Page Five
t
Jonathan Wefsgall
January 21, 1982
the Marshalls. My doctoral discertation specifically
addresses this issue, and for the past seven years I have
been gathering data about the social and cultural effects
associated with the weapons tests. I am distressed by the
fact that the Brookhaven researchers have continually
.
ignored the psychological impact of the weapons tests, and
I consider the psychological problems to be as important as
the actual radiation-induced pathologies in terms of how
the weapons tests have disrupted Marshallese culture. For
example, when I was in the Marshalls last year, I spoke with
Jabwe Jojur who is the magistrate of Rongelap. Jabwe
explained that since 1970, when the DOE and DOD made the
radiological survey of the Northern Marshalls, that DOE
_declared the northern half of Rongelap off-limits due to
dangerous levels of residual radiation. Jabwe told me of
the fears his people have of JViving at Rongelap, and related
that the people know that fish in the lagoon circulate
throughout the entire lagoon.
Jabwe explained that the
people have much fear and anxiety about remaining on Rongelap-where one-half of their atoll is off-limits--and many people
are considering abandoning the atoll altogether.
At Enewetak, where many of the islanders have recently
returned after the cleanup and rehabilitation program, it is
too early to assess the full impact of the possible psychological stress and anxiety which may manifest there.
In my research at Utirik, I found an alarming degree of
fear and anxiety among the islanders, especially since between
five and six new cases of thyroid disease are diagnosed each
year as a late-effect of the fallout from Bravo.
The Utirik
people believe that they are living in a still-contaminated
environment, and worse, they feel that things are getting
more serious over time.
Indeed, the fact that five or six
people must have thyroid surgery every year and be put on
a daily medication of thyroid replacement bears out their
worst fears and suSpicions about their situation. Needless
to say, the people now attribute just about every illness
and malady to their radiation exposure, and it is safe to
Say that on top of the radiation-induced injuries, the people
now suffer from hypochondria. When I try to point this out
to the Brookhaven medical researchers, they continually laugh
with scorn at the islanders and think it is silly that they
should have these fears. As a social scientist, I submit
that the people's fearsand anxietiesare a medical disorder
directly related to the actual radiation-{nduced pathologies.
If the Bikini people return to their former atoll, it is
my belief that they too will suffer from the knowledge that
.
their environment is still radioactive and that it contains
“poison"--the Marshallese equivalent for radiation. Additionally
their resettlement failure a few years ago will loom ominously
in the background to remind them that the scientists can make
mistakes.
Ho7-~ 5