SR172

WHEREAS, Enewetak Atoll is a large coral atoll of forty islands that forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands, now known as the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific Ocean; and

WHEREAS, Enewetak Atoll, with the rest of the Marshall Islands, was captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1914 during World War I and mandated to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations in 1920; and

WHEREAS, many inhabitants of the Marshall Islands initially welcomed the new governance as the Japanese worked to build up infrastructure, including schools, and to increase economic trade in the Islands; and

WHEREAS, with the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese military took over administration of the Marshall Islands and began fortifying several of the atolls; and

WHEREAS, as the war progressed and support and supplies from Japan dwindled, starvation beset both the Japanese and the inhabitants of the Marshall Islands; and

WHEREAS, as conditions worsened, the Marshallese population was subjected to physical harm, hard labor, shameful punishment, and hunger; and

WHEREAS, towards the end of World War II, inhabitants of the Marshall Islands suffered from fear, displacement, deprivation, and starvation, and were subjected to executions; and

WHEREAS, the United States captured Enewetak Atoll in a five-day amphibious operation between February 17 and February 23, 1944, during what is known as the Battle of Eniwetok; and

WHEREAS, Enewetak residents commemorated March 10, 1944, as the day they "came out of the holes (bomb shelters)" following the Battle of Eniwetok; and

WHEREAS, after gaining military control of the Marshall Islands from Japan, the United States assumed administrative control of the Islands in 1947 under United Nations auspices as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, to protect the inhabitants against the loss of their lands and resources as well as their health; and

WHEREAS, attracted by its remote location, sparse population, and nearby U.S. military bases, the United States began using the Marshall Islands as a living laboratory for nuclear testing to better understand the impacts of radioactive weaponry on human beings and the environment; and

WHEREAS, from 1946 to 1958, the United States detonated sixty-seven atmospheric and underwater nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, of which forty-two were in Enewetak Atoll, with a combined power of 7,200 Hiroshima-sized bombs, that is equivalent to 1.6 Hiroshima bombs every day for twelve years; and

WHEREAS, the Castle Bravo high-yield nuclear test carried out on Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954, is the largest weapon ever detonated by the United States, with an explosion that was more than twenty-one times larger than expected and one thousand times more powerful than each of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and

WHEREAS, the unexpectedly large yield of the Castle Bravo test led to the most significant radiological contamination caused by the United States, dropping radioactive ash for more than seven thousand square miles onto nearby islands including Enewetak, Rongeap, Utiri, Ailuk, Likiep, Ailinginae, and other atolls; however, the United States government did not inform the residents that the winds had shifted such that these locations may experience nuclear fallout; and

WHEREAS, from 1977 to 1980, the United States government cemented and enclosed an estimated three million one hundred thousand cubic feet--or thirty-five Olympic-sized swimming pools--of radioactive soil and debris produced by the United States, including lethal amounts of plutonium, irradiated military and construction equipment, contaminated soil and plutonium-laced chunks of metal pulverized by the bombs detonated throughout the Enewetak Atoll, into an unlined nuclear blast crater on Runit Island and capped it with a concrete dome at sea-level, now known as the Runit Dome; and

WHEREAS, the Runit Dome, which is not sealed at the bottom like other waste depositories, has fissured significantly over time, and is at the risk of collapsing due to rising sea levels and other effects of climate change, thereby raising concerns of radioactive material being leaked into the ocean, which would have disastrous effects on the environment for thousands of years; and

WHEREAS, the Runit Dome is the most visible manifestation of the United States' nuclear legacy, a symbol of the sacrifices the Marshallese people made for the security of the United States, the United States' failure to take ownership of the environmental catastrophe it left behind, and the broken promises the Marshallese people received in return; and

WHEREAS, the March 1st anniversary of the Castle Bravo detonation is designated as Remembrance Day in the Marshall Islands, a national holiday to honor the victims and survivors of the fifteen-megaton dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb device; and

WHEREAS, the Marshallese people experience numerous challenges today connected to the United States nuclear legacy, such as communities that cannot return to their ancestral lands because of lingering contamination, those who were prematurely resettled on contaminated lands, and health issues related to radiation exposure and diaspora, including cancer and other radiogenic illnesses; and

WHEREAS, the Compact of Free Association (COFA) Act of 1985, P.L. 99-239, approved a joint resolution between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands that terminated United States' trusteeship and established the Republic of the Marshall Islands as an independent nation effective October 21, 1986; and

WHEREAS, the COFA Amendments Act of 2003, P.L. 108-188, amended the Compacts in a number of significant ways, including changing the immigration provisions and the citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands have the right to live, study, and work in the United States without a visa; and

WHEREAS, many people from Enewetak Atoll currently reside in Ocean View on the island of Hawaii and pay taxes to the local, state, and federal governments; and

WHEREAS, the people of the Marshall Islands volunteer to serve in the United States Armed Forces at a higher rate per capital compared to United State citizens; and

WHEREAS, the March 10th coming-out-of-the-holes day in Enewetak Atoll, which began in 1944 as a social practice infused with fear, was selected as a day of celebration in the 1970s to commemorate the defeat of Japanese forces by the United States military, and came to be known as "Liberation Day" in the 1980s, one of the most important and enjoyable events on Enewetak Atoll; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2022, that March 10 be designated as Enewetak Atoll (Marshall Islands) Liberation Day in honor of the Enewetak Atoll (Marshall Islands) community in Hawaii; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the

Republic of the Marshall Islands, Governor, Mayor of the County of Hawaii; Mayor of Enewetak Atoll; and Consul General of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in Honolulu.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Republic of the Marshall Islands; Enewetak Atoll Community; Liberation Day; March 10

THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	172
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022
STATE OF HAWAII