The Marshallese community held its March 1st nuclear victims’ remembrance event in Salem, Ore., for the first time last Sunday — and organizers say the turnout exceeded expectations. 

“It was a success,” said the master of ceremony, Antonio Elio. “A lot of people came out for a first time.”

More than 500 people attended, they kept pouring into the auditorium at the Protestant Church in Southeast Salem. 

“Today’s event was the idea of the Consulate General,” said Elio, who is originally from Majuro. “This the first time it has been held in Salem.” He added that the gathering is expected to grow in the coming years.

The event was organized quickly this year, as Consul General Eldon Alik was attending a Compact of Free Association event in Utah on February 27th. Elio said Alik hopes that future commemorations may receive sponsorship from the state of Oregon. “And they’d be big,” said Eloi.

Alik, for his part, said this is too important of an event not to host something. 

“For a day like this, we all know what happened,” Alik said. “So, it is my duty to ensure we teach the young generation and each other what happened years ago.”

Alik emphasized that the annual remembrance is essential for educating younger generations. Alike said, “For a day like this, we all know what happened. It is my duty to make sure we teach the young generation — and each other — about what happened years ago.”

The event was a joyous occasion, a lot of laughter at the same time, it was a very solemn one for the entire community. 

It was joyous, according to a long time member of the Church, 22-year old Portis Mellon, because it brought members of the community together. 

The event was presented through the Church and taught the new generation resilience in the face of struggle. It also gave them new hope with a pinch of gratitude.

“Today,” said Mellon who recently went back to the Marshalls with his youth group, “it reminded us, the young generation, of our roots, where we came from. So, we’re celebrating our elders and our parents. Some of us young kids don’t know much about the language, so this event brings us closer to learn about language, culture through the church. It brings us closer to God and his word.”

There were members of the youth that took the stage and sang in Marshallese. After they lei’ed the elders with marmars.

Sylvia Lolia, from Utrik Atoll, said the kids learn faster when learning the language from the Bible.

“But I was really surprised when I went back home three weeks ago,” she said. “Kids and their parents were speaking English to everyone…like Chinese, Filipino…it was very sad. It was different. The culture has really been mixed.”

There was plenty of singing from the youth choir members, speeches from the old members and food as they remembered their loved ones, their relatives and their countrymen.  

Towards the end of the program, both old and young took a pause, they turned out the lights, and lit candles to remember the event that took place some 72 years ago. 

March 1, 1954, is one of the most significant dates in the history of the Marshall Islands that’s recognized annually, since the displacement of the Marshallese people and the eventual nuclear tests, one of which obliterated an entire island.

“When the U.S. was looking for places to test their newly discovered nuclear potential in the 1940s and 1950s, one place seemed perfect — the remote Bikini Atoll (in the Marshalls),” stated the Marshallese program. (It was) “free of naval and air traffic and in the middle of nowhere.”

The people living in the Bikini Atoll were relocated in 1946 as the U.S. began their nuclear testing program. 8 years later the U.S. conducted its most powerful nuclear test: the Castle Bravo test. 

“On March 1, 1954; at 6:45 a.m., the United States detonated ‘Castle Bravo’ at Bikini Atoll,” stated an online overview.

“This was the first test of a deliverable hydrogen bomb and the most powerful nuclear device ever tested by the U.S. It was 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.”

“The test was far more powerful than expected, resulting in massive radioactive fallout that spread over thousands of square miles, including the inhabited atolls of Rongelap, Ailinginae, Rongerik, and Utirik. Islanders suffered from acute radiation sickness, including burns, hair loss, and nausea.”

Now, given the fact that the Federated States of Micronesia is downwind from the Marshalls, as is Guam, there has admittedly never been a comprehensive and conclusive testing of nuclear fallout in the western Micronesian islands. 

And it makes one wonder about birth defects and cancer cases and such, if those were not related to the 1954 Castle Bravo detonation.

There is widespread and scientifically verified radioactive fallout that reaches as far west as Guam. 

If Guam, why couldn’t it also arrive in those places directly below Guam, like FSM?

“While the U.S. government has acknowledged the nuclear legacy, the full extent of the contamination in neighboring islands remains a subject of debate, with many local, independent studies suggesting a more severe, widespread impact than historically acknowledged.” 

Leaders of FSM, it is the opinion of Chikin Melele that you should demand those tests done from the U.S. Government — comprehensively and conclusively. Or, have it done independently.

It’s a matter of life and death… unexplained!