Downwind

Things That Go Boom

The Republic of the Marshall Islands is a speck of a country in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Population 60,000. But it has an outsized legacy as the place where the US military exploded dozens of nuclear weapons in the 40s and 50s, and brushed over the danger to local populations.

For decades the Marshall Islands has been fighting for the US to fully recognize the devastating health and environmental impacts from all those nuclear tests, without much success.

But skip forward to a recent congressional hearing and something seemed to shift — something that starts with C and ends with A, and rhymes with ‘pivot to Asia.’

GUESTS: Rhea Moss-Christian, chairwoman of the Marshall Islands National Nuclear Commission

ADDITIONAL READING:

How the US Betrayed the Marshall Islands, Kindling the Next Nuclear Disaster, Susanne Rust, Los Angeles Times.

‘They Did Not Realize We Are Human Beings.’ Dan Diamond, Politico.

(With reporting from Calvin Ryerse.)