Expendable lands and colonial legacies: Nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands

The US’s testing of nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, which has wrought ruinous health and environmental impacts down the years, reflects a colonialist attitude of exploitation and disregard.

Alicia Berube

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NUCLEAR colonialism refers to the practice whereby colonial powers choose territories inhabited by marginalised and Indigenous populations to conduct nuclear testing with little regard for the effects on the local populations. The term encapsulates the colonialist view of Indigenous peoples and their territories as expendable. This attitude of expendability is foundational to colonialism and its legacies; nuclear colonialism represents one particularly dramatic phase in a lengthy, destructive history and its perpetuating legacy.

Beginning in 1945 and throughout the Cold War, over 2,000 nuclear tests were conducted in various territories by various states, with the US responsible for the majority of these tests. The US government’s process of selecting the Marshall Islands for nuclear testing reveals the colonialist attitudes that informed its decision. The search criteria required that the territory be remote, away from US populations, and under US control. When testifying to the US Congress, officials brazenly said of the site, ‘Above all, it had to be away from population centers of US …  and yet in an area controlled by the US.’

The Marshall Islands fulfilled every criterion: a remote island archipelago in the Pacific Ocean under US occupation since 1944, following two years in which the US military transformed the territory into a battlefield while driving out the Japanese military administration. The US wasted no time in using the already ravaged islands for military ends: on 1 July 1946 – less than a year after the devastating nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the first peacetime nuclear test was conducted on Bikini Atoll. Between 1946 and 1958, the US conducted 66 additional nuclear tests on the islands concentrated on two atolls, but the fallout blanketed many of the other 27 atolls that make up the Marshall Islands.

In 1947, the United Nations officially placed the Marshall Islands under the trusteeship of the US. The stipulations of this agreement included paradoxical obligations, spelled out in Articles 5 and 6 of the document. Article 5 obligated the US to ensure the trust territory contributed to ‘the maintenance of international peace and security’, thus validating its use for military ends. Article 6, conversely, sets forth the obligations of the governing state to ensure and promote the governed territory’s independence, protection and security. It explicitly states the obligation to ‘protect the inhabitants against the loss of their lands and resources’.

While the agreement lacked explicit permission to use the territories for nuclear testing, both the broad administrative and military control it granted the US and the narrative that the tests were imperative to national security justified the testing that took place. However, the known effects of nuclear testing meant that any nuclear explosions on the islands rendered the obligation from Article 6 impossible to uphold; in fact, any testing directly ensured the violation of the obligation.

Not only have the Marshallese experienced devastating health consequences – including higher incidences of cancer – but significant radiological contamination remains on the islands, including in the locally grown foods, rendering parts of the Marshall Islands uninhabitable. This contamination robs displaced Marshallese people of the opportunity to safely inhabit their native lands and live according to their culture and tradition. Although certain compensation schemes have been set up over the last few decades, they remain egregiously inadequate to address the scale of the problem, including the devastating health impacts and the ongoing environmental challenges. 

The broader context of US colonial exploitation

The willingness of the US to exploit the Marshall Islands under nuclear colonialism is only one piece of a vast colonial legacy. Since the 19th century, the US has continually annexed territories under conditions that sanction their exploitation, as evidenced by its acquisition of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines following the conclusion of the Spanish-American war in 1898. Shortly following the annexation of these territories, US senator Albert Beveridge remarked that God ‘has made us the master organizers of the world … that we may administer … among savage and senile peoples’.

After these territories were acquired, the US Supreme Court ruled that they would remain under US control as unincorporated territories in the Insular Cases. This served to prevent the full realisation of constitutional rights for the citizens of these territories. In keeping the territories unincorporated, the US retained plenary power over these regions, enabling them to implement policies and decisions without the consent of the governed. The strategic classification of the territories as constitutional exceptions was informed by the settler colonisation of Native American peoples and territories and made on the basis that the inhabitants, like Native Americans, were ‘unfit for automatic citizenship or for territorial sovereignty’.  The colonialist attitudes that informed the decision to deprive these territories of constitutional protections paved the avenue for their exploitation.

Like all other colonised territories, Puerto Rico draws remarkable parallels to the Marshall Islands. Puerto Ricans posed minimal resistance to US control in 1898 under the impression that US occupation would facilitate their independence. However, US interest in Puerto Rico was strategic, fuelled by the compelling economic and military value the territory would provide. The region was ideal for expanding US commercial and military reach.

In pursuit of these military and economic ends, the US displaced Puerto Ricans, exploited their lands and disrupted their ways of life. These actions have resulted in significant environmental damage and health issues, such as contamination of land and water sources, increased cancer rates and other chronic illnesses among the local population.

Today, the Marshall Islands and Puerto Rico remain hindered by their history of occupation. Both territories struggle to realise economic independence due to the systemic exploitation of their resources and people by colonial powers. Their ongoing economic challenges and public health crises result directly from the policies and actions of the US and its failure to compensate the territories adequately.

This history of exploitation and disregard for Indigenous and marginalised populations underscores the broader patterns of colonialism that persist in various forms. Nuclear colonialism, as illustrated by the US actions in the Marshall Islands, is a stark reminder of how colonial legacies continue to inflict harm and maintain inequities. Nuclear testing is extraordinary in the novelty and nature of the weapons and their effects but very typical in terms of how former colonial powers treat smaller populations and territories under their control – as expendable.     

Alicia Berube wrote this article while interning with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, from whose website (www.wagingpeace.org) it is reproduced. She is a Wellesley College graduate with a Peace and Justice Studies bachelor’s degree, and is completing her Master’s in International and Development Studies with a concentration in human rights.

*Third World Resurgence No. 360, 2024/3, pp 24-25