WHEREAS, at 6:45 a.m. on March 1, 1954, over Bikini Atoll, the United States of America tested a hydrogen bomb device, which is acknowledged to be the most powerful nuclear explosion ever detonated; and

WHEREAS, the "Bravo" H-Bomb inadvertently yielded 15 megatons instead of the five megatons expected by the scientists working on the project – a yield one thousand times more powerful than the bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima; and

WHEREAS, including the Bravo H-Bomb, 67 nuclear tests were conducted at Bikini Atoll and Enewetak Atoll between 1946 and 1958, exposing the people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to severe health problems and genetic anomalies due to the tests, such as "jelly fish" babies and other anomalies in the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of survivors; and

WHEREAS, Enewetak Atoll served as ground zero for 43 tests eventually causing the exile of its people from their homeland for 33 years; and

WHEREAS, even after a massive cleanup program by the United States, more than 57 percent of the land is not safe for human habitation; and

WHEREAS, at the advice of the United States, the residents of Bikini Atoll were repatriated to their homeland in 1967 only to be evacuated seven years later when high levels of radionuclides were discovered in their bodies; and

WHEREAS, the people of neighboring Rongelap and Utirik were also returned prematurely to their atolls and received additional exposure, causing many to believe that they were used to study the effects of radiation on human beings as evidenced in the Atomic Energy Commission's now infamous Project 4.1 "Study of Response of Human Beings Exposed to Significant Beta and Gamma Radiation due to Fallout from High Yield Weapons"; and

WHEREAS, in the Compact of Free Association (Compact), the United States "accepts the responsibility for compensation owing to the citizens of the Marshall Islands ... for loss or damage to property and person ... resulting from the nuclear testing program which the Government of the United States conducted in the Northern Marshall Islands between June 30, 1946 and August 18, 1958"; and

WHEREAS, the pertinent provisions of the Compact were negotiated based on limited and misleading information provided by the United States Government to the representatives of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a fact only recently exposed in material declassified by the United States and acknowledged by officials; and

WHEREAS, the "changed circumstances" provisions of the Compact provide that, should it become manifestly clear that the agreement on nuclear matters is grossly inadequate to meet the technological and financial requirements anticipated during the negotiations, or if new information emerges that render those agreements insufficient for the purpose of concluding full and just compensation, the Congress of the United States would consider a petition on the issue; and

WHEREAS, the Republic of the Marshall Islands submitted such a "Changed Circumstances" petition on September 11, 2000, based on recently declassified data; and

WHEREAS, the Bush administration recently took a stand against further compensation under the Changed Circumstances petition; and

WHEREAS, just compensation and continued funding for promised medical and health programs for survivors of the atomic tests now depend upon Congress' favorable consideration of this petition; and

WHEREAS, over the past 17 years, Hawaii has provided medical, educational, and other supportive services to lawful non-immigrants from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, without receiving adequate reimbursement from the United States; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2006, that the United States Congress is respectfully requested to enact appropriate measures to provide for the full health needs of the hydrogen bomb tests survivors and their progeny, pay appropriate property damage claims, and provide for the costs of cleaning up nuclear sites in the Republic of the Marshall Islands in connection with hydrogen bomb testing on atolls of the Republic of the Marshall Islands; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature expresses deep regret for the harm done to the people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and their homeland and hereby requests the Governor to declare March 1^st as a Day of Remembrance for the survivors of the United States nuclear tests in the Republic of the Marshall Islands; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, President of the United States Senate, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Chairperson of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Resources, Chairperson of the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Secretary of Energy, Governor of Hawaii, members of Hawaii's Congressional delegation, President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Speaker of the Marshall Islands Nitijela, and Mayors of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, and Utrik, and to ERUB I (survivors in Majuro) and ERUB II (survivors in Hawaii).

Report Title:

H-Bomb; Marshall Islands; Reparations; Day of Remembrance