Return to Rongelap, 1957

The exposed Rongelap people and 200 other Rongelapese, who were not on the atoll at the time of the Bravo shot, were returned to their home islands at the end of June.

On February 27, 1957, the AEC informed the commander of the Pacific Fleet that resettlement was approved

despite lingering residual radiation, most pertinently, in the food supply

should be exposed to no further radiation, external or internal with the exception of essential diagnostic and therapeutic x-rays for at least 12 years. If allowance is made for unknown effects of surface dose and internal deposition there probably should be no exposure for rest of natural lives.

we are committed to return the people to their homes and that is their express wish

it appears we will have to settle for the external readings only

The Advisory Committee has not been able to learn why Dunning’s advice to carry out a more thorough, land-based survey was not heeded.

the radioactive contamination of Rongelap Island is considered perfectly safe for human habitation

The habitation of these people on this island will afford most valuable ecological radiation data on human beings.

Nevertheless, the Advisory Committee does not conclude that the resettlement decision was motivated by AEC research goals.

It is likely that many if not most of the controls selected had some radiation exposure resulting from the bomb tests.

They said we were preparing the foods incorrectly, or that we had fish poisoning.

We had to believe that our island was radioactive, and we evacuated ourselves from Rongelap in 1985.

Foreign doctors and other officials called those people the "control group", and we were told the sickness of that group proved our illnesses were common to all Marshallese.