For the Good of Mankind


  • Photographer
    Mark Edward Harris
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    2014
  • Technical Info
    Nikon cameras and lenses

A photographic study of the lingering effects of the nuclear testing conducted in the Marshall Islands after World War II on the inhabitants of this island country in the middle of the Pacific.

Story

"For the Good of Mankind"
With the Cold War heating up after World War II, the United States military searched for a location to test its nuclear arsenal. They found an ideal location. Actually an idyllic place, with palm trees swaying in warm gentle breezes on islands around a giant atoll called Kwajalein in the South Pacific. It’s most famous or rather infamous island – Bikini – became Ground Zero. Comedian Bob Hope summed it up with some very sobering words, “As soon as the war ended, we located the one spot on earth that hadn't been touched by the war and blew it to hell."

One minor problem. There were people living there. A delegation was dispatched with a mission. The Bikinians were told that they had to be temporally relocated for “The Good of Mankind.” They did with the idea that they would soon return home. The realities of radiation have not only prevented this but have caused countless cases of thyroid cancer and other medical issues throughout Micronesia.

On islands such as Ebeye, a 78-acre Marshallese island crammed with over 15,000 people, disparagingly known to its Micronesian neighbors as ''The ghetto of the Pacific,'' they remain displaced. But there are some residents like Deonaire Keju, a vice principal at Ebeye Elementary and Middle School, that are trying to change this perception one classroom at a time.

Utilizing extremely limited funds Keju and his fellow educators are working to give their students a global awareness while at the same time retaining their cultural heritage, one that has been bombarded by both missionaries and a procession of opposing military forces. As part of the school’s curriculum, students are educated as to how their families ended up on this tiny sandbar in the middle of the Pacific.

Keju feels that education is the only positive road forward for the inhabitants of this remote troubled island located 2,000 miles southwest of Hawaii, who through no fault of their own, have been tossed around by the rough seas created by outside forces since their “discovery” by European sailors in the sixteenth century. Ironically, one of the tools Keju is embracing in his quest to better educate his students is the Internet, feeling that isolation will only further exacerbate problems, and that creating global citizens is the key to a brighter future.

Most parents however are far more concerned about the reality that health issues can quickly devolve into epidemics because of the high population density, with many families crowded into simple plywood and corrugated metal houses. Compounding the issue is the fact that most inhabitants are under 18 years of age, and there are few employment opportunities.

The people of Bikini – now scattered throughout the Marshall Islands and beyond – cling to the hope that radiated top spoils, flora and fauna can be removed and they can return to their homeland. For the foreseeable future, it remains only a very distant dream.


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