Bikini Atoll, 1954

The world trembled when America dropped the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world trembled once again years later, but this time to the heavy steps of Godzilla. Along with him came his highly radioactive body leaving trails of radioactive residue. His main abilities were his plasma breath ray, immunity to normal weapons, giant strength, and he can reproduce a-sexually. He was created for a horror movie that showed the effect of what worried the Japanese at the time- Nuclear weapons. In the movie, he represents pure evil, destroying everything in his path. He is, however, only a product of mankind, and cannot help that fact. What drew the great beast from the ocean depths? Godzilla was created by H-Bomb testing at Bikini Atoll, 1954. The director of the film was inspired after the radioactive fallout from the test scorched a Japanese fishing vessel, The Lucky Dragon, with deadly effects. They were supposedly in a "safe" zone. Many of its crew were seriously burned and despite intensive medical care, one man on the Lucky Dragon died from radiation sickness. In the Godzilla movie, originally named Gojira, the director ended the movie with a lesson that the American producer cut out. After the failure of conventional arms, a horrible but non-atomic weapon puts an end to Godzilla's wrath, and unlike the Americans and their H-bombs, the Japanese destroy the secret of their super-weapon, saving future generations. Why did they cut that out? Could it have anything to do with the biological weapons testing on Bikini Atoll?

At the end of World War II, the United States was granted control over 29 Atolls and five islands that compose the Marshall Islands. At that time, Harry S. Truman decided that the testing of nuclear weapons would be necessary “to determine the effects of atomic bombs on American warships.” In 1946, about 167 Bikinians were relocated from their ill-fated homeland to Rongerik Atoll where they suffered from starvation and fought to maintain their culture and raise a family. The U.S. began their destruction of the island.

A nuclear weapon is "a weapon that derives its energy from the nuclear reactions of fission and/or fusion." Even the smallest nuclear weapons are more powerful than all but the largest of conventional explosives. Many of these weapons were tested on Bikini Atoll over a period of eight years, but one test in particular would nearly destroy the island and infect it and the natives for years to come. Their Bikini Atoll would be the test site of the massive and destructive hydrogen bomb, code named Bravo. The U.S. went through with this test although they knew the wind was blowing towards the inhabited islands. What was seen as being “a second sun rising” by islanders about 125 miles east of the blast, sent millions of tons of sand, coral, plant, and sea-life high into the air and along with it was the radiation fallout, a descent of minute particles of radioactive material. One half hour after the blast, the men of The Lucky Dragon were awestruck by the white ash falling from the sky covering them and the vessel. Unsuspecting, they were all exposed to the fallout, as well as 64 people on Rongelap Atoll and 18 residing on Ailinginae Atoll, about three to four hours after. Their skin began to itch soon after coming in contact with the ash, and then suffered burns, nausea and vomiting, and in many cases, death. The natives received no warning or explanation. Two days after the test, the terrified people of Rongelap were taken to Kwajalein for medical treatment.

Why did the U.S. choose the peaceful Marshall Islands as a test site for the atomic bombs? It is said the reason was because the islands happened to be in a convenient location away from regular air and sea travel, and by the time nuclear weapon testing in the Marshall Islands was stopped in 1958, sixteen nuclear-weapon tests had been conducted on Bikini Atoll over a 12-year period. They were carried out in or over the Atoll lagoon, thereby scattering the explosion’s effects over all the islands. In August 1968, following a number of radiological surveys, it was announced that Bikini Atoll was safe for habitation and approved for resettlement. Three Bikinian families returned