The Nuclear Guinea Pigs

[@RareEarthSeries]

The Horror Stories Fund: www.patreon.com/rareearth ko-fi.com/rareearth

[@Didacmmv]

Thank you for showing us more of Micronesia and pacific islands than I thought I needed, these people deserve to be heard and I honestly feel like the more I do the more I want to hear their stories.

[@RaichuKFM]

This story was unbelievably horrific and I had never, ever heard any of it before. Thank you for telling it. As an American, I am used to my country having done horrendous things, of it still doing and enabling horrendous things even now, but... I wasn't prepared for this. The sheer, callous evil of it all is almost impossible to understand. But I can understand it. It's sick and wrong and unbelievably abhorrent... but they could get away with it. And they did. So what else matters? It's depressing, it's sickening to think of the evil that's been done and is still being done. But it's important to know. It's my government. A democracy, however flawed. The only way to fix this is if enough people learn these things and choose to care and push for something to actually be done. Thank you so much for doing something that can hopefully push a couple more people in that direction.

[@Mahlak_Mriuani_Anatman]

​Depressing all for power​@thomasnoaotearoa

[@TheZenGarden_]

"Your government" was founded with disease, violence and subjugation since 1492, you can not fix five centuries of self proclaimed "civilized good christians" loving their neighbor the way they have. But it will be fixed despite "your government." ~ Bereshit​ 15:12-14

[@GaydolfShitler]

In what way is it still being done? Are you another whacky conspiracy theorist?

[@binimbap]

if your citizens would never want this to happen and it still happened anyway, is it really a democracy?

[@hope1575]

I was devastated as a kid when I learned about the bombs in Japan. (Along with several other ugly bits of history) it always troubled me, and that was from the sanitized textbook versions of American history you get in school. Every ugly part that disillusioned me as a child has only gotten more horrific the more I learn. I am only now learning of the casualties of American nuclear testing, another thing to add to the pile of terrible tragedies perpetuated by our shameful state. If only a state could feel shame 😞

[@mrobama1897]

Your channel is criminally underrated. The quality of your videos deserve millions more views, always great journalism.

[@NottoriousGG]

1M subs fam

[@mrobama1897]

@@NottoriousGG Okay? His videos still don't get the views I think they deserve, nothing to do with his subcount

[@NottoriousGG]

@@mrobama1897 we agree on the views, but its not underated. This is a superb chanel with a loyal following. At most it's not viral... yet.

[@chriscw3487]

could not agree more ...this is JOURNALISM in the true and proper meaning of the word ...not the s**t the media feeds us

[@mwljn]

its very well rated, you can just call it good

[@JustAnotherMetalhead]

Not gonna lie the story about the child born without parts of his skull was nearly too much for someone with a 1 year old. What a horrendous thing to happen to anyone.

[@Davivd2]

They also give birth to what they call "Jellyfish" babies. Kids who are born looking like blobs of flesh because their bones never form. It's horrible. This is the worst thing that the USA has ever done.

[@patriciastaton6182]

❤🎉❤🎉

[@Cethinn]

I totally understand that it's uncomfortable, but I think people are generally far too comfortable in their first world lives. We should have to see death when we go to war. We should have to see the people suffering from technology we test on them. We should have to see the things we inflict on the world that we get to live without. Discomfort means you're human. Hopefully you get to channel the discomfort into good. I know we don't all have the opportunity to do so comfortably, but we should at least have to see what our votes buy, and vote accordingly.

[@JustAnotherMetalhead]

@meisteremm Thank you

[@chrismintoff]

I'm going through the same thing like you. Actual terror.

[@CherryPie0nRS]

Another Rare Earth video that brought me to tears, which honestly is hard to do. Thank you very much for your journalism.

[@Hapidjus_]

I haven't encountered a youtube channel or any media for that matter, that so succinctly, so...brutally, but also poetically tells stories from around the world. You have created something very very special here and the more people you will reach the better place the world will become

[@MikeKojoteStone]

"They're more like us than the mice." Uff. That one get's a place on my 'quotes that should've never existed' list. If you'd asked me without context who said that, I'd answered it must've been someone like Dr. Mengele. Even as disillusioned and jaded as I am after 5 decades as a curious person on this planet, I wouldn't have thought of an American scientist in the 50s. Although ... I prpbably should've. Sadly, I should've ...

[@MikeKojoteStone]

Also, resettlement campaigns in when and when now?! 96 and 2011?! What the actual fuck?? STILL!?

[@RichTapestry]

@@MikeKojoteStone Yep, still. So often the people who say "so what? that was in the past" are actually trying to cover up the ramifications of that past in the present day. They're trying ignore the problems of yesterday with the problems of today. I don't doubt that the government of the USA would treat the people of the Marshall Islands terribly again tomorrow if it felt that was in its best interests.

[@acleme1709]

If you didn't think the American scientific community at the time were a bunch of real life cartoon villains before this then you need to look up the eugenics movement and the Tuskegee experiments. Allot of the unbelievably evil things the Nazi's were doing had their origins in American academia.

[@Stevie-J]

We spent untold sums to test bombs, then we left them high and dry because the people were viewed as lab mice for new equipment. Now we're spending untold sums in Ukraine because the Ukrainians are viewed as lab mice for new equipment. Nothing changes.

[@MikeKojoteStone]

@@RichTapestry I'm not exactly a wide-eyed, young guy who just learns about human shittyness the first time today, but apparently, my willingness to believe in the good in people is still stronger than reality allows. I want to live in a world where we can honestly and truthfully say that these things don't happen anymore. If not out of the goodness of our hearts, then out of a public not allowing it and having forced anyone in üositions of power to be absolutely transparent about every single, little thing they do. Because that seems to be the only way to force the powerful (and the whole of us alltogether) into being decent - wachfulness. Yes, I know that I'm unrealistically idealistic again ...

[@jimmyisawkward]

This is horrifying, heartbreaking, and informative. Never stop making videos, Evan. That’s why I’m a patron

[@GojiMet86]

When the Japanese were bombed, the American military made sure no footage was ever shown to American audiences, so as to not show the human price and suffering, and invoke sympathy. Castle Bravo took place in March 1954; the fallout reached the Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukuryū Maru, or Lucky Dragon No. 5. This incident heavily inspired the opening scene of the original 1954 _Godzilla_ film, where the Bingo-maru vessel is destroyed by the kaiju.

[@staindnirv]

Rare Earth has a video on that, The Unstoppable Monster That Devastated Japan

[@vonsopas]

I think I read somewhere several years ago (maybe when they made the 1998 film) that the original Gojira is an allegory of the nuclear war itself.

[@MalleeMate]

@@vonsopas Godzilla itself represents the lasting trauma of the bombs, it's skin appearing pitted and cracked due to the scaring of nuclear heat and radiation. It's appearance was directly inspired by the visuals of burnt victims seen after the blasts. We watched the original film a couple nights ago, and it's not exactly subtle. But I think that's a good thing. It's weird to see how subsequent sequels and reboots kind of lost the plot due to the fading memory of the bombs, or as they were adapted for American audiences.

[@BrandanLee]

It's not *entirely* true that the USG covered up footage of Hiroshima, and especially not Bikini (which was featured in Dr. Strangelove because the studio had access rights to the original film cans from the USAF.) In September of 1946, Universal Newsreel and Paramount News put out 9 minutes (from a total of 1 hour and 40 minutes) of day one footage shot by Japanese news crews that the US Occupation forces confiscated, and after hemming and hawing for a year, finally released to the public. Rongalap footage and the Castle Bravo footage was also released almost immediately to the public. Imagine that before your feature film, instead of cartoons. It was so shocking to people of that time, it left an indelible impression throughout the 50s and 60s, helping catalyze the Anti-war movement. It was shown to people absolutely. Just not as widely as later broadcast television footage. If you joined the Civil Defense corps as a volunteer, photographs of victims and medical literature were provided to you, including the people of Rongalap and Hiroshima. Fully declassified, uncensored. And that was handed out for free in highschools and at CD outposts, saying that it may happen to you...

[@Ainar86]

Ironically, US intelligence diligently documented both events and most of the surviving pictures of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are of US origin.

[@Evemeister12]

I met someone who had been a soldier in the British army in the 1950s in Christmas Island (now Kiribati). He said he was there when a test nuking took place. Upon the blast he saw his own bones flash through his own skin like neon lighting, and birds were cooked mid-flight. He believes that the cancer which had riddled so many of his fellow soldiers in subsequent years can be traced to this nuking.

[@ThePetricore]

This is brutal...also fantastic work. This hits like old school 60 minutes.

[@Megadextrious]

Well damn, I wasn’t asking any of those questions…. I really hate war, I hate what happened to these people.. I too have had thyroid cancer, a thyroidectomy, and lost my singing voice in the aftermath and it depressed me for so long. Singing was the one fun thing I could do all by myself with no other tools needed. It was my escape for so many years, my secret hobby that I took very seriously in my youth and now it’s just a fond memory 😢….. but even that pain doesn’t come close to what nuclear weapons did to an entire people for generations. Reality is harsh, history is brutal, I wish I knew a way to help.

[@Vicartje]

The horror that needs to get much more attention.😢 Thank you for your sincere efforts Rare Earth.

[@Kobold_Enjoyer]

i live in the town that made 2/3rds the US stockpile of plutonium for nukes. This entire city exists because of the cold war arms race. The countless tragedies caused by nuclear weapons weigh on my mind a lot, but I can't ever shake the feeling of "what the hell can we do about it now." I feel like i was never really taught what happened in the manhattan project, at least that's the impression i got talking to my late neighbors as a kid. There's a lot of history, culture, and knowledge that I'm scared is being quietly wiped away as people retire into seclusion or die off. I know there's a good amount of social progress and government change that came out of here as well, I'm just sad I'll probably never fully understand the history of it, even having lived here on the same hill i was born on my entire life.

[@sunny_muffins]

always putting a spot light on the stories that need to be told and not forgotten. I have a huge respect for you Rare Earth team!

[@snakemanmike]

My dad was a sailor in the US Navy who was on a destroyer offshore of this blast. He died at 53 from lung cancer. He never smoked.

[@David_Phantom]

I don't understand why some people find it so easy to dehumanize certain people. It's like sociopathic. It makes no sense how someone could look at a person dying and be like "wow, this is amazing data!" The fact that these people always seem to be able to get into positions of power is also something I don't understand. Like sure, I understand making a mistake that causes harm, it wasn't intentional. But then doing less than nothing, actually encouraging more harm, is just outrageous to me. Making it AGAINST THE LAW to rescue these people is insane, and then to try and put them back?! How can they possibly live with themselves? How can anyone who made those laws and tried to bring the people back agree to do it? And 150 Million is an insult, and making them pay for their own medical treatment after doing this to them? AND STILL TREATING THEM AS LESS THAN HUMAN?! Imagine thinking "what do I get out of it?" as a reason to help these people. I can't believe there were people like that in the comments. I can't understand why we're being so cruel, why altruism seems to be seen as a sin of some sort.

[@jamesonpace726]

If ya don't understand, it's 'cuz yer not trying hard enough. Study chimpanzee behavior for more human evidence & you'll start to gettit....

[@VulpesHilarianus]

Those who care the least about others are the most willing to sacrifice them in order to better their own positions. This is why sociopaths are often CEOs, sports stars, and career military. Empathy is a learned behaviour though not in the same way as a skill. Some people learn to suppress their empathy, others never developed any at all. Many times it's their environment forcing them to look at interactions as mechanics thus stunting the growth of their empathy, but very rarely you get someone who just never started that growth at all.

[@OsirusHandle]

Numbers have their own virality. You can make the absolutely vile and disgusting, yet tempting, argument, that nuclear bombs *prevented* ww3, "saving" the lives of perhaps a hundred million. I dont buy this, if purely because war was never necessary, but was it inevitable if not for the crippling terror of Nuclear Omnipotence?

[@indestructiblemadness8531]

The main atrocities were in the 1950s. Cold War. In war times people are bombarded with propaganda, the enemy becomes the devil, loosing is not an option. The live of you and youe family is at stake. In this example: "When russian bombs hit, you would want to know how your family is to be treated, right? And what are the lives of a couple dozen compared with the million people who could be hit by russian bombs. It is necessary to develope treatment for us all." Thinking like that enables humans to do things they dont like.

[@Hedgewalkers]

No kidding… it is deplorable. Thank you for your reply!

[@count0]

Thank you Chris, for bringing this to my attention. I have never heard of this. Names and pictures of those at fault should be publicized. Even if too late, any justice if better than no justice.

[@ShirinRose]

This is Evan, Chris is his father :)

[@ben_hewitson_AU]

Brutal honesty as always Evan. True integrity.

[@taylornoel]

Thank you for telling this story. It’s a really hard one to hear, but I think everyone need to know it.

[@OriginalGabriel]

My grandfather was a Navy diver during Operation Crossroads. As a kid, he would tell me stories of walking the seafloor with a Geiger counter; the closer he got to Bikini Atoll, the higher the radiation, and the more barren the seafloor. I listened to his stories in awe, not fully understanding the magnitude of what actually happened, and what he was describing. Needless to say, his death was absolutely brutal, and I didn't understand why. It wasn't until I was a bit older that I realized just what he was forced to do, and what that did to his body.

[@User-jr7vf]

According to the video, the detonation was carried out in the 50's. It is interesting to learn that your grandfather was send to inspect the site afterwards. I would expect someone the age of your father doing the job.

[@atomdent]

Great reporting!

[@venom2k2]

Damn. This video...daaamn. masterwork!

[@treesongmagic]

Hi! I just discovered your channel. I started with the "This Cave Shouldn't be Here." Fascinating! Then I watched the one about reviews for Greek cats (which I thought was brilliant) . Then I got to this one. This one hit different. This one is in your face. This one is shocking, heartbreaking, angry, and effing beautiful! Thank you. Signed, Tina, A new subscriber.

[@JoelReid]

You should do a follow up in Maralinga with the UK testing and the effects on the indigenous there. Not many left now, but it left a lasting imprint on Australian politics to this day, affecting nuclear power in Australia. (a very big issue considering the AUKUS agreement)

[@michaelcherry8952]

This is what happens when the United States exercises its exceptionalism with impunity. It is clear that there is absolutely no justification for this ongoing atrocity and yet they get away with it time and time again. I get so sick of the "might makes right" attitude of the big powers. To them, all of us are nothing but mice. Thank you for telling this story so eloquently.

[@dopaminecloud]

And mice we are. And mice we treat the same way. I feel a simultaneous sympathy and gut frustration with the public. They trample as much as they are trampled upon. Yet only pay heed to the latter. It is telling that the "big powers" come from the very same mindset that the common person already has.

[@indestructiblemadness8531]

Only the biggest of powers could change this attitude. And to become the most powerful the devil sure has enticing offers.

[@peculiarlittleman5303]

@@Smethells2023 Sooner. November.

[@Mahlak_Mriuani_Anatman]

In thos world, a fall is never impossible ​@@Smethells2023

[@MABfan11]

you can see the same thing going on today with Palestine, Israel is doing a genocide, yet it took 6 months and white European aid workers getting killed for the mainstream media in the US to go "hey maybe you should slow down a little". after 30k Palestinians had already been killed

[@artawhirler]

Excellent video! Thanks! (Although I gotta say, I'm a little surprised that KZbin allowed you to post it. But I'm glad they did. At least for now.)

[@nalli1405]

6:45 the fit is stupendous

[@klawiehr]

“MountainLand” supply company in a place where the highest point is

[@samsanimationcorner3820]

As an American, I am ashamed and disgusted.

[@Gerthious]

Popped over from Nebula to say thank you for telling their story.

[@samdumaquis2033]

Wow, thanks for the work

[@thegodofhellfire]

Been waiting for this one.

[@colatf2]

I fucking love these. I have never heard of this and it is utterly appalling. I think the vast majority of Americans would agree that this is horrifying and that the US should formally apologize and properly compensate this people we callously experimented on and destroyed

[@jrhoadley]

Castle Bravo also sickened a Japanese fishing crew and killed one member.

[@onbearfeet]

He made a video about that during the Japan season. Worth a watch.

[@nunestunes]

It's called the second Hiroshima

[@User-jr7vf]

And today Japan is a boot licker of the US

[@StephenWest-t2v]

As a child i read a national geographic about the atoll. It was captivating, easy to grasp, and as always was about as beautiful as photography gets. But I do remember how little attention was paid to the people there. You could be forgiven for assuming there weren't people affected much at all, aside from a couple sentences. I wondered about this area alot, especially since most related content focused almost exclusively on bikini atoll. Great piece. Well handled.

[@nyasky8474]

Now I see why China has so much influence there today. Thanks.

[@Mahlak_Mriuani_Anatman]

Why

[@MABfan11]

@@Mahlak_Mriuani_Anatman because the US nuked them, treated them like guinea pigs and then neglected them

[@tomfeng5645]

@@Mahlak_Mriuani_Anatman Because to them, the US has *proven* to be evil, while China hasn't yet. And for some, perhaps, they see how bad it is now, how little improvement there is, and cannot see how it can get much worse, only how it might get better. From an outside perspective, perhaps it isn't so, but for people desperate enough...

[@User-jr7vf]

@@Mahlak_Mriuani_Anatman because the natives have a resentment towards the Americans for what they did to them

[@beskamir5977]

@@Mahlak_Mriuani_Anatman Did you not listen to the video? How would you feel if your supposed "allies" bombed you for "research" (aka fun)? Wouldn't you also be encouraged to find better friends after that sort of treatment? At least when the Americans dropped carcinogens over Canada it was just over two relatively insignificant cities (Winnipeg and Medicine Hat) and they were able to keep it quiet enough as it didn't seem to cause severe enough consequences. While with Rongelap Atoll, it's very obvious who caused the terrible ecological and humanitarian disaster.

[@Ice_Karma]

"This season took a swipe", eh? I think you can swipe harder... and we can take it.

[@GeoffC19]

wonder if the conversation you overheard during a previous episode was dealing with that autonomous zone the Chinese want - things that make you go hmmmmm....

[@cherier152]

Thank you for exposing the atrocity that happened to these poor people and their world at the hands of our evil government. How sick and how sad to think that they perceive human beings as lab rats that are disposable.

[@AntoniusTyas]

I don't know if you notice this, but this is a nice(? grim? horrific?) way to complete the Rare Earth circle, back to one of your early story of Lucky Dragon No. 5.

[@jeanettewaverly2590]

One of the best, most hard-hitting channels on KZbin.

[@michelhv]

This and Kyle Hill’s video on the Castle Bravo incident really complement each other perfectly.

[@jeshurunfarm]

Well done brother. Respect from Africa 🇿🇦

[@Addictedtocollecting01]

The algorithm really suppressed this one, eh... Love your channel. Please keep telling the stories that time tries to bury.

[@infinityalfa3979]

HOW CAN THIS BE FORGIVEN?

[@jamysmith7891]

Despite a whole 48% of Americans thinking the US is a democracy, no one thinks they are actually responsible for our government, So it just carries on, unrestrained

[@1stGruhn]

Rights are not bestowed by governments: governments either uphold or violate them.

[@artawhirler]

I just found your channel today and I'm very impressed! New subscriber!

[@emilynelson5985]

If we came up with an economic plan for western Europe after the second world war then we can come up with a plan for just about anything. A Marshall plan for the Marshall Islands should be in our wheelhouse but there's apparently no foresight in the American companies who would see investment.

[@OsirusHandle]

They had an economy, fish and palm trees.

[@RichTapestry]

@@OsirusHandle An economy is merely resources and how they are distributed. The US have destroyed Micronesia's former economy and replaced it with a monetary economy, and then given them no money! You are sadly right about the strategic geopolitics of it all, but I think you are wrong to say that foreign investment is a viable path to prosperity. If it was in the form of due reparations from the US in the form of restoring and decontaminating their natural environment then their former economy would be more viable and could be prosperous independently of being militarily occupied.

[@acid5119]

Thank you for telling this story. I knew what I will be watching by the information which you gave in the previous videos about Ebeye but I’m totally horrified and shocked.

[@jonc67uk]

John Pilger did a decent documentary about this a few yesrs ago. Definitely an eye opener 😢

[@Tormekia]

Soooo we bombed another people's homeland and weren't even at war with them. Damn.

[@RichTapestry]

and the US keeps on trying to send them back to their still lethally irradiated homeland through the decades just to study them

[@matthieurouyer1826]

Ever heard of Laos?

[@Ron-zr6se]

We were not at war with Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, Libya and several other countries yet bombed them for 20+ years and are still doing so. The Gulf of Tonkin never happened yet the US invaded Vietnam on a lie which is nothing new for the US as it continues to do the same modus operandi as SOP.

[@garygreen2146]

Brutally honest . Thank you

[@johnnesbit2371]

The strictest of liabilities, is hereby indicated. The fact that it has taken nearly 80 years also prescribes the effectuation of the doctrines of legal obstruction. This is America's liability, but she can appeal to her Cold War allies for assistance, etc.

[@mysteriousdude280]

This is gut wrenching

[@ThatGuyFromDK]

Wrote about this at uni. Crazy stuff. Great video as always

[@asnierkishcowboy]

"Grampa, what job did you have when you were young?", "I miscalc- um I mean, I calculated the strength of nuclear bombs."

[@GreenLarsen]

sadly, it is very likely that is was not a miscalculation

[@1st1anarkissed]

They told us those islands were deserted. Empty of animal/human life entirely. The sort of place one might get shipwrecked.

[@sprucecoastpress]

Almost went there 20 years ago….fascinating reportage, my man

[@OddWomanOut_Pi81]

"Collateral damage"...One of the most insidious ideals ever invented.

[@agranero6]

It was not only Rongelap that was hit by Castle Bravo: several fishing ships of Japan were hit by the fallout killing several people too.

[@Gamesaucer]

Absolutely heart wrenching. I was horrified to hear you mention a year as recent as 2011, too. That's closer to today than to when I was born, and I'm still fairly young. Videos like this one really make me feel frustrated at how little an individual like me can do about atrocities like this. Of course I can play my part, I can make a difference, but in all likelihood it won't be a large difference. And even in the best case, it won't be nearly as large a difference as these people (like all people who have been mistreated in similar ways) really deserve. Honestly I'm not sure there is _anything_ the rest of the world could do that makes a large enough difference. Because things like this, they're not something you can just throw money at until the scales balance out. There is no worldly price you could attach to this that would be an adequate amount of compensation for the horrors they've been put through. But then the question becomes... what _can_ you do? See to it that the monetary costs the US has caused them are paid for? That's the absolute _minimum,_ I'd say, and yet we're not even there yet. Show care and compassion? Of course, but that's something that should only be withheld as a rare exception. Part of the reason I'm frustrated is not just because there's so little I can do on my own, but also because I'm not sure _what_ I should even be doing. Not because I'm overwhelmed, but because it feels like the solution I hope to contribute to lies outside the bounds of reality. Time flows one way; you can't undo a mistake. Not your own, not anyone else's. That's something you just have to accept, but when it comes to this story, I have an incomparably hard time accepting it. These things are just beyond comparison; it feels as wrong to say that nothing worse than this has happened, as it feels to say that something worse _has_ happened. Even saying that it's _as_ bad as history's other atrocities feels like I'm doing a disservice to the victims of one or more of them. That's why I can't say that I'm having a better time or a worse time or even an equal time accepting how little I can do. Saying "incomparable" is the only way I can do it any kind of justice. This is just _that_ horrific. Even so, I'm thankful to learn about it. As horrified as I am, ignorance would be worse. How could I ever hope to shoulder the slightest part of the responsibility of not letting this happen ever again, if I didn't know? And how could I have the gall to be ungrateful for being offered the chance to at least _remember_ it, to remember _them?_ Remembering is how we learn. And if we don't learn, how could we hope to prevent these things before they happen? The best time to learn was before Castle Bravo. The second best time is now.

[@evaohmoon]

Great reporting!

[@BriManeely]

Evan, this is gotta be one of your most painful videos yet. Thank you for educating me on yet another travesty caused by my country. I'm mortified, but grateful. They say "knowledge is power", but honestly at this point, I don't know where to put this "power".

[@geegrant9146]

As an American, I couldn’t agree more. Geopolitics is a messy affair on the best of days. The Cold War was far from the best of days. But if we want to consider ourselves a moral people, we need to do more to right the wrongs of the past.

[@shinren_]

Which isnt happening 🥱 look at palestine and israel. Israel bombed food trucks not once but 4 times in the same place and calls it an accident

[@ottodidakt3069]

and the present ... and at the current pace you can add the future ! A bit too late for Americans to hold hopes of being considered a moral people.

[@SandstormGT]

​@@ottodidakt3069yeah because most Americans alive today played a role in this.....

[@robolson135]

I'm a simple man, rare earth says here is a story worth learning about and I listen

[@pamelamcguire2757]

Beyond shameful, my nation was and is inhumane

[@Sylverlea1]

Love your content. I knew of the bombing of the Marshall Islands. I did not know it was this bad.

[@jaywitt5171]

If you visit the affected outer atolls today and eat locally sourced food, you can always get tested for radioactive isotope cesium 137 at the US Department of Energy's testing lab which is situated in the building right across the parking lot from Hotel Robert Reimers. Anyone visiting the atolls are welcome and encouraged to be tested for free. It allows individuals to know if they are positive and if their level may be of concern; and it also provides continued data for the DOE's almost 70yr old human-guinea pig testing program. I sat next to a local Marshallese man when flying from Majuro to Honolulu. He was definitely under 40yrs - maybe near 30, and told me he was from an outer atoll and is positive for cesium 137. But, they said he shouldn't be worried because it's not at a dangerous level.(?) I've shared this video with my friends and family via FB and by sending through sms and hope everyone here does the same. The greater region of Micronesia is a collection of unique cultures, traditions and ways of life - there are no other groups of people like them on the planet. Thank you and Kata for sharing a few of many wonderful, interesting and tragic stories with the world.♥

[@treasurechest1993]

This story should be compulsory viewing in all schools.

[@tru7hhimself]

we did watch a 1h docu about this bomb test in physics in school. together with another one about lake karachay it really got the point across.

[@herecomesthatboy1961]

The thing with the baby's head was quite disturbing.

[@physetermacrocephalus2209]

What I don't understand is why there. We have an entire planet with plenty of remote locations to test weapons. Why tolerate any risk of involving people or population centers at all.

[@teeteetuu94]

Perhaps it was intended, if we were to go the conspiratorial route. And those people are remote enough to not matter to the rest of the American public on the mainland. Not like the islanders would be able to voice out anyway.

[@Doomroar]

Well it is a remote location under US control, but not really inhabited by US citizens, so this avoids them things like the Nevada nuke experiments and it's side effects It is still US territory so unlike testing on international waters or neutral grounds, it has very low risk to trigger a conflict with another super power, and this is the cold war era, the US has to keep a balance of flaunting its power, keeping enough of it hidden, and also avoid entering a nuclear war by striking first So that leaves the atolls as the perfect place that is not domestic land, is not going to give any foreign power an excuse to retaliate, and if things go wrong, and they did, they can keep it under the rug

[@samdumaquis2033]

​@@eljanrimsa5843there are uninhabited islands

[@killercaos123]

The USA tested nuclear bombing all over. Why do you think Nevada is mostly government owned land? The USA has tested nuclear bombs in space. Look up Starfish Prime.

[@ottodidakt3069]

@@samdumaquis2033 never far from other people, they popped that nuke on an inhabited island but down wind was Rongelap !

[@lucasmontec]

You are not the smartest in a room by having the biggest weapon, but by having the least effort to make peace with everyone there.

[@stevepittman3770]

Man this is hard to watch because nobody wants to face the horrors done in their name, but as an American who is even only an indirect benefactor of those horrors it is all the more necessary to watch it.

[@samsanimationcorner3820]

Kinda sucks that as Americans we're just kinda born evil. All of the good things in our life come from the unimaginable suffering of people across the globe.

[@AimbiAidrikinJoji]

hey I am Ronglapien myself and I really appreciate your video and Thank you GBY.

[@ComradePhoenix]

This story highlights the fact that even though nuclear winter is a lie (albeit, a potentially useful one), nuclear war itself should be terrifying enough on its own to want to avoid. But then again, war itself should be, yet that clearly hasn't worked for us as a species so far. Also, you've somehow managed to do what I thought would've been impossible even yesterday: you've managed to make me respect (at least some of) the work Greenpeace has done.

[@TheStarcraftJunkie]

*miscalculates nuclear bomb* "i did an oopsie"

[@suzbone]

4:37 "They're more like us than the mice" made my heart stop. I'm filled with shame for my country.

[@datboib3432]

Why is this the quote that struck you? They didn’t equate the people to mice, the statement is that they would be able to learn more from these affected people than lab studies involving mice. And as terrible as the tragedy is , at the very least, they were able to learn more about radiation & the issues this causes, and learned more about how to provide treatment. Its a tragedy that those people went through what they did, but I think you misinterpreted the quote a bit.

[@Daniel-yy3ty]

@@datboib3432 no, you should take your apologist glasses off. They were sent back on the irradiated atoll When they wanted to leave they were blocked After they left a resettlement was attempted... TWICE They were exactly equated to lab mice You don't get to deny that after the gov. forced them back into the test environment >_>

[@RichTapestry]

@@datboib3432 What strikes me is that baked within "us" is an othering, that these people are different. That they're not "like us". They're a lesser type of human, somewhere between rodents and the good white people of America. That is what the comparison between 'them' and "us" equates to. Political officials and scientists like Merrill Eisenbud commonly believed in white supremacy in 1950s America. It was the norm in white society. There is nothing in the historical record to suggest he ever went against that grain. You are right that there is a certain scientific rigour contained within the quote, but let's not pretend that it's also dehumanising.

[@chenqin415]

​@@datboib3432 The meaning of that quote is obvious. Humans are better experimental subjects than mice. Regardless of whether anything beneficial came out of the research, it is disturbing that humans, just like you, just like me, are judged on our value as experimental subjects. This is similar what the Japanese did when they experiment on humans. Flamethrowers inflicting fire burns, inflicting frostbites, biological weapons causing disease. To see how the subjects die, how long they survive without water etc etc. To practice healing the wounds to perfect treatment methods. They call their test subjects "Maruta," which translates to "logs" or "wood" in Japanese. And when the US won the war, they took these scientist in because the US want their research data. Their rational is probably the same as yours. As terrible as the tragedy is, why let valuable data go to waste when one can learn more about how to provide treatment.

[@suzbone]

@@datboib3432 big oof. If they thought the islanders were fully human, they wouldn't have done what they did to them.

[@OllamhDrab]

Hrm, that won't do. (Some documentary years ago made it seem the reparations were going a lot bettter than *this.* )

[@ender7278]

Don't let a lack of footage stop you from making that story!

[@tomambrosio5527]

This was heartwrenching.

[@aronpoarch9358]

My dad and many of his shipmates were stationed on Bikini Island and they were used as guinea pigs.

[@zoopdterdoobdter5743]

_"Sometimes, you have to fire for effect."_ *All* fires are fired for effect. Much has been made of the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but it's seldom mentioned how that's how we learned it's probably not a good idea to go lobbing nukes at one another. The Marshallese *ARE* victims (no denial intended), but people could probably use a good dose of context.

[@Nmethyltransferase]

I felt nauseous. This one was hard to finish.

[@reada4488]

it's always interesting seeing people bring up the argument that nuking japan was ok because of some "well more lives were saved long term" rhetoric, and then seeing deplorable stuff like this never be brought up. What a horror-show.

[@OsirusHandle]

when you start doing maths numbers turn against us strange eldritch beings, numbers are

[@reada4488]

@@Arum638 and then theyll probably bring up the cia testing psychedelics on its populous, invading foreign countries in SA to combat communism and just making dictatorships to murder the people instead, on and on. Nobody’s a winner, everyone’s a loser here.

[@RT-fb6ty]

Despite the absolute fact that all the military leaders said beforehand those atomic bombs were unnecessary. US had a new toy and wanted to threaten the world . Here we are again :(

[@Smile200-z4y]

My comment got removed for criticizing the Hiroshima bombing...

[@reada4488]

@@Smile200-z4yso did my reply to this guy. I’d mentioned cia stuff, crazy

[@improbability]

Walter Pincus wrote a fantastic deep dive on this in his book, "Blown to Hell". Highly recommended.

[@RottenVein]

i like your vid! i didnt knew about it!

[@phileas007]

- they're more like us than the mice sounds like that "are we the baddies?" bit

[@estherlowlands1105]

ngl the Marshall Islands seems unbearably bleak from what you've said

[@OsirusHandle]

people can live anywhere

[@walkertongdee]

American exceptionalism.

[@ultrajd]

When ones reach exceeds their grasp.

[@ShaffafAhmed]

The evils of the US can never truly be comprehended by one human.

[@chucknorrispargeter177]

This should be a part of the curriculum in every American high school

[@patginni5229]

Is there anywhere in the marshals worth moving to? I’m kinda thinking about finding a quiet place to retire. But the whole 12 feet above sea level is pretty concerning.

[@ii8283]

This story gets funnier every minute

[@mh_gamer6926]

Check out Darlene keju speech to world council about marshallese and nuclear testing. 12min vid of pure atrocities

[@ender7278]

You should post the full video of those women singing.

[@Lumen_Obscurum]

The American public goes "So? Who cares?" About a lot of other countries, despite the fact they should care since other countries make up the protection against nuclear and conventional war that you so need.

[@turnerrives5986]

I ask this question in good faith and out of genuine curiosity. I have no love for the actions of the American empire. Do Russia or another nuclear powers have a parallel?

[@RareEarthSeries]

Yes, most nuclear powers have a parallel.

[@KerimRebko]

I’d vote for you, Evan