US has fallen far short of expectations for the Marshallese people who are yet to receive an apology; and the accelerating impacts of the climate crisis threaten further displacement of communities.[1]

"The Marshall Islands bears the deepest scars of a dark legacy - nuclear contamination, forced displacement, and premeditated human experimentation at the hands of the U.S. government.

To this day, its people continue to grapple with this injustice, all while standing on the frontlines of the climate crisis - facing yet another wave of displacement and devastation for a catastrophe they did not create," says Greenpeace spokesperson Shiva Gounden.

"But the Marshallese people and their government are not just survivors-they are warriors for justice, among the most powerful voices demanding bold action, accountability, and reparations on the global stage. Those who have inflicted unimaginable harm on the Marshallese must be held to account and made to pay for the devastation they caused. Greenpeace stands unwaveringly beside Marshallese communities in their fight for justice. Jimwe im Maron"

To mark the Marshall Islands’ Remembrance Day, the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior is flying the Marshall Islands flag at half-mast, in solidarity with those who lost their lives and are suffering ongoing trauma as a result of the US government’s nuclear weapons testing.

The Rainbow Warrior is currently in transit to the Marshall Islands where a mission led by Greenpeace will conduct independent scientific research across the country, the results of which will eventually be given to the National Nuclear Commission to support the Marshallese government’s ongoing legal proceedings with the US and at the UN.[2] The trip also marks 40 years since Greenpeace’s original Rainbow Warrior evacuated the people of Rongelap after toxic nuclear fallout rendered their ancestral lands uninhabitable.

"The immediate effects of the Bravo bomb on 1 March were harrowing. Hours after exposure, many people fell ill - skin peeling off, burning sensation in their eyes, their stomachs were churning in pain. Mothers watched as their children’s hair fell to the ground and blisters devoured their bodies overnight," says Ariana Tibon Kilma, Chairperson at Marshall Islands National Nuclear Commission.

"Without their consent, the United States government enrolled them as ‘test subjects’ in a top secret medical study on the effects of radiation on human beings - a study that continued for 40 years. Today on Remembrance Day the trauma of Bravo continues for the remaining survivors and their descendents - this is a legacy not only of suffering, loss, and frustration, but also of strength, unity, and unwavering commitment to justice, truth and accountability."

The new Rainbow Warrior will arrive in the Marshall Islands in early March. Alongside the government of the Marshall Islands, Greenpeace will lead an independent scientific mission into the ongoing impacts of the US weapons testing program. Travelling across the country, Greenpeace will reaffirm its solidarity with the Marshallese people - now facing further harm and displacement from the climate crisis, and the emerging threat of deep sea mining in the Pacific.

[1] US policy toward the Marshall Islands must change

[2] Marshall Islands National Nuclear Commission Strategy for Justice

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