Bravo for the Marshallese: Regaining Control in a Post-Nuclear, Post-Colonial World (Case Studies on Contemporary Social Issues)
by Holly M. Barker
from Wadsworth Publishing
This case study describes the role an applied anthropologist takes to help Marshallese communities understand the impact of radiation exposure on the environment and themselves, and addresses problems stemming from the U.S. nuclear weapons testing program conducted in the Marshall Islands from 1946-1958. The author demonstrates how the U.S. Government limits its responsibilities for dealing with the problems it created in the Marshall Islands. Through archival, life history, and ethnographic research, the author constructs a compelling history of the testing program from a Marshallese perspective. For more than five decades, the Marshallese have experienced the effects of the weapons testing program on their health and their environment. This book amplifies the voice of the Marshallese who share their knowledge about illnesses, premature deaths, and exile from their homelands. The author uses linguistic analysis to show how the Marshallese developed a unique radiation language to discuss problems related to their radiation exposure – problems that never existed before the testing program. Drawing on her own experiences working with the Government of the Marshall Islands, the author emphasizes the role of an applied anthropologist in influencing policy, and empowering community leaders to seek meaningful remedies.
The Marshall Islands 1944: "Operation Flintlock, the capture of Kwajalein and Eniwetok" (Campaign)
by Gordon Rottman
from Osprey Publishing
Following the capture of Tarawa in November 1943, American eyes turned to the Marshall Islands. These were the next vital stepping-stone across the Pacific towards Japan, and would bring the islands of Guam and Saipan within the reach of US forces. In their first amphibious attack, the new 4th Marine Division landed on Roi and Namur islands on 1 February 1944, while US 7th Division landed on Kwajalein. At the time this was the longest shore-to-shore amphibious assault in history. The lessons of the bloody fighting on Tarawa had been well learned and the successful attack on the Marshalls set the pattern for future amphibious operations in the Pacific War.
Children of the Atomic Bomb: An American Physician's Memoir of Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and the Marshall Islands (Asia-Pacific)
by James N. Yamazaki
from Duke University Press
Despite familiar images of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan and the controversy over its fiftieth anniversary, the human impact of those horrific events often seems lost to view. In this uncommon memoir, Dr. James N. Yamazaki tells us in personal and moving terms of the human toll of nuclear warfare and the specific vulnerability of children to the effects of these weapons. Giving voice to the brutal ironies of racial and cultural conflict, of war and sacrifice, his story creates an inspiring and humbling portrait of events whose lessons remain difficult and troubling fifty years later.
Children of the Atomic Bomb is Dr. Yamazaki’s account of a lifelong effort to understand and document the impact of nuclear explosions on children, particularly the children conceived but not yet born at the time of the explosions. Assigned in 1949 as Physician-in-Charge of the United States Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Nagasaki, Yamazaki had served as a combat surgeon at the Battle of the Bulge where he had been captured and held as a prisoner of war by the Germans. In Japan he was confronted with violence of another dimension—the devastating impact of a nuclear blast and the particularly insidious effects of radiation on children.
Yamazaki’s story is also one of striking juxtapositions, an account of a Japanese-American’s encounter with racism, the story of a man who fought for his country while his parents were interned in a concentration camp in Arkansas. Once the object of discrimination at home, Yamazaki paradoxically found himself in Japan for the first time as an American, part of the Allied occupation forces, and again an outsider. This experience resonates through his work with the children of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and with the Marshallese people who bore the brunt of America’s postwar testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific.
Recalling a career that has spanned five decades, Dr. Yamazaki chronicles the discoveries that helped chart the dangers of nuclear radiation and presents powerful observations of both the medical and social effects of the bomb. He offers an indelible picture of human tragedy, a tale of unimaginable suffering, and a dedication to healing that is ultimately an unwavering, impassioned plea for peace.
Tarawa and the Marshalls: A Pictorial Tribute (U.S. Marines in World War II)
by Eric Hammel
from Zenith Press
Some of the biggest battles fought by the Marines during World War II took place on tiny islands scattered throughout the western Pacific. Among these, the battles for Tarawa and the Marshalls were some of the fiercest and most decisive of the Pacific campaign--critical engagements that this pictorial history brings vividly to life. In hundreds of rare photographs, many never-before-published, the historic drama unfolds beginning with the 2d Marine Division’s landing on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll on November 20, 1943. Assured that the island’s defenses had been “pounded into coral dust” by naval and air bombardment, the Marines in fact found themselves in the thick of the first modern amphibious assault on a well-defended beachhead. Three days of intense fighting secured the island for the Allies, at the cost of 1,000 Marines dead and more than 2,000 wounded.
The book then turns to the Marshall Islands where, early in World War II, the Japanese had built airfields on the Kwajalein and Eniwetok atolls. Dramatic photographs document the taking of Kwajalein by U.S. Marines and Army troops after the most massive bombardment of the war. We then witness the landing of the 22d Marines on the five islands of Eniwetok on February 18, followed by the intense fighting that brought the entire atoll under Allied control within four days--securing crucial landing fields and operational support for the Allies’ island-hopping campaign to ultimate victory in the Pacific. A tribute to the rare courage and heroism that, for the Marines in WWII, were merely a matter of course, this illustrated history keeps their spectacular sacrifices and feats of valor forever before us.
The Marines’ battles for Tarawa Atoll and the Marshall Islands were some of the fiercest and most decisive of the Pacific campaign in World War II--critical engagements that this pictorial history brings vividly to life. In hundreds of rare photographs, many never-before-published, the historic drama unfolds in these pages, documenting the 2d Marine Division’s amphibious assault on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll on November 20, 1943; and the landing of the 22d Marines on the Marshalls on February 18, followed by the intense fighting that brought the entire atoll under Allied control within four days.
Island Victory: The Battle of Kwajalein Atoll (World War II)
by S. L. A. Marshall
from Bison Books
Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll
For the Good of Mankind: A History of the People of Bikini and their Islands (Second Edition)
by Jack Niedenthal
from Micronitor/Bravo Publishers
The story of the people of Bikini Atoll and their islands in the words of the people. This oral history takes the reader from ancient to modern times.
First Taint of Civilization: A History of the Caroline and Marshall
Day of Two Suns: U.S. Nuclear Testing and the Pacific Islanders
by Jane Dibblin
from New Amsterdam Books
...a most disturbing portrait of the effects of nuclear weapons testing on the people of Micronesia...--Library Journal
National Security and Self-Determination: United States Policy in Micronesia (1961-1972)
by Howard P. Willens
from Praeger Publishers
After World War II, the United States assumed responsibilities for the Northern Mariana Islands, the Caroline Islands, and the Marshall Islands under a 1947 trusteeship agreement with the United Nations. The United States had the obligation to prepare these Micronesians for self-government or independence after termination of the trusteeship, but the Interior, State, and Defense Departments paid little attention to this question until 1961. Willens and Siemer examine the Kennedy administration's formation of a new Micronesian policy aimed at bringing these islanders under U.S. sovereignty by 1968, the inability of the federal agencies to achieve this objective, and their refusal to acknowledge that the Northern Marianas people had very different economic and political aspirations than the other Micronesians. By 1969, the Micronesian leaders--except for those of the Northern Marianas--were increasingly attracted to a future political status that rejected United States citizenship and had most of the attributes of a sovereign nation-state. Willens and Siemer analyze the initial negotiations between United States and Micronesian representatives, the inability of the United States to respond positively to the demands of the Micronesian negotiators, and the national defense and strategic objectives at issue. By April 1972, the United States recognized that its non-fragmentation policy conflicted with the right of self-determination of the Northern Marianas people and agreed to separate status negotiations with them. A detailed review of recent Micronesian history that will be of considerable value to U.S. government officials involved with insular affairs and foreign policy and scholars and researchers of Micronesian, Pacific islands, and Marianas affairs.
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