22 JAPAN STEPS UP DUMPING PLANS The Japanese Cabinet decided at its July 17th session to join the OECD-NEA's (Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Two decades plus two have now passed Since we witnessed the nuclear blast An exciting thing for a twenty year old But we're wiser now ~~ and not so bold Multinational Consultaticn and Surveillance Mechanism for Sea Dumping of Radioactive Waste and notified them to the effect in writing on the same day. We watched the fireball in thesky This ig the last step before notifying the NEA one year prior to the execution of the planned Pacific nuclear waste dumping. Government officials claimed that this acticn was part of the ratification procedure for Knowing not what the future would bring The latent effects of Pandora's thing Man had exploited the olympus fire No matter if innocent or without desire the London Dumping Convention (see NSC Vol.6 #1) which took effect in Japan November 14, 1980 and that this did not mean the controversial plan would be implemented immed iacely. But it shows clearly that Japan intends to carry it out regardless of the Pacific Islanders' protests especially in conjunction with the building of the ship which will carry and dump the wastes. Stepped up protests and increasing international pressure against the Japanese government's nuclear waste dumping plans are urgently needed. -- From Han-Genpatsu_News, Japan (July/August 1981) MICRONESIA SUPPORT COMMITTEE 1212 University Avenue Honolulu, Hawaii 96826 USA (808) 942-0437 Like innocent children on the fourth of Jul Saw the mushroom shaped billowing cloud Felt and heard the thunder so loud Curses of the Gods have visited some With more wrath yet sure to come Cancers sword of misery and eventual death Threatens each of us till our last breath To the American government that put us in the learch We serve as statistics for the future research . No compassion -- or compensation for guinea pigs Only cold indifference from bureaucratic prigs. ~- George Mace, a vetaran of Operation Hardtack nuclear test series, Enewetak Atoll 1958.