Ill will lingers over atoll test blast

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

The message of the service was spiritual: American society must seek forgiveness for detonating a hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll 50 years ago.

After yesterday's service, however, those gathered in the sanctuary of Harris United Methodist Church conveyed a political message as well. As the pipe organ filled the church with music, the congregation wrote letters to the Hawai'i congressional delegation seeking full redress for the Marshall Islands survivors of the nuclear-testing blast.

The service marked the ritual end of the anniversary observance in Honolulu, which also included the ringing of the Nagasaki Peace Bell on Sunday and a trip by a Hawai'i contingent to weekend ceremonies at Majuro in the Marshall Islands.

The Honolulu observance was organized by Harris parishioners as well as the congregation of the Honolulu Marshallese United Church of Christ. Its pastor, the Rev. Rensiper Lalimo, delivered the main sermon.

Lalimo said he lived with his parents in the 1970s on Kili island, where many people native to Bikini had been moved before the destruction of the atoll.

Despite receiving compensation checks from the United States, some losses could not be overcome, he said. In addition to the persistent diseases from the fallout of the various hydrogen- and nuclear-bomb tests, Lalimo said, the Bikini people were bereft of their indigenous means of life. Traditional mainstays, such as fishing, were diminished by contamination, and Lalimo said Bikinians grew dependent on the compensation checks.

"I spoke to a Kili person who said, 'Wrong assumptions are made by people who think we are rich because of what we are getting from the U.S. But I'm telling you that we are the most needy. We cannot go back to our lands and learn the skills our forefathers had,' " he said.

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.