“Bombs Over Bikini: The World’s First Nuclear Disaster”
By Connie Goldsmith.
Twenty First Century Books, 88 pages, 2014, Grades 6-High School
In August 1945, the United States drops atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. President Truman believes that a land invasion of Japan will result in millions of casualties, far less than the thousands of victims killed in the bombings. In his mind, this justifies the bombings. World War II ends shortly after this.
Unfortunately, an atomic arms race begins between Russia and the United States in 1946. Both countries race to build ever-larger bombs, resulting in nuclear bombs that have far greater destructive force than atomic bombs. To see the effects of these new weaponries, the United States selects the isolated Marshall Islands to test the effects of nuclear explosives on the environment, animals and military personnel. The name of this plan is Operation Crossroads.
Connie Goldsmith meticulously recounts the decisions of the United States government in the decisions to explode these nuclear weapons over the Marshall Islands in her outstanding work of nonfiction, “Bombs Over Bikini.” Before the nuclear testing ends in 1958, the United States explodes 67 nuclear weapons over several islands in the Marshalls.
Not wanting to test any nuclear weapons within 1,000 miles of the continental United States, the Marshall Islands are chosen for the test site. The small island of Bikini is deemed the ideal spot to bomb. The small population on the island can be moved, so that no civilian casualties occur.
The military brings nearly 100-old-vessels, along with captured German ships, and anchors them in the harbor of Bikini. The military wants to see the effects of an atomic bomb on anchored ships. Will they capsize? Hundreds of animals and rodents are also placed in the vessels, to see what effects of radiation would be on them.
Forty-two thousand American sailors and civilians are stationed on nearby vessels to monitor the explosion and to clean up the radioactive vessels. The commanders of the operation consider the bombings an “acceptable risk with minimum damage.” The Bikinians who were moved off the island are told they will be allowed to return to their homes after the island is cleaned of radiation.
On July 1, 1946, the first atomic bomb is exploded over Bikini. It will be bombed 22 more times. On March 1, 1954, a hydrogen bomb named Bravo will be exploded in the lagoon at Bikini. It is 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. It causes the first nuclear disaster in history. Before all the testing ends in 1958, the United States will have dropped the equivalent of 7,000 Hiroshima bombs on the Marshall Islands.
These highly photographed events become worldwide news. Navy cleanup crews are sent onto the radioactive ships in tennis shoes and shorts. Only one animal—a pig—somehow survives the first bombing. For the next decades, American service men die from the effects of radiation poisoning. The Bikinians are not compensated to any extent that is just. All of this to try to scientifically find out the effects of nuclear weapons on military personnel, wildlife and land formations. There is no way to describe this as anything other than a national disgrace.
Given the terrible potential of the current Mideast conflicts, Connie Goldsmith’s book is particularly pertinent. We need to remember the horrible lessons from the American bombings of the Marshall Islands. These weapons are not toys to be rationalized. They are life ending instruments of destruction. I highly recommend “Bombs Over Bikini” by Connie Goldsmith.
