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Article: Will Congress pay $250 million for Bikini? Evacuated for US nuclear tests, residents of Bikini, Rongelap atolls.(World)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- January 4, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Early one morning 45 years ago, 11-year-old Norio Kebenli was preparing to fish in the lagoon of Rongelap Atoll, a necklace of tiny, coconut palm-covered islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The sun was dawning in the east as Norio prepared a small boat for the day ahead. Then a second sun rose from the west. His life, like those of all Rongelapese, would never be the same.
"The light appeared in the western sky and became bigger and bigger," Mr. Kebenli, now an adult, recalls. "The light was so strong it hurt my eyes. It filled the whole western sky."
A few hours later, thick flakes of radioactive fallout began falling. By the time a US Navy destroyer ...