The topic of this book is shocking—shocking in its litany of disregard for the humans involved and shocking in the recurring intransigence of the US military machine. In it, Jon Mitchell addresses the impact that weaponry and military bases with their equipment have had on the environment since World War II, particularly in regard to personnel and civilians.
Poisoning the Pacific consists of nine chapters and begins with an exposé of the use of biological weaponry by the Japanese after their invasion of China, then on to postwar nuclear testing in the northern Pacific, the effects of US occupation of Okinawa, the herbicides stored there for use in Vietnam, and a specific focus on sites where the US military operated. A timeline of contamination accidents between 1947 and 2019 on Okinawa gives the reader a summary of what has been discussed and is a useful way to grasp the overall series of disasters already analyzed. The last three chapters deal with the United States’ role in fostering the use of nuclear power in Japan. They examine the impact of US military bases and testing of weaponry on three Pacific sites: Guam, the Marianas, and Johnston Atoll. The final chapter—the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel—addresses the quest for environmental justice. A list of contaminants follows, which is helpful for the less chemically informed reader.
The countries in Micronesia, such as the Marshall Islands and the Mariana Islands, are small in landmass but big in example of the role of the US military. Most were part of a United Nations (UN) trusteeship territory under the United States after World War II. Under the terms of the trusteeship, the trustee could carry out military activity, unlike in other UN trust territories, such as Western Samoa and New Guinea.
In the Marshall Islands, Runit Atoll holds thousands of tons of radioactive material and soil from a US nuclear testing site, Enewetak, stored under a large concrete dome built by the United States to last 200,000 years. Its base is a crater created when the United States exploded a nuclear device there in 1958. The material from Enewetak was collected in the late 1970s by military men who had no protective gear, and later many suffered from radioactive poisoning and have received no compensation from the US government. Moreover, Runit, being an atoll, sits only two or three yards above current sea level on a coral base. The dome, about 25 feet high, is already fractured and leaking radioactivity. In this weakened and porous condition, marine life is inevitably being contaminated. Add to this climate change with rising sea levels and intensification of adverse weather events such as typhoons, and the prognosis for the atoll is not good. As Jon Mitchell points out, this small independent country struggles to get full compensation, as yet unpaid, for damage from US nuclear tests. This trajectory of sloppy remediation and humans sacrificed on the altar of the god of war is a pervading pattern in this study.
This is an exquisitely researched book. Its comprehensive analysis is based on hard evidence, much of which is contained in US records. It reveals that when accidents with pollutants occurred, there were few lessons learned and little attempt made to train military personnel to handle these chemicals with safety to themselves and the environment. The excuse of ignorance can only go so far because the United States was not short of expertise to inform the military of the risks involved.
In regard to Okinawa and nuclear power generators in Japan, the shame is the complicity of Japan. Many Japanese war criminals became experts working for the United States after World War II and were rewarded. The Japanese government, as an ally, turned a blind eye to the environmental issues on Okinawa, whose people the mainland Japanese regarded as inferior to them. And constructing nuclear power stations on these earthquake-prone islands is beyond logic, as the Fukushima meltdown showed.
Such damning evidence for this region provokes the question: what of US bases in other countries, such as Germany, Latin America, and the Caribbean? Are they better scrutinized or controlled?
Michell's credentials and honors attest to his expertise with a plethora of sources, including Japanese records. His endnotes are full and relevant. This is a convincing study of war damage—but more so, the real environmental and human costs of “eternal vigilance” in maintaining the US war machine.
I have taught several courses on the environmental history of the Pacific, and I wish this book had been available at that time. It adds much to the understanding of the way governments can work when they take their eyes off their own and other people and simply see the world though the crosshairs of the gun.
