Growing up in the Pacific nation of Kiribati, Oemwa Johnson heard her grandfather’s stories about nuclear explosions he witnessed in the 1950s.
The blasts gave off ferocious heat and blinding light. He told her people were not consulted or given protective gear against bombs detonated by the U.S and UK at Kiritimati Island, now part of Kiribati, decades ago.
People in Kiribati suffered grave health consequences as a result of exposure to radiation from the tests in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a legacy they say continues to this day. Johnson says there’s a lack of accountability and awareness of how nuclear testing by foreign countries has harmed her people and homeland.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re very small island nations, their stories matter,” the 24-year-old says.
Between 1946 and 1996, the U.S, the UK and France conducted more than 300 underwater and atmospheric nuclear tests in the Pacific region, according to Pace University International Disarmament Institute. Kiribati, French Polynesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands were among the most affected.
For decades the countries have called for justice for the ongoing environmental and health impacts of nuclear weapons development. The push intensified this month as supporters of the UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons (TPNW) – including many from Pacific nations – met to discuss the treaty and call for wider ratification.
The treaty imposes a ban on developing, testing, stockpiling, using or threatening to use nuclear weapons – or helping other countries in such activities. It entered into force in 2021 and has 98 countries as parties or signatories. In the Pacific region 11 countries have backed the treaty. Treaty supporters want universal global support but many countries – including the U.S, the UK and France – oppose the treaty.
The nine nuclear armed countries argue that nuclear weapons are critical to their security. Likewise, Nato nations, Japan, South Korea and others are not yet party to the treaty. Australia, where the UK conducted nuclear tests in the 1950s, has not ratified the TPNW despite the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, saying in 2018 that Australia would do so the treaty when his party was in power.
A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Australia “shares the ambition of states parties to the TPNW of a world without nuclear weapons” but, like the U.S, the UK and France, prioritises the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Many TPNW supporters argue that the treaty strengthens and complements the non-proliferation treaty, while opponents like Nato say it is incompatible with its obligations.
Representatives from the UN diplomatic missions of France, the U.S and the UK did not respond to requests for comment on the TPNW.
Against this backdrop, politicians, activists and other representatives gathered at UN headquarters in New York this month for week-long discussions on how to secure more support for the TPNW.
Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross, a representative of the French Polynesia assembly, was among the parliamentarians. She says her family was significantly affected by French nuclear detonations at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls between 1966 and 1996. Morgant-Cross told the forum high rates of radiation-induced cancer in her family had motivated her to become an anti-nuclear activist and assembly member.
“It started with my grandma with thyroid cancer,” she said. “Then her first daughter – my auntie – with thyroid cancer. She also got breast cancer. My mom and my sister have thyroid disease. I got chronic leukemia when I was 24 years old. I’m still fighting against this leukemia.”
New Zealand’s UN representative in Geneva, Deborah Geels, stressed the treaty’s “special importance in the Pacific”, warning: “Tensions between nuclear-armed states and nuclear risk are rising, and no region is immune – even the South Pacific.”
The Marshall Islands, where the US detonated 67 nuclear bombs during the 1940s and 1950s, has not yet joined the TPNW. It has expressed concern that article six of the treaty – which calls for countries bound by the treaty to provide victim assistance and environmental remediation – could absolve the U.S from responsibility to address damage caused by nuclear tests. Efforts to establish an international trust fund to support article six are ongoing.
“While we want to make sure that there’s no nuclear testing and no nuclear war … we feel the TPNW doesn’t go far enough to address issues that affect all of us,” said the Marshall Islands ambassador to the UN, John Silk.
Speaking on a panel of nuclear survivors and frontline communities, Kiribati’s UN ambassador, Teburoro Tito, encouraged the Marshall Islands and all countries to sign and ratify the treaty.
“We hope they will soon join the TPNW which we believe is the most effective way of dealing with the aftermath of nuclear use and testing,” Tito said.
Johnson wants to raise awareness of the devastating impacts of nuclear weapons in the Pacific and sees the treaty as a pathway toward justice. She says the time has come to end the threat nuclear weapons pose to all countries.
“We must commit to ensuring that the world never forgets the events that transpired in Kiribati and other Pacific nations,” she said. “Their voices are not merely echoes of the past. They serve as critical warnings for our future.”
Speaking at the UN this month, Johnson was resolute.
“We are not passively awaiting justice; we are actively demanding it,” said Johnson.
