Statement on Behalf of the People of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, and Utrõk Atolls, before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee

Presented by Senator Hiroshi V. Yamamura, Utrõk Atoll

Chairman Domenici, Ranking Member Bingaman, and distinguished members of the Committee. On behalf of the Four Atolls, I want to thank you for this opportunity to testify here today. I am here to share with you the story of the Four Atolls and the Nuclear Testing program.

Utrõk, Bikini, Enewatak, and Rongelap are the four Northern Marshall Island atolls whose people are recognized by United States law as victims of the U. S. nuclear tests. Our people and our homelands have been exposed to higher level of radiation that any other people or any other place on earth. U.S. and international science have documented our physical, emotional, psychological, cultural suffering and hardship, and it has been greater than experienced by any other human population affected by radiation exposure from nuclear weapons.
However, we do not want to be seen forever merely as victims. It is hard to talk about ourselves only as victims and keep our dignity. We, also, have learned that people get very uncomfortable hearing the truth about what really happened to our people. So now, we want to be seen as survivors, and we want to tell our story as survivors. The difference between being a victim and being a survivor is justice. The difference between victims and survivors is recovery, and to recover we need more than resources. We, also, want and need truth and fairness.

That is the American way. The U.S. has been more just, humane, and generous than any other nuclear power has been with victims of their nuclear testing programs. However, we have not been given the full measure of justice we deserve. We have not been treated with the same degree of respect or concern as the victims of U.S. testing in the American mainland. That is not the American way.

We are not U.S. citizens, but we were governed by the U.S. during the nuclear testing program. Because of our shared history, we cast our fate with the U.S. in the world. We are your allies and friends. We never want our grievances to be seen as anti-American. That is never our hearts.

It is just the opposite, which is why we went to the U.S. courts for justice. Instead, the U.S. State Department proposed a political settlement. Now the first phase of the programs under the political settlement need to be continued and adapted to meet on-going needs, but the State Department is saying the U.S. should walk away because the legal claims are ended. But the full and final settlement of claims the State Department imposed included changed circumstances and the Nuclear Claims Tribunal. So Congress needs to make a political decision about the health care needs of the four atolls and any other atolls found to be exposed. Congress, also, needs to make a political decision about the Nuclear Claims Tribunal awards.

If the political process is a dead end, if Congress has lost the political will to take actions to sustain the political settlement then the Congress should return the claims to the legal process in the U.S. courts to determine if any further compensation is owed. That is what the Congress has done for judgments of RMI courts against the U.S. that were not settled politically. So that is the fair thing to do, to ensure that the political settlement does not turn out to be a device to prevent just and full compensation as promised by Congress in Section 177 of the Compact of Free Association.

In closing, please allow me to introduce just four of the people whose live tell our story. Senator Ishmael John of Enewetak, Senator Tomaki Juda of Bikini, Mayor Joe Saul of Utrõk, and Lijon Eknilang of Ronelap are survivors who saw the ravages of radiation to their loved ones from the day fallout came to their homelands. They are the ones who lived with the fear and random tragedy every day since.

Their statements will be submitted for the record. Thank you!

Washington, D.C., July 19, 2005