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Declassified record · U.S. Department of Energy

Memo to J C Bugher, Et Al, Subject: Associated Press Story on Marshallese Natives (Attach: Four Articles by Bill Waugh)

Dated
Jun 1, 1954
Document type
Correspondence
Length
20 pages
Open the original scanArchive record OSTI ID 16364770 · public domain

Document text

Machine-read from the scan, so expect some errors. Lines that couldn’t be read are left out.

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The attachedmaterialhas been submittedby the AssociatedPress for AEC reviewprior to publication. The storieswere writtenby Bill Majuroand discussionswith Trust Territoryofficials,nativesof Rongelapand Utirik,GeneralClarkson,and membersof medicalunits Requestyou telephoneyour commentsby close of businesstoday, if possibleso we may get the materialclearedthroughthe General 4 articlesby Bill Waugh John Hall, Chief,

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a dip in their hand and they don’t intend to lay it down, Theirpeople we are naivechildrenofthetropics.Wearenotasnaiveastheythink. Me

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6f bounty. ftongelappetpplewLll not be ableti return te 8 ye&* Beady every 6328&nthis vilbge Suffsred injury their helms for fkom the fallout They will be united states will provide ffx- them thr6ughuut their stay there. 1 cqle don*tfeel goodabeutnet goinghme. We fearwe my havefate untilflmllyputanistited- Mandwhkhnmymnths of the year Heineand smmral Amriaam in the trustterritmJ saidthe BLkinians are xmthappy as they Congress. The Umin He saidr @Wespent a mm@ month werking an it. We purposely did not let

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mailbm~.He saidhe plannedtoregistmit but arrived at the &st Office pbstmtistress IkeneBecards didnet recall the letterbut said she about registeringa letter. Heine aid he also senta copyof the petitionwith a letterto the %ditor of the Ua&ing%onPoster The lettermid in part: @@Youmay be interestedtoknowthatyoureris the onlypublicationtowhichweare sending amha copyb Wehave ahosenyoueimpxlybetmuse‘imunderateszdyourpaper to There~16~~~esepetitionl~ve the Island. It was 1 stickin treatmentof the injurednatives. ‘\ "x. t3xplanation. Be protested to the offioial. The mdiaal grouparrivedApril5, mat with the natives to give then an

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a petition to the they shotid write what are you An.M3rlc!anstm to do. _cbpn up the gatesof Hell'. the feeling of Elkajafein the day of the hydrogen to shake. There were several 62xplosions that went whmwhaxn.”

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teacherswere the chiefdraftersof a petitionto the UN complaining about hydrogenbomb experimentsin theirhomeland. The pair, Dwight Heine and Atlan Anien,emphaticallydeny any Americanknowinglyassisted them, "Some did help but they did not how it," Heine said in an interview. "We askedmany questionsof Americans. We asked who one would write to and how it would be addressedbut we did not tell them what we were going to do. We also read UN pamphletssnd saw how petitionsappearing in them were worded." Heine said two Americanssaw an early draft of the petitionbut it carriedno heading. He said one, Keith Smith, It is beautifullywritten." "It taxedme and Atlsn to write it," Heine continued. "We workedevery day for nearlya month. We would meet with otherMarshalleseand put down their ideas. Then we would make a rough draft. "I thoughtwe had too many dangersin it. So I looked through the dictionaryand decidedon lethal. I also found word circumvent than most Marshallese.He is 35 years old, has dark skin and bushy He is superintendentof the &r&all Islandschools. Heine probablyis one of the best educatedMarshallese.He is spokesmanbetweenthe people snd Americans. Heine startedschoolin 1928 at the ProtestantJesuitMissionSchool. In 1936 he went to a mission juniorhigh at Kusaie. When the Americansmoved into the Marshsllsduring World War II he workedfor the U.S. Navy as a guide and interpreter, Between1948 and 1950 he attendedthe UniversityOf Hawaiiin Honolulu, Last year he travelledfor 3 months in New Zealand,Samoa and Fiji on a UNESCOfellowship.Heine has a sense of humor and timing0 He told this

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He related: "1 was interpreting. The Congressman threw his said we are a Christianpeople. You are a Christianpeople. save the world from Communism. We do not want you _oeopleto the Iron Curtain." When I said Iron Curtain the Xarshallese arms out and We want to each and whispzred Iron Curtain. What is that I was really stuck for eqJaining itO The word Communism means nothing to the peqle. I now use the word Eiussiafor Communism, 'For instance during yourSmith Act trials I'd say Xussia a,qlain that these people were trying to steal secrets from American and zive them to I?ussi3.tt Present with Heine and Anien were Kabuakabua, district judge and and member of the Souse of Irouj. They gave the im-gressionthat they were as concerned over the loss of lzcd as they were about the hydrogen tests. Dorothy 13.buaz5,"-j-ear-oldmother of 4 sons, is a daughter-in-law of a late chief of the Sikini people, FIeinesaid that the Bikini ;?eo>lehad na'c‘cr gear. She is a short st0ck.ywoman, wears glasses and at the tiilseI was tal;ringto her wc.swearing a light 7rin-tdress, Asked of her trip to Wew 'iork she sai2 she went to a 3-E movie. "It was a picture of e boat. It looked like it was coming out on us. It bounced us and down so xx:; I got seasick and had to leave," she related and then laughed :zea&il;-, Seine, wL~oseparents and grandparents were killed 53; tne Zqa:iese,

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boomerang and hurt the trust territory people. "There was a reason we did not have Americans in on the petition. They are very nice. We did not want them to get in trouble," he explained. Later Eeine came to me and said: Administrator. If in any way our petition implies lack of confidence in him or the Trust Territory Government say that it is not not so." zeina said that "Zvergone (Auericans in the Harshalls) sympathize with felt a responsibility for what happened." That is the concensus found in talki-ngto the Americans on the island. Ness, in commenting on the accident, said: 'I believe officials of the nuclear tests should have given adequate and timely information to the natives so they could Trotcct themselves, To my knowledge this was not done." Dab L. Omis, missiorary for the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Xission, Boston, is on Majuro translating the Bible for the deeply religious Marshallese. He made this comment on the petition: "I think I approve it. Dwight (Seine) is smart. It was a sensible way to handle it as it did not involve (V.S.) Gover-nmentpeople. It will kelp the people here get national consciousness." Doctor Dunham Kirkham of Avoca, New York, a former Army doctor and now the Trust Territory doctor for the Marshall Islands, said of the incident: "It's tough on these people. They seem a little distrustful of our promises. They are thinking Trust Territory official who asked that his name not be used said "They're taking a damn dim view of being yanked from one island to another." There seemed to be some concern among the Americans that they too had been kept in the dark about the explosions. One woman seld that nearly every American received inquiries about their welfare after

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talking to injured 3brce Sm persad whbh ran the hydrsgen tests this year, There has been ne pressure QD: ceerdos on lqyrpelf r)r the people I cmr ammhtider areaas result, Evcmthis sincethe March 1 detmtion, the ARC tests. The ABC and DewWt of W-e tests were oonduded, has anrmmcedtwo additional

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