On September 22, local time, during the general debate of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Sogavare angrily criticized Japan's practice of discharging nuclear-contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean: "Solomon Islands stands with like-minded Pacific island countries and is shocked by Japan's decision to discharge more than 1 million tons of nuclear water into the ocean. If this nuclear wastewater is safe, it should be stored in Japan. The fact that it was dumped into the ocean is precisely what shows that it is unsafe. ”
"[Japan's decision] is telling us that our [Solomon Islands] lives, our people, don't matter!"
In addition, Sogavare denounced the history of nuclear tests carried out by countries such as the United States in the Pacific, asking: "Do we have a voice?" We never have. "
An island nation that lives on the sea
Where is the Solomon Islands? Why is Japan's decision threatening the lives of Solomon Islanders? First, let's take a look at the map:
Located northeast of Australia and east of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands is a country of more than 990 islands. The total land area is about 28,400 square kilometers, of which the largest island is Guadalcanal.
As an island nation, Solomon Islands' economy and food sources are highly dependent on marine resources.
According to statistics, in 2021 alone, its agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery industry accounted for 33.6% of GDP, while the service industry, which relies on marine resources, mainly tourism, accounted for 48.7%, and it can be said that the ocean occupies more than half of the Solomon Islands' economic resources.
However, after Japan began to discharge nuclear water into the Pacific Ocean despite international opposition, the economic lifeline of the Solomon Islands could be devastated.
According to the numerical simulation of the research team of Tsinghua University, after the nuclear sewage is discharged into the sea, it will quickly spread to the entire Pacific Ocean, and it will not be long before the Solomon Islands will be surrounded by seawater containing radioactive materials!
Not only will Solomon Islands' food sources be contaminated, but its sea-dependent tourism industry will also be devastated due to the potential radioactivity in the sea.
More importantly, unlike landlocked countries, where people can live far from the sea, the people of island countries who can only live by the sea will be directly affected by nuclear pollution, and how much their health will be affected we cannot estimate!
A former nuclear test site
In fact, another important reason why Pacific island countries such as the Solomon Islands strongly oppose Japan's discharge of nuclear sewage is that they have already suffered from nuclear radiation.
During World War II, the Solomon Islands were an important battlefield for Japan and the United States, and the famous Battle of Guadalcanal took place on Guadalcanal, where Honiara, the current capital of the Solomon Islands, is located.
After the victory in World War II, the United States conducted a series of nuclear tests near the Marshall Islands, northeast of Solomon Islands, for the purpose of testing the power of nuclear weapons.
It is said that between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated more than 60 nuclear weapons, including famous nuclear tests such as "Crossroads" and "Mike", and even dumped more than 130 tons of radioactive soil from the Nevada nuclear test site in the Marshall Islands.
To observe the effects of living organisms under a nuclear explosion, they tied countless animals to the deck just to observe how they were blown up into powder by a nuclear bomb.
But it's not just animals, everyone on Bikini Atoll is the subject of a U.S. nuclear test, and they don't know about it.
When the first atomic bomb exploded on Bikini Island, the people on the island heard a loud noise, and they woke up from their dream and were not notified and ran out of the house in a panic, overwhelmed in the clearing. But that's exactly what the U.S. wants to see, and they want to see what kind of effects exposure to the dust of a nuclear bomb would have on the human body.
Several women who were bathing by the well after waking up early that day later recalled that they heard a loud explosion, and then gradually saw strange white dust falling from the sky, they did not know what it was, so they did not care, and washed their hair with well water mixed with this dust. But after a few days, their hair began to fall out, and some even itched all over and began to peel!
According to records, some of the bikini people of the time survived, but all had cancer! Not only that, but the once beautiful Bikini Island has now become the "most polluted place in the world", where you can't see people living here, not even animals.
At the same time, the inhabitants of the surrounding islands have also lived under the pollution of nuclear radiation for a long time, and the nuclear radiation in this area has always existed, causing all kinds of strange diseases to emerge from the residents here, and even babies who are not human-shaped!
epilogue
The lesson of Marshall Island is just around the corner, so Solomon Islands and other Pacific island countries resist Japan's discharge of nuclear sewage is extremely strong, but where do weak island countries have any say, Japan still launched a nuclear sewage discharge operation, and is even about to discharge the second batch!
Even if they are weak, they are still resisting. Sogavare concluded: "I have an obligation to speak up for people, for nature and for our children and grandchildren. The ocean carries our past, present and future, is the foundation of our existence and a symbol of our identity. Please stop discharging treated nuclear wastewater, or history will judge us. ”