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THE STATE UNIVERSITY

OF NEW JERSEY

SEO JUL 25 PA I: 02

LIVINGSTON COLLEGE « GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ANTHROPOLOGY
NEW BRUNSWICK «+ NEW JERSEY 08903 201/932-2598

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Mr. Wallace 0. Green
Deputy Under Secretary of
International end Territorial Affairs
Department of the Interior

Office of the Secretary

Washineton, BC. 20240
Dear Mr.

Green:

I have been edvised by Mr. Clifford Sloan, Legislative Assistort
for Congressmen Sidney Yates, to forward along the enclosed information
concerning the proposed resettlement of Injebi Island in the Marshall
I hope this information will vrove to be of some use in making
Islands.
your decision about the resettlement, and I mst admit that I do not
envy your position in having to make a2 determination about this most

complex and difficult issue.

My involvement with the Marshall Islanders begen in 1975 when I
was stationed on Utirik Atoll as a Peace Corvus volunteer.
Despite my

"official" Peace Corps task of helping to initiate om agricultural co-

operative, as well as to teach school on the atoll, I soon realized that
the Utirik people had more immediate concerns which stemmed from their

irradiation during the BRAVO shot of March 1, 1954.

Specifically, the Utirik Council articulated to me their complaints

about the Brookhaven Netional Laboratory medicel program in the Marshells,
end the Utirik people were becoming increasingly suspicious about the

nature of that program. For example, the Utirik people could not understand the logic of a program which spent millions of dollars annually,
and which neglected to treat numerous illnesses in their population,

notwithstanding that these illnesses were admittedly unrelated to radiation

and its effects.

A case in point concerns the 30% incidence rate of

edult-onset tyne diabetes as diagnosed in the Utirik group by Brookhaven
doctors several years previously:
the Brookhaven doctors carefully
explained that because diabetes was unrelated to rediation, it was “not
their responsibility," and consequently the diabetes was left untreated.
Moreover, many other cases of illnesses which were allegedly unrelated to
radiation--including primary and secondary health care-=went untreated.

As a result, the Utirik people began to question the Brookhaven progran
for their atoll, end they began wondering whether the program was really
intended for their benefit, or perhaps for the benefit of medical science
end scientific inquiry.

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