�� ¢ Wednesday, April 9.1975 ~—_ After:20.Years - “ ' —- ll OUT ~ - we Honolulu Stor-Bulletin < = ~ -— ww ey oy ae Fallout.Effects . moe Norry ‘Islanders ““From generation to. * generation we. went-without worrying about anything,”’ said the mayorof tiny Rongelap Island: in - Micronesia. : Then in 1954 the Dnited %' States set dff H-bomb ‘ Bravo on Bikini, and the : Fadioactive fallout drifted and fell 4ike snow on Ron’ gelap and its 86 residents. Since then, said Mayor nd all‘those’ still in the’ —Qualified doctors be womb -at: the time of the ~ based on Rongelap to pro- - ay * ‘fallout.” . et Xx HE SAID the United vide daily medical service. : ’ States deported a-Japa--_ —Radiation experts ‘and doctors, prefernese. medical?team that.’ medical] ( ) “had been “invited by the . ably including some from ~ people to conduct physical ~Hiroshima, survey Ron-- gelap and issue individual . ‘examinations: : diagnoses. would like to - send four or five of his -—The Atomic Commispeople to Japanese docsion no longer be permit% . “We ters in Hiroshima to be - ted to use the people of oe. ‘Rongelap and adjacent - worry all the time. We -- examined. Utirik as ‘‘guinea pigs"’ . are worried about our In.a petition to the for their bomb-related re«. lives and we don't know Secretary General of the ¢ what is happening.”’ search. United Nations and the said his people United Nations Trustee- ONLY .35 of those ex€ -have appealed time and ship Council, is posed to the radiation sur¢ again to the United States asking that: for adequate medical. ~~ ‘; Care. American doctors ~_ Visit the island and exam- ‘ine the people twice a ~ vive today, said. ’’ Be said the population ‘of Rongelap is now 200, -and that they want to stay with the current adminis- < tration of the Trust Terri- « year now rather than - tory. . He said ‘money on Ron. gelap is no problem. ‘In €. * once. “THEY TELL usto eat , coconut crab only three ‘L times a week,’’ he said, but do not explain why it © 7 cannot be eaten every < day. “We don’t eat it at all « Tow. 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 . why.” said 19 persons _ have died in Mainland hospitals of leukemia, . “but ‘we dgp’t know why - they die onRongelap.” ‘Many of the people -of « his island have. had sur_ Bery for thyroid tumors, he said, including al} ¢ those that were children” three months we :can make 20 to 25‘tons:‘of - copra. “From the sale of copra, the people buy imported rice, flour, sugar .' and kerosene.’’ They eat ,coconut,~ breadfruit, “, pandanus,-fish and shell- « dish, 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 on Kwajalein as a carpen- “ter, and returned to his « native island a little over a year ago. “Don't talk to me about a money,’ he said. _. “Money is nothing. My “life is important. ’ ‘ “The ife of my people is important.”’ 1399