On March 1st this year, the 70th anniversary of the Castle Bravo at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands will be marked. In this test, Hydrogen bomb(thermonuclear weapon) was exploded with a yield of 15 megatons. This was over a 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The nuclear explosion affected not only people living the Marshall Islands, but also many tuna fishing boats including Daigo Fukuryumaru(Lucky Dragon). In Japan, the test is known as “the Bikini incident” or “the Daigo Fukuryumaru incident”.
Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day is held every year on March 1st and people commemorate all victims and survivors of nuclear testing across the Pacific. The day is also designated as a public holiday in the Republic of Marshall Islands, and victims of 67 times nuclear tests by the US from 1946-58 on the Marshall Islands are commemorated.
We interviewed Setsuko Shimomoto from Kochi. She is a daughter of Tobei Oguro, a fisherman on fisher boat "Dainana Daimaru", who got affected from the nuclear test "Bravo" 70 years ago. She is the leader of the plaintiffs in lawsuit against the government. She visited Marshall Islands for the first time this year, to attend the memorial ceremony.
