The nuclear atrocities committed by the US against the Marshall Islands come alive in six minutes of poetry and images

You were a whole island, once.

Who remembers you beyond your death?

Who would have us forget that you were once green globes of fruit, Pandanus roots and whispers of canoes?

Poet, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner and director Dan Lin take you to the Marshall Islands, its beauty, its history, its legends and traditions. And its deadly radioactive curse. The US “tested” 67 atomic bombs on the Marshall Islands, destroying atolls, sickening and displacing people, treating humans like guinea-pigs, and abusing one of the most pristine places on Earth as its radioactive trash bin.

There must be more to this than incinerated trees, a cracked dome, a rising sea, a leaking nuclear waste with no fence.

There must be more to this than a concrete shell that houses death.

Much has been written — and not enough read, especially in the US — about the secret and appalling atrocities committed on the people, animals, land, and waters of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. But for all our words and speeches, perhaps nothing captures the sadness and loss felt by Marshall Islanders better than these six minutes of Jetnil-Kijiner’s poetry and Lin’s images. Watching this, we are moved to understand what this has meant, still means today, and will forever.

Who gave them this power?

Who anointed them with the power to burn?

Please watch Anointed and share. And read John Pilger’s article here on our website, about his visit to Bikini Atoll and the RMI in 2016.