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    1981 Interviews with Utrok,

Wotje & Rongelap Downwinders

   Note: The interviews in this section of the website

   span between 1981-2002.  Most of these SoundCloud

   interviews are in Marshallese, with selected interviews 

   transcribed into English.  All of the SoundCloud inter-

   views for 2002 are in English.

   [Scroll down for selected English transcriptions]   

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Rojmi Katwon,

   Utrok 1977

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Alex Katwon, Utrok 1977

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Nerik Kios, Utrok, 1977

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Compoj Letobo setting a

fish trap ["wu"] on the reef in 1977 on Utrok

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Jiba Mikol Letobo 

      Utrok 1977    

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Mikol Letobo, Utrok 1977

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Libtu Mexico, Utrok 1977

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Andy Mor, building a paddling

canoe [kerker], Utrok 1977

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Almira Yostami, Utrok 1977

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Utrok Women's Choir 1977

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A Marshallese sailing outrigger ["tibnol"] about to depart Utrok,

1977. Much larger versions of the "tibnol" brought the first Marshall Islanders to these islands over

2,000 years ago from S.E. Asia

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Alden Attadi, Utrok 1977

  Featured English interviews of selected downwinders

  from the above SoundCloud list.  These interviews will

                  open in either PDF or MS Word format

Almira Matayoshi-Rongelap.jpg

   Almira Matayoshi, Rongelap  [see  above] interview transcribed

         into English

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Eldon Juda,

     Utrok

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John Anjain,

  Rongelap

Minji Kel,

   Utrok

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A wake for an eight month-old child born to parents caught in the "Bravo" fallout on March 1, 1954. 

                                                                                     Utrok, May 1975

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Utrok Atoll - 1976 & 2002

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WW2 Japanese anti-aircraft gun, Wotje Atoll

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WW2 Japanese ammunition bunker, Wotje Atoll

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WW2 Japanese bunker, Wotje Atoll

Dennis O' Rourke-NPR-Half LifeArtist Name
00:00 / 06:09

Listen to this POWERFUL 1986 NPR interview with filmmaker Dennis O'Rourke re: "Half Life"

The approximately 100,000 people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands are the world's proverbial "canary in the coal mine."  Having suffered - and continuing to experience - the legacy of H-bomb testing and radioactive fallout, the Marshallese remind us of humankind's worst possible scenario with horrific thermonuclear weapons, a nuclear war.

​

Likewise, as we pass 420 parts per million of carbon dioxide and witness the Earth burning and the Polar ice caps melting, sea level rise poses an existential threat to all island and coastal populations, and in particular the low-lying coral atoll dwellers in the Pacific nation states of the RMI, Kibibati [formerly the Gilbert Islands], Tuvalu [formerly the Ellice Islands], and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean.

​

In this sense then, the Marshallese offer us a "twofer" lesson about the threat of nuclear weapons, and the threat of destroying our precious Mother Earth by the burning of fossil fuels even Exxon knew was destroying the planet back in the 1970s!

 

This website is designed to give voice to the people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands [RMI] who have firsthand knowledge - in their bodies and DNA, in their memories and permanently in their atolls - of thermonuclear weapons and their destruction, having been at the receiving end of the United States' "foreign policy."


AtomicAtolls.org's primary mission is to provide a repository of the unfiltered history of the relationship between the U.S. and RMI through an archive of audio interviews [in both Marshallese and English*] on SoundCloud (previously unavailable to the public) and photographs of downwind Marshall Islanders who were caught in the radioactive fallout from the 67 atomic & hydrogen thermonuclear bombs detonated at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls between 1946-58.

 

In addition to these rare and powerful interviews conducted between 1981 and 2002 [by Glenn Alcalay & Kai Erikson], numerous unclassified U.S. government documents, U.N. testimonies, NGO reports, and other educational materials regarding nuclear testing issues in the Marshall Islands will also be made available to the public.  Lastly, a large archive [150] of videos and documentary films about the people of the Marshall Islands in the Nuclear Age, from the Manhattan Project to Weapons in Space are available on the Nuke Videos page on the masthead above.

​

Our website is dedicated to aolep dri-Majol, people of the Marshall Islands - especially the youth - and all of the glorious people who reside on our dear Mother Earth pushing to abolish nuclear weapons, and transition to green, renewable energy ASAP. 

 

If there is a theme or a meme that truly captures the character and the spirit of this website, it is this: 

 

     America nuked the Gentle People.

​

          Glenn Alcalay

Peace Corps Volunteer, lovely Utrok Atoll 1975-1977

​

       Jeramman wot!

​

* Please subscribe to the legendary Marshall Islands Journal

  Go here to subscribe:    https://marshallislandsjournal.com/

​

** And please visit our other website:   MarComU.org

​

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Glenn Alcalay & Andrew Fuchs - for our friends

www.AtomicAtolls.org

© 2015-2024

​

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