On The Wind…

Pacific Islands: Collateral Damage of Nuclear Power and Political Games

The Pacific has long borne the brunt of global powers’ ambitions - from the radioactive fallout of hundreds of US, British, and French nuclear tests to the quiet depopulation of its atolls, and the political machinations that continue to shape island life. This blog traces the legacy of contamination, abandonment, and governance missteps, from Bikini and Enewetak to Maupiha’a, Fiji, and Vanuatu, revealing a region still paying the price for decisions made far beyond its shores.

American testing nuclear fall out on Marshallese child

Pacific Already Paid Price for Global Nuclear Hubris

More than most, the United States poisoned large swathes of the Pacific.

France and Britain did their bit too, exploding nuclear bombs over atolls, and in the ocean, aware and deliberately ignoring the radioactive fallout that would slowly kill thousands of Pacific Islanders over time. About 300 to 325 nuclear tests were conducted in the Pacific region between 1946 and 1996 by US, Britain and France.

Now, like some demented bolt out of a horrid past, US President Donald Trump says he has ordered an immediate resumption of US nuclear testing.

He has not specified where, but we can be certain it will not be anywhere near Florida, or even that once familiar test site of New Mexico and Nevada. There are casinos there to be protected.

Trump’s ground zero could well be one of the atolls of the Pacific Remote Island Areas. They include uninhabited the islands of Baker, Howland, Jarvis, Johnston, Kingman Reef, Midway and Palmyra.

As Americans are plainly fixated and adoring off Trump, and cannot be expected to resist whatever he wants, it will be for the Pacific states - and likely victims of testing fallout, to resist this madness.

This is a brief summary of what the nuclear powers did to the Pacific.

US 1946-1958: 67 atmospheric tests Bikini & Enewetak, Marshall Islands

US 1960s: 25 tests at Kiritimati plus 9 at Johnston

Britain 1952-1957 Nine at Kiritimati & Malden islands

France 1966 - 1996: 193 atmospheric and underground tests at Mururoa and Fangataufa.

“For the good of mankind and to end all world wars.”

This quote comes from U.S. Navy Commodore Ben Wyatt, the military governor of the Marshall Islands, who addressed the people of Bikini Atoll on February 10, 1946.

Empty Paradise: Maupiha’a and the Vanishing Pacific.

Recently, in Emptying Pacific: Islands Without Islanders, I lamented the vanishing of people from the South Pacific; “Put bluntly: in a generation - if not already - most Pacific people will live outside the South Pacific.”

While the world frets about rising seas, few notice the quieter disaster: depopulation. Among those seeing it firsthand are yachties who drop anchor in paradise only to find no one home.

In this blog:

Trump to resume nuclear testing

French Polynesian atolls emptying of people.

Fiji Ratus off to see the King

Stranded Vanuatu patrol boat freed

One such is the French Polynesian atoll, Maupiha’a, “the last German colony”. Today, just a grandmother, her daughter, and a small boy live on its 2.6 square kilometres, 325 km west of Bora Bora’s crowds.

Ben and Ashley on their yacht Nahoa recently posted a video on their call at Maupiha’a, entitled “Entire Islands in the South Pacific are being abandoned”.

In the video they say Maupiha’a “might be the most beautiful place in French Polynesia”. But as Ben notes, the people have gone and all across the archipelago people are leaving.