|
|
Nuclear Testing
Lee Bradley (VRLBM@TTACS.TTU.EDU)
Tue, 18 Jul 1995 08:47:28 -0600
There is some knowledge about the effects of nuclear testing in the
Pacific re Bikini. If my memory serves me, the US decided to test
there in the 1950s. We removed the people already living there,
put some ships and planes around the island and exploded a lot of
nuclear bombs all over the island. The indigenous group who once
lived on Bikini were moved to some tiny too small island that was
not capable of supporting them in the way they were used to being
able to support themselves (fishing, horticulture, etc.) and they
became dependent on our handouts of whatever extra foodstuffs we
could ship them (Spam, potato chips, coca cola). Bikini is
still radioactive although people can go there, but the water and
plants and other living things are not yet edible. The generation
who remembers living on Bikini (and how they used to live there)
is becoming very old and about to die off. They are still waiting
to go home, but the up and coming generations crowded on this small
island have a different memory and society. Scientists keep trying
to come up with ways to clean the island, but so far nothing has
worked. One option that is being proposed is turning Bikini into
a tourist attraction for divers to go look at the sunken ships.
This is all I remember of a documentary I saw some time ago.
Lee Bradley
Southwest Collection
Lubbock, TX
|