March 1st - Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day, formerly known as Nuclear Victims' Day and Nuclear Survivors' Day, occurs March 1st and is a national holiday in the Marshall Islands. This day honors the victims and survivors of the nuclear testing done in the area between 1946 and 1958, during which time the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons here. Below are resources exploring the Marshall Islands, the nuclear testing, and the aftermath:

Barker, H. M. (2004). Bravo for the Marshallese: regaining control in a post-nuclear, post-colonial world. Bellmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson.

"This case study describes the role an applied anthropologist takes on the help Marshallese communities understand the impact of radiation exposure on the environment and themselves, and addresses problems stemming from the U.S. nuclear weapons testing program conducted in the Marshall Islands from 1946-1958." -from publisher

Oishi, M. (2011). The day the sun rose in the West: Bikini, the Lucky Dragon, and I. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press.

"On March 1, 1954, the U.S. exploded a hydrogen bomb at Bikini in the South Pacific. The fifteen-megaton bomb was a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, and its fallout spread far beyond the official "no-sail" zone the U.S. had designated. Fishing just outside the zone at the time of the blast, the Lucky Dragon #5 was showered with radioactive ash.... twenty-year-old Oishi Matashichi and his shipmates became from maladies they could not comprehend..." - from publisher

Smith-Norris, M. (2016). Domination and resistance: the United States and the Marshall Islands during the Cold War. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i.

"Domination and Resistance illuminates the twin themes of superpower domination and indigenous resistance in the central Pacific during the Cold War, with a compelling historical examination of the relationship between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Post World War II, the U.S. tested a vast array of powerful nuclear bombs and missiles in the Marshalls... this led to the displacement of several atoll communities, serious health implications for the Marshallese, and widespread ecological degradation." - from publisher