KAREN EARNSHAW
The Marshall Islands’ Rhea Moss-Christian said last week on an Australian television and radio network that the United States’ nuclear testing in her country “had a singular goal from the US perspective” and that the Marshallese people were the victims of this goal.
The Executive Director of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and former chair of the Marshall Islands National Nuclear Commission, Rhea was interviewed by presenter Theckla Guna for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s series Climate Mana. A description of the episode on the ABC website explains: “Rhea Moss-Christian’s mother was a little girl on a nearby atoll when the US tested its first hydrogen bomb in 1954.
“All up, 67 bombs were dropped in the Marshall Islands – and people are still dealing with the effects of this nuclear legacy. Rhea’s mother died prematurely of cancer in a country where everyone has a similar story. Now, the Marshallese are faced with a ‘double whammy’: dealing with the threats of climate change while still grappling with the impacts of the US nuclear legacy.”
It is a relatively short interview, but through her personal stories and her vast knowledge of the topic Rhea Moss-Christian gives a clear picture of what the nuclear legacy means to today’s Marshallese people.
“I can’t talk about this in depth without tears rolling down my face,” she told listeners. “It’s very hard to remove the emotion … and we shouldn’t try … That testing program had a singular goal from the US perspective: To understand the effects of this atomic weapon that they had just acquired at the end of World War II … a singular goal and it evolved into a goal of demonstrating military might and power against its adversary, the USSR, at the time.
“Marshallese people were collateral damage.”
After telling her own story and opinions, Rhea switches to being the interviewer and talks to her cousin Doreen deBrum, who is the RMI Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Doreen spoke of the links between the nuclear legacy and climate change and the effects they are having on Marshallese, with a sample being: “Should these people be forced to move again? This would be a double whammy for them.”
The Climate Mana episode ends with Rhea noting that a sequel to the show will follow with an interview with Ariana Tibon-Kilma, the Commissioner of the RMI National Nuclear Commission.
The interview with Ariana appeared earlier this week. Collectively both episodes will be of great value to anyone who would like a simple, but extremely compelling, picture of the RMI’s nuclear legacy.
The ABC series Climate Mana is about the resilience and solidarity of Pacific people in the face of climate change. According to the ABC website: “Mana – spirit, heart or presence – a word that brings the people of the Pacific into one frame. A word to describe the intangible resilience and solidarity of Pacific people. In this series, we hear directly from reporters across the Pacific – because they don’t just know what’s happening, they’re living it.
“From dealing with the trauma of a US nuclear legacy and now climate change in Marshall Islands, to the intersection between religion, science and climate activism, each episode brings a different story of resilience – but all share the spirit of people united in the face of climate change.”