nuclear-news

“Nuclear Savage” shows recently declassified films about Marshall Islands bombing

John Dear will speak  Nov. 9 at the Call to Action conference in Louisville, Ky. To see John’s 2012 speaking schedule, go to John Dear’s website . His new book, Lazarus, Come Forth! , explores Jesus as the God of life calling humanity (in the symbol of the dead Lazarus) out of the tombs of the culture of war and death. John’s talk at last year’s Sabeel conference in Bethlehem is featured in the new book Challenging Empire . John is profiled with Dan Berrigan and Roy Bourgeois in a new book, Divine Rebels  by Deena Guzder (Lawrence Hill Books). This book and other recent books, including Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings ; Put Down Your Sword  and A Persistent Peace , are available from Amazon.com.

Nuclear Savage’: A powerful new documentary on U.S. hydrogen bombs, National Catholic Reporter,  John Dear S.J.  |  Oct. 30, 2012 Recently, I saw a powerful, disturbing new documentary about the U.S. hydrogen bomb explosions in the islands in the South Pacific, the U.S. government’s campaign to keep the indigenous people on those contaminated islands and the U.S. government’s secret program to monitor the effects of radiation on them.

“Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1 ,” a film by former Greenpeace activist Adam Horowitz, uses recently declassified government film footage of the hydrogen bombs we dropped in the South Pacific and recent interviews with survivors to tell this nightmarish nuclear tale. In old black-and-white footage, we see excited white, U.S. military men speaking somberly into the camera about the glories of the hydrogen bomb and describing how well “the savages,” his term for the people of the Marshall Islands, were responding to our nuclear bomb explosions. The combination of militarism, U.S. imperialism, nuclear weapons, environmental destruction, sheer racism and total disregard for these gentle, impoverished people is shocking, to say the least.

Of course, the real savages are the Americans who built and dropped these bombs and who maintain our nuclear weapons industry today.

Sixty-seven U.S. hydrogen bombs were exploded in the 1950s in the Marshall Islands — the equivalent of more than 7,000 Hiroshima bombs. They vaporized several small islands, poisoned the land and sea, destroyed natural life and caused immeasurable suffering to thousands of people across generations, bringing thyroid cancer, genetic defects, miscarriages and various other illnesses.

“Nuclear Savage” demonstrates how the U.S. government used the Marshall Islanders as human guinea pigs for more than three decades to study the effects of radiation sickness. As I watched the film and heard the heartbreaking testimony of the islanders, I kept thinking how the U.S. military doctors resembled the Nazi criminal doctors who experimented on human beings. Then, at the end of the film, we’re shown footage of the Nazi doctors, and are told clearly how the U.S. military violated U.S. law, international law, the Nuremberg Principles and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that “no one shall be subject without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.”  …..

Of course, the United States should dismantle its nuclear weapons and bombs, close Los Alamos, get rid of nuclear power, make massive reparation to the Marshallese, end the insane Star Wars program and ongoing Vandenberg nuclear tests, and clean up the world from our radioactive waste. This film tells the truth about ourselves, about our nuclear savagery, and calls us to repent of our nuclear violence and do what we can for the Marhsallese, the environment, disarmament, human rights and justice, that one day we might have a world without hydrogen bombs and war.

John Dear will speak today at Springfield College in Springfield, Mass., and lead a day of reflection, “Peace and Justice Rising!: On the Resurrection Accounts of Jesus” on Nov. 9 at the Call to Action conference in Louisville, Ky. To see John’s 2012 speaking schedule, go to John Dear’s website . His new book, Lazarus, Come Forth! , explores Jesus as the God of life calling humanity (in the symbol of the dead Lazarus) out of the tombs of the culture of war and death. John’s talk at last year’s Sabeel conference in Bethlehem is featured in the new book Challenging Empire . John is profiled with Dan Berrigan and Roy Bourgeois in a new book, Divine Rebels  by Deena Guzder (Lawrence Hill Books). This book and other recent books, including Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings ; Put Down Your Sword  and A Persistent Peace , are available from Amazon.com.

http://ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/nuclear-savage-powerful-new-documentary-us-hydrogen-bombs

November 1, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Resources -audiovicual