On 1st March 1954, the US tested the hydrogen bomb. They chose a coral reef in the Pacific, the Marshall Islands, for this appalling work, in full knowledge of the devastation it would cause to this beautiful and biodiverse region. Local people were asked to vacate their island, and then abandoned with insufficient food and water on islands not fit for habitation, in an act of callous nuclear colonialism.
The bomb was 1,000 times more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and because of its design produced vast amounts of radioactive fallout. The entire area became contaminated and fallout rained down on the inhabited islands nearby causing intense suffering to local people, with serious radiation-linked illnesses. They developed multiple cancers, hair loss and skin lesions. Deformities appeared in babies.
The entire community and ecology of these paradise islands were devastated for miles around. A Japanese fishing boat 85 miles away was caught in this, and even at this great distance, all 23 of the crew suffered acute radiation sickness – one died.
A number of films detail the horror of this day and the years that followed this, including Lucky Dragon No. 5, and The Coming War on China. Let us make the fate of those who have suffered impossible to ignore, as we fight for the elimination of all nuclear weapons before another such terrible act occurs.