For the Good of Mankind?

Friends who have visit us here in "Punaland" on the Big Island have often remarked that is is like a "different country" -- and so it is.  We find we have to relearn some of our history -- as it relates to the "Kingdom of Hawaii" and as we see history through the eyes of these island people, we want to share it with you here on our blog...

So, "For the Good of Mankind"...

Sound pretty noble, except perhaps, if you lived on one of the tiny atolls in the Marshall Islands – tiny dots of islands covering over 350,000 square miles in Micronesia.  An article in the newest edition of PBS Hawaii Program Guide caught our interest, as did the sign at the Hilo Home Depot introducing three staff members who speak Marshallese and who are able to assist customers in their native language.

Thursday, July 30^th PBS Hawaii aired “The Land of Eb,” written by Jonithen Jackson who lives in Ocean View here on the Big Island.  His Marshallese grandmother recalls the story first-hand.  (“60 Minutes” did a segment on this Bikini Island bombing that is available on U-tube.)  “The Land of Eb,” is a fictional film and story about families who were forced to leave their beloved island home of Enewetak and the terrible price these Marshallese people ended up paying -- for the good of mankind.  The story is also about current residents of Ocean View (here on the Big Island) who are descendants of these displaced islanders, and are also first-time actors in the film.**

A book by Jack Niedenthal,  For the Good of Mankind, tells another part of the story.  At the end of WWII, President Truman, together with the Army and Navy, decided these islands would be appropriated as targets for a nuclear testing program called “Operation Crossroads” with Bikini Island being ground zero for the tests.  The islanders were moved 125 miles to the island of Rongerik, only 1/6 the size.  Niedenthal’s book says, “As the food supply on Rongerik quickly ran out, the Bikinians began to suffer from starvation and fish poisoning due to the lack of edible fish in the lagoon. Within two months after their arrival they began to beg U.S. officials to move them back to Bikini.”  

Two nuclear bombs (the size of Nagasaki), however had left the area uninhabitable.  Starvation and illness and radiation forced several subsequent migrations to different islands, in an attempt to survive, but the “good of mankind” did little to address the devastation of these islands and their inhabitants.  The US (according to Wikipedia) even set up medical testing of the islanders to study the effects of radiation poisoning…again, of course, for the good of mankind.

 To learn more from a very personal perspective, please visit The Marshall Islands Story Projects.  (From variety of sources, hopefully all with correct info.)