Bombs over Bikini : the world's first nuclear disaster / Connie Goldsmith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goldsmith, Connie, 1945- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Atomic bomb--Testing--Marshall Islands--Bikini Island.

Atomic bomb.

Nuclear weapons--Marshall Islands--Bikini Atoll--Testing.

Nuclear weapons.

Bikinians--Relocation--Marshall Islands.

Bikinians.

Nuclear weapons testing victims--Marshall Islands--Bikini Atoll.

Nuclear weapons testing victims.

Nuclear weapons testing victims--Marshall Islands--Rongelap Atoll.

Bikini Atoll (Marshall Islands)--History.

Bikini Atoll (Marshall Islands).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (88 pages) : illustrations, map

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : Twenty-First Century Books, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In 1946, as part of the Cold War arms race, the US military launched a program to test nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific Ocean. From 1946 until 1958, the military detonated sixty-seven nuclear bombs over the region's Bikini and Enewetak Atolls. The twelfth bomb, called Bravo, became the world's first nuclear disaster. It sent a toxic cloud of radiation over Rongelap Atoll and other nearby inhabited islands.The testing was intended to advance scientific knowledge about nuclear bombs and radiation, but it had much more far-reaching effects. Some of the islanders suffered burns, cancers, birth defects, and other medical tragedies as a result of radiation poisoning. Many of the Marshallese were resettled on other Pacific islands or in the United States. They and their descendants cannot yet return to Bikini, which remains contaminated by radiation. And while the United States claims it is now safe to resettle Rongelap, only a few construction workers live there on a temporary basis.For Bombs over Bikini, author Connie Goldsmith researched government documents, military film footage, and other primary source documents to tell the story of the world's first nuclear disaster. You'll meet the people who planned the test operations, the Marshall Islanders who lost their homes and suffered from radiation illnesses, and those who have worked to hold the US government accountable for catastrophically poor planning. Was the new knowledge about nuclear bombs and radiation worth the cost in human suffering? You decide.

Contents:

Toxic snowfall

A good place for a bomb

Able: the first bomb

Baker: the water bomb

Bravo: the big bomb

Rongelap's radiation refugees

Bikini's nuclear nomads

A brighter future?.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (pages 82-83) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4677-2545-5