Benetick Kabua Maddison

On 1 July is the 80th Anniversary since the United States detonated its first nuclear weapons on Bikini and Enewetak Atolls in the Marshall Islands. The Nuclear Truth Project stands with all Marshallese people calling for accountability, repair, recognition and nuclear justice to what was done in the name of the United States nuclear power.

"From 1946-1958 the United States detonated 67 nuclear weapons on Bikini and Enewetak Atolls in the Marshall Islands, which resulted in forced relocation, culture loss tied with loss of lands, as well as biological and ecological consequences, which are ongoing."

 

"Despite the importance the Marshall Islands played in the United States’ rise to Superpower status in the early years of the Cold War, this shared nuclear legacy is not found in U.S. history textbooks and rarely acknowledged.

 

- MARSHALLESE EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE INC

 We invited Benetick Kabua Maddison, Executive Director of the Marshallese Educational Initiative (MEI) and Co-Chair of the Nuclear Truth Project to share the ongoing impacts these nuclear tests have had, and continue to have, on his people and rhe need for nuclear justice.

The US Navy visited the community on Bikini to "ask" if they could give up their homelands for nuclear weapons testing. And so on March 7th of 1946, the people of Bikini were forcibly removed from their home islands.

In terms of ongoing consequences, we are talking about health issues, like cancer, leukemia, as well as diabetes. When the land is destroyed, people cannot depend on food that's grown on the land or found in the ocean - food that we've been depending on for 1000s of years. And so, we had to depend on food from the United States, and other countries, processed food that contributes to diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses.

As far as the environment, it remains contaminated. There's nuclear waste as we can clearly see on Runit island, on Enewetak, and continued displacement of communities
to this day.

Then there is cultural loss with communities not being able to practice their traditional trades, like navigation, fishing in their home lagoon, and other everyday activities, as well as language loss among those who have had to leave the Islands.

I think it's important to acknowledge that the leaders of the Marshallese Educational Initiative (MEI) have been raising awareness about the Marshall Islands’ nuclear legacy even before its founding in July of 2013.

We continue to raise awareness about these ongoing issues because not a lot of people are aware. Not even members of my community. It's really important that the American public, and the public in general, are aware of this legacy.

Since 2020, we've also been involved in making sure that the Marshallese voice is heard in international spaces like in discussions over the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and at other international meetings. It's really important that, not only civil society, but for nation-states, to know that these issues impact people.

We need to move away from focusing only on the technical and scientific aspects of nuclear weapons, and realize that there is a human cost to these weapons of mass destruction.

This is where MEI, along with other nuclear frontline communities and their groups, come in to educate the world.

With this 80th anniversary, we are hosting a solidarity concert to bring more attention to these issues, to stand in solidarity with the Marshallese people and to continue this fight to create a future without nuclear weapons or nuclear harm.

Read Benetick's powerful statement on the Moral Imperative of the NTP Protocols