:
Wedinesday, April 9,,1975 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
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FalloutEffects_
‘orryy Islanders.
aaall‘those still in* the’ ” _gualified doctors be
“From generation to
generation we went -without worrying about anything,”” said the mayor of
womb:at the time of the ~based on Rongelaptopro‘vide daily medical serv- :
NO
‘fallout.
4
tiny Rongelap Island in <- HE SAID the United
ice.
me
’
States deported a.Japa- — —Radiation experts and-
- Micronesia.
nese. medical team that. ‘medical doctors, preferably including some from
Then in 1954 the United
‘States set off H-bomb “had been invited by ‘theBravo on Bikini, and the © people to conduct physical
radioactive fallout drifted examinations.
Anjian would like toand fell dike snow on Ron’ geiap and its 86 residents. - send four or five of his
people to Japanese docSince then, said Mayor
tors in Hiroshima to be
Netson Angian, *‘We
worry all the time. We- “examined.
~ are worried about our ~ “In.a petition to ‘the
lives and we don’t know
Secretary General of .the
what is happening.”’
Hiroshima, survey Ron-
gelap andissue individual
diagnoses.
-—The Atomic Commission no longer be permitted to use the people of
Rongelap and adjacent
Utirik as “guinea pigs”
for their bomb-related re-
‘United Nations and the _ Search.
‘United Nations Trustee-
Anjian said his people
shave appealed time and .. Ship Council, Anjian is
-again to the United States
for adequate medical
: eare. American doctors
visit the island and exam-
to
a
asking that:
i
“vive:today, Anjian said.
. ONLY 35 of those ex- . ~’ He said the population
‘posed to the radiation: sure “of: Rongelap is now .200,
>
‘ine the people twice a
-year now rather than
ieee-wand that they want to stay
~<
«with the current adminisc tration of the Trust Terri. tory.
times a -week,”’ he said,
*. .He said -money on Ron. gelap is: noproblem. “In
three months we ‘can
“ make .20 to 25‘tons~-of
«. copra. “From the sale of
cannot be eaten every ;
‘
-once.
“THEY TELL us to eat
coconut crab only three
but do not explain why it ©
/coconut,
breadfruit,
*. pandanus,- fish and shell. fish, he said.
He said he has 9-chil ©
‘, dren, and earns about
$1,000 a year, which is
» enough to support his wife
and family.
.
-For 27 years he worked
© why.”
on Kwajalein as a carpen-
- Anjian said 19 persons
“ter, and returned to his
_ have died in Mainland
* native island a little over
a year ago.
.
hospitals of leukemia,
. “but we deg't know why
- they die on ongelap.’’.
‘Many of the people -of
his island havehad surgery for thyroid tumors,
he said, including all
‘ those that were children’
copra, the people buy im-
ported rice, flour, sugar
-’ and kerosene.”’ They eat.
day.
“We don’t eat it at all
now. We are afraid,” he
. Said.
“They say don't worry.
Don’t question the doctor,” he said, ‘‘and they
give the people pills. We .
don't know what for or
“e
‘Nelson Anjian
4
_ “Don’t talk to me about
42212
~" money,” he said.
'. “Money is nothing. My _
€
life is important.
.
‘
“The life of my people
is important.’’