Up to the 1940s the Marshall islanders, like most other Micronesians, were self-sufficient living off the ocean and land. Brookhaven resident physician in the Murshails. “Nowthe facts of the thvroid cancer at Utirik have Strongis shown that the theory was wronz. Kotrady wrote in a stinging eritigue of the ERDA medical program. “The people ask if this thy roid problem has suddenly occurred is it not possitle that the experts have been “wrong tor so many vears and that more problems will occur in the future’ Despite the inability of the agc’s “experts to predict the thyroid can- cers among the Utumk population. they have adamantly barred outside medical teams from the islands. Not until the Rongelapese and others refused to undergo the 1972 sec medical examinations unless independen’ doctors participated were two doc- tors added to the aEc team for that examination. Every year since 1984, the aEc and later ERDA medical teams have examined the Marshallese people. and every vear they reassure them of their good heaith. When the peopie eventuaily began asking, “If nothing is wrong with us, why do you keep coming back every year to examine us?” ERDA replied that it was a precautionary measure. Although the AEC. ERDA has treated the Marshallese for 24 sears. a study by a special committee of the Congress of Micronesia stated. “Time and again the committee found that the people did not understand uavthing about their exposure, the possible effects on themselves and to their children and on their en- vironment.” Protesting what they considered inadequate medical care and to underline the monumental cultural clash between the U.S. medical per- sonnel 2 ae t 7 e me ~ eA SEE: OR eS, and the islanders. the Utinkese refused a quarterly ERDA medical checkup on December [976, and the ERDA physician was re- called. “The people of Utirik are verydistressed and angrvas a result of the radiation.”’ the chiets of the atoll wrote the Energy Research and | (ett) Nuclear bomb crater. Enewetak - Atoll. (below) Leaving Bikini. <. carrying pandanus leaves to build new _ houses on Rongerik. Suffering from i es t matnutrition, the Bikinians are evacuated to a tent city on Kwajalein. i February 1979 The Bulletin [3