#project 4.1

For three years while the Rongelapese - and other nearby evacuated islanders - lived on a previously uninhabited atoll (Ejet Island in the Majuro Atoll), a small number of medical oddities befell the population. An adult and a child had become seriously ill in 1955, and in 1956 a 46-year old Rongelapese man suddenly fell ill and died an hour later. It wasn't until the late 1950s that something seemed wrong to the islanders, who complained to Brookhaven scientists that since moving back they started feeling weak and 'not up to standard.' They also commented that the fish were poisonous from the fallout. Also, the women had a number of miscarriages and stillbirths. The book "Day of Two Suns" (p.40) has several engaging pages on this topic; the author notes that Brookhaven failed to ever mention the 'jellyfish' babies and skewed the rate of miscarriages of the exposed Rongelapese because the 'control group' was also exposed - from radioactive food and water on the island.

In the summer of 1957, the exiled Marshall Islanders were told by U.S. authorities (DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory) that 'after careful evaluation of the radioactive contamination situation' their island was 'safe.' The 250 Marshall Islanders who voluntarily returned to Rongelap Island4 were only given the warning to not eat a certain species of crab, which accumulated radiotoxins in its shell. (According to the book 'Day of Two Suns,' the islanders said that upon returning to Rongelap they were also told to not eat arrowroot; when they did, one islander recalled, 'it really burned our mouths.' That arrowroot 'ban' was later lifted by the AEC. Also, upon return, they noticed that their native foods all had changed color, and a number of trees had died, as did about half of the livestock they left behind. (Day of Two Suns, p. 30,32)) The Rongelapese, a peoples deeply connected in spirit and lifestyle to their home atoll, believed the scientists and consented to the repeated medical surveys.