No Place to Hide

ABCnet.AU D Grieser

David Bradley was not exactly a whistle-blower, I suppose, because he was not directly punished for his book or his comments. But he, like so many other truth-tellers, was overlooked by history as a hero.

I wish we could learn from the oversights of the past, and pay attention more closely to the truths we are hearing now. If you think about it, input from those who actually know what they are talking about ought to drive policy-making, and not the propaganda of lobbyists paid to influence.

It seems so simple...

I knew one of those Navy sailors. I met him when he was much older, of course. He said they outfitted everyone on board with a little radiation detector and someone would come check it regularly, but they didn't explain it to anyone or tell them what was going on.

He was a neat guy...survived a hell of a lot in WWII just by sheer cussedness.

Richard,

Thank you for sharing this. I had heard bits and pieces about it in the past. I will have to read more about it now.

V--

Oral history.

When I was in college, we had an assignment to take oral histories from people of various generations and genders.

When we speak to people, like the sailor who you met, and we record what they say, their story becomes a part of history.

I hope David Bradley's book No Place to Hide will be reprinted upon his death. It has more relevance today, than we realise.

The French conducted nuclear testing in the South Pacific until 1990. "The bloody French!" was a phrase that slipped off everyone's tongue whenever something negative was happening in the South Pacific, in my backyard. Now, though further away, it's "the bloody Americans!" Or, "the bloody Israelis!"

Environmental Effects of French Nuclear Testing

The following report has been distributed by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, as a result of renwewed interest in French nuclear testing in the South Pacific. It is an updated version of Chapter 9 from the book "Radioactive Heaven and Earth: the health and environmental effects of nuclear weapons testing, in, on, and above the earth."(New York, Apex Press, 1991) It is one of the few published sources for information on this subject, and reveals that although only limited environmental impact reports have been conducted in French Polynesia,and despite restrictions imposed by the French, they still highlight the threat to the environment in the Pacific posed by the French nuclear testing programme.

In 1949, with the chill of the Cold War descending across Europe, the USSR tested a nuclear weapon and the arms race was on. In September 1950, British Prime Minister Clement Atlee wrote to Australian PM Robert Menzies, who embraced the chance for Australia to be used as a nuclear test site by the British military. The Monte-Bello Islands, off the north-west coast of Western Australia were chosen as the site of the first tests.

Operation Hurricane

And so it was that on October 3 1952, the 1000 tonne warship HMS Plym came to be anchored off Trimouille Island with a 25 kilotonne nuclear weapon in the hold. At 0800 hours local time, the ship was blown away in 'a vast upheaval of water rising rapidly'1 and the British military at last had access to its own nuclear capability. The survey teams moved into the contaminated zone to recover their measuring devices. They recorded heavy contamination to the north of the blast zone, where most of the fallout was occurring. Unknown to the test personnel, the southerly Leeuwin current would wash the fallout back toward the Western Australian coast.

The consequences of nuclear weaponry has forever to play out. There are few places on the planet that are not riddled with depleted uranium, most of which has the American stamp-of-deliverance upon it. Korea, Vietnam, South America, Afghanistan, Iraq. Our own and allies' personnel who have been in our warzones over the past 7 years will wear it home. As those of past warzones do. Inside their own bodies. Ticking bombs to be released into their conceived offspring and silently pervading their own bodies.

Eyewitness Account"At the end of the countdown, there was a blinding electric blue light, of such an intensity I had not seen before or ever since. I pressed my hands hard to my eyes, then, realised my hands were covering my eyes. This terrific light power, or rays, were actually passing through the tarpaulin, through the towel, and through my head and body, for what seemed ten to twelve seconds, it may have been longer. After that, the pressure wave, which gave a feeling such as when one is deep underwater. This was then followed by a sort of vacuum suction wave, to give a feeling of one's whole body billowing out like a balloon."

Observer, Mosaic G1

Monte Bello Islands, 16 May 1956.

We know so little about it. And we attribute the horrific deformities of the newborn to something else altogether, even though the common factor is that they existed where their water, air and food supplies were contaminated by nuclear weapons. The leadership response - it was in the coffee. Too much caffeine. Or something equally ridiculous.

I am a collector of newspapers, magazines and lithographs and have in my possession something that may interest you. It is the October 3rd,1952 Daily Mirror which shows on the front page(Full front page)

The so called” Good news” that Britian Explodes its Monte Bello Weapon. It even shows the picture of the actual bomb going off. You may be able to get a copy of this from the State Library Sydney but it will only be a copy .This is the actual paper. It has gone a little brown but it has a lot of information in it.
Please let me know if anyone is interested in buying this from me thank you.

My email is: sofiadeluca@hotmail.com just in case you are interested in the above message.