BENTONVILLE — NorthWest Arkansas Community College will hold an event to commemorate the victims of the March 1, 1954, thermonuclear detonation that contaminated Bikini Atoll and the surrounding area as part of the college’s spring themed semester on the Marshall Islands.
The event will begin at noon Feb. 28 in Student Center 108 on the Bentonville campus. It is free and open to the public. There will be remarks from Republic of the Marshall Islands Consul General Carmen Chong Gum, a candlelight service and a presentation by Columbia University Fellow Dr. Jessica A. Schwartz, according to a college news release.
At A Glance
Marshall Islands Semester
For more information about the Marshall Islands Semester at NorthWest Arkansas Community College, contact Dr. April L. Brown at 479-619-2231 or [email protected].
Source: Staff Report
The commemoration is divided into two parts to facilitate the college’s class schedule. The first begins at noon and lasts until 1:15 p.m., and will feature Marshallese music and Schwartz’s presentation “That is the reason I wrote this song: Revisiting Our Nuclear Legacy through Marshallese Remembrance Songs,” the release stated.
The second half will start at 1:30 p.m., and includes a documentary viewing of the impact of the nuclear testing, a candlelight service and a reading of names of victims from the atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Utrik, the release stated.
The U.S. military conducted nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958. The March 1 test, known as the Castle Bravo test, detonated a thermonuclear weapon over Bikini Atoll that was 7,000 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb. The test irradiated neighboring atolls inhabited by Marshallese who were unaware of the test or its potential consequences. The nuclear tests had major consequences on the geology and environment of the islands and on the health of the Marshallese people, many of whom now live in Northwest Arkansas. The Bikini Atoll test site was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in August 2010, the release stated.
The Marshall Islands Themed Semester marks the college’s fifth annual spring themed semester.