SUVA (The Fiji Times/PINA) — Former Fiji soldiers exposed to nuclear tests while serving on Christmas Island are confident that their court case in Great Britain will be stronger with results of new medical tests.
The group of 100 are suing the British government. They claim that they did not realize they would be involved in the nuclear tests when they left Fiji for the island in the early 1950s, and have suffered health problems since.
The veterans were given a break when a Japanese atomic and hydrogen bomb illness specialist offered the group his help. The Japanese have special expertise in these issues because of their own experience of being bombed.
The specialist, Dr. Tomoharu Saito, is in Fiji to conduct preliminary tests on the servicemen who went to Christmas Island, which is in Kiribati and is now called Kiritimati. Both Fiji and Kiribati were British colonies at the time. This is the first of many tests which will be conducted on the men.
The results of the examinations will also be submitted when Fiji joins other ex-servicemen in a case demanding that the British government admit its responsibility in exposing the veterans to radiation during its nuclear tests.
Japanese and Pacific survivors of nuclear bombing will speak out about their experiences during a public seminar to be held at the University of the South Pacific’s Laucala campus in Suva tomorrow.
“From Hiroshima to Fiji: Victims of Nuclear Bombs Speak Out” has been organized by the university in collaboration with the Pacific Concerns Research Center, a university news release said.
At this public seminar, Japanese and Pacific will survivors tell of their experiences, of the impact of radiation exposure on their health and that of their children, and of their struggle for justice and compensation.
The USP news release said: “Since atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in 1945, people all over the world have been used as nuclear test ‘guinea pigs.’
“Like the victims of the tragic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many civilian and military personnel working at nuclear test sites in the Pacific still suffer from health problems they attribute to radiation exposure.”
