Half Life: A Parable for the Nuclear Age

Shortly after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American military wanted to find a 'suitable' site for further nuclear testing. They designated the Marshall Islands, a group of small atolls in the Pacific Ocean. As it was, the Americans had just captured these islands from the Japanese and the islanders made up a relatively small and politically powerless group of aborigines. The United Nations Strategic Trust Agreement, signed in 1947, obliged the United States to recognize and respect the fundamental rights and freedom of the population. This did not keep the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission from setting off at least sixty-six atomic and hydrogen bombs on these islands between 1946 and 1958. 'Bravo' was the code-name for the first H-bomb test. Documents have revealed that the main goal of operation 'Bravo' was to show to the Soviet Union that America did in fact have such a bomb and to collect as much information as possible on the effects of the fallout resulting from an explosion. In this case, fallout of an especially lethal quality, purpose-made for 'Bravo'. Although the 'Bravo'-bomb was five hundred times as heavy as earlier test bombs, the inhabitants of the island of Rongelap were neither evacuated nor warned. The bomb was set off on a desert island, but the wind blew the cloud of radioactive fallout towards Rongelap. Already the same night the entire population showed serious disease symptoms. The American ships in the vicinity could have saved the people but were ordered to leave the area. When these events were finally brought to public notice the officials claimed that a mistake had been made due to the "direction of the wind having suddenly changed". In HALF LIFE O'Rourke demonstrates that the U.S. government deliberately followed this course of action, degrading the population of Rongelap to guinea-pigs for the purpose of a terrible form of science.