"Turtle and crabs from northernmost islands have always been collected oy
people of Utirik island, Likiep and Wotje over the years.
No one ever said to
them that the level of radiation was higher than in the place where they live.
They continue to go there and kill birds, eat bird eggs, and everything else from
that
area.
So food gathering
is very important and eating habits are very
important."
8.
_The School of Likiep
"In Likiep during the testing, there was a school] that had students from all
over the Marshalls.
The Catholics had a school there, the Holy Rosary school,
several hundred children, not only from Likiep but from all over; and there, in
fact, we find scars on girls from Namorik and Ailinglaplap.
go to School? The answer: Oh, Likiep.
scars.
We ask, Where did you
And here they are carrying thyroidectomy
All these people should be tracked down.
Cursory investigation on my
part, I found at least half a dozen suspicious cases on non-Likiep residents who
were in school when they gave the testing . . . Karlami was one.
of cancer.
9.
He died finally
Angel, Guidel's wife, and several others.
Construction crews; Cleanupcrews who came later to Enewetak and Bikini
“You have to also remember that when Bikini was originally cleaned up, the
hazards of radiation were not quite as well known, quite as well understood, then
as they are now.
So, many of these guys may have been exposed really without
anyone knowing how much and to what extent.
The story of the well is a classic.
They had a well in Bikini that we, the government, dug to provide water to water
the trees as they were bing planted. The men were using it to cook food, to clean
their clothes and wash themselves with it as well.
It was much, much later, like
six or seven years into the program, that the department of energy/AEC at that
time, eventually decided that the water was hazardous and that the well should be
covered over.
In the meantime, we don't know how many guys had drunk the water or
been exposed to it in other way, food, or in actually taking baths, this sort of
thing."
10.
The Dumping of Coora
If anyone begins to suggest that the food really was not affected, we know
it was because after the exposure of the northern Marshalls, when in those days
we used to collect the copra from all over the islands, including some copra from
the Carolines, into Majuro and then a big ship would come in and take it from
Majuro to Japan.
They had people at the docks with geiger counters to check the
copra out as it left the warehouse to go into the ship and it was not uncommon for
a whole truckload to be dumped right into the lagoon.
17
If the operators felt that