A film by Adam Jonas Horowitz

Nuclear Savage is a powerful and emotional documentary that explores the American nuclear testing in the North Pacific Marshall Islands, 1946-1958, and particularly the secret Project 4.1: an American experiment exposing Pacific Islanders to overdoses of radiation—deliberate human radiation poisoning.

Between 1946 and 1958 the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons above ground on or near Bikini and Enewetok Islands. One hydrogen bomb, the 1954 Castle Bravo test, was 1000 times larger than the Hiroshima bomb. Entire islands were vaporized and populated islands were blanketed with fallout. As the film shows, the heavily exposed people of Rongelap were then enrolled as human “guinea pigs” in the top-secret Project 4.1 and evacuated to a severely contaminated island to study the effects of eating radioactive food for nearly 30 years. Many of the Marshall Islanders developed cancers and had babies that were stillborn or born with serious birth defects.

Nuclear Savage follows the islanders today as they continue to fight for justice and acknowledgement of what was done to them. Despite recent disclosures, the U.S. government continues to deny that the islanders were deliberately used as human guinea pigs. The film raises disturbing questions about racism, the U.S. government’s moral obligation to the people of the Marshall Islands, and why the government is continuing to cover up the intent of the tests and Project 4.1 after several decades.

On April 24, 2014, the Marshall Islands filed a set of lawsuits at the International Court of Justice at The Hague suing nine nuclear-armed nations: The United States, The United Kingdom, Russia, China, France, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea. They also filed a suit against the United States in a San Francisco federal court. In the suits, the Marshall Islands accused all nine nations of “flagrant violation of international law” for failing to pursue the negotiations required by the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The lawsuits also claim the nine countries are modernizing their nuclear arsenals instead of negotiating disarmament, and it estimates that they will spend $1 trillion on those arsenals over the next decade.

On July 21, the U.S. filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, in which President Barack Obama is named, along with the Departments of Defense and Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration. The U.S. argues that their reasons for breaching their obligations are “justifiable, and not subject to the court’s jurisdiction,” according to a statement from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Sponsored by Peace Action of Central New York. Peace Action CNY promotes peace and antimilitarism, mobilizing action to abolish nuclear weapons and nuclear power through lobbying, educational events and demonstrations. www.peaceactioncny.org

Free to the Public