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Bedi Racule is an anti-nuclear and climate justice advocate from the Pacific — hailing from the Marshall Islands and Pohnpei (Federated States of Micronesia). She began her advocacy journey with MISA4thePacific — a youth grassroots organization, sharing stories of nuclear testing in the Pacific with young people and communities around the world. Bedi currently resides in Fiji and serves as an ecumenical enabler for climate justice at the Pacific Conference of Churches, where she tackles issues related to climate, oceans and the Pacific nuclear legacy. She is also the co-founder of the Bok im Na youth project, and co-chair of the Nuclear Truth Project.
In this episode of the podcast, Uniting Nations, Racule speaks with Anna Ikeda from Sokka Gakkai International about the experiences of the peoples of the Pacific in relation to nuclear testing, climate disruption, and the need for spiritual healing in the face of dehumanizing and violent belief systems that make nuclear anything seem like a viable option for a livable, nonviolent future.
Don’t miss this poem by Racule, See You Soon, Lagoon.
Anna: You’re listening to Uniting Nations which explores the intersection of nonviolence and the United Nations. I’m Anna Ikeda from Soka Gakkai International and I co-host the show together with Stephanie Van Hook of the Metta Center for Nonviolence.
In today’s episode, I speak with Bedi Racule, a anti-nuclear and climate justice advocate from the Pacific. She discusses how communities in the Pacific as well as the UN are addressing the two intersecting issues that pose an existential threat to our planet.
Bedi: Hello. Iakwe. My name is Bedi Racule. I am from the Marshall Islands and also Pohnpei and the Federated States of Micronesia. And I am tuning in today from Fiji, Suva, to be exact, the capital.
And I am a young Marshallese woman. I am involved in nuclear justice activism, and advocacy. And I also work at the Pacific Conference of Churches Ecumenical Stewardship and Climate Justice Program. And yeah, it’s very great to be here today.
Anna: Thank you for joining us. I’m so excited that our listeners can hear your stories. So, on that note, why don’t you start by just sharing a little bit more about who you are and how you started engaging in activism?
Bedi: Okay. Well, like I said, I am from the Marshall Islands, but I actually grew up in Hawaii. And as a young person, as a child, I did not learn much about Marshallese nuclear legacy.
And I have – I didn’t really, I did hear stories and read books in school, which I’m really grateful to my teachers that took initiative to share those stories with us growing up. But it wasn’t until I came to Fiji, to the University of the South Pacific, and began engaging with my fellow Marshallese students, that I realized that this was a really big issue.
And there was a group in school called MISA4thePacific, Marshall Islands Student Association for the Pacific. They were putting together this big march on nuclear victims Remembrance Day.
And a lot of students began to engage. And I heard the story of how they put it together. They realized that no one really knew about the nuclear legacy. And they realized that there were other people from the Pacific that experienced nuclear weapons, nuclear testing. Like those from reo Mā’ohi also known as French Polynesia or Tahiti. To many people. Kiritimati atoll, which is now in [Kit-a-bis]. And even Fijians, experienced the nuclear violence that took place in the Pacific.
And so, I started to engage with them and began to learn more, and I was just shocked and appalled by how incredibly deep the history goes. I learned that we had 67 known nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands. The biggest, Castle Bravo, was approximately 1000 times the yield of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. And the testings in the Pacific went on until 1996 in Maunganui, that was after I was born. And so I thought this was a thing of the past. But, you know, I realized how much it is tied to our lives in the Pacific.
And I also continued to learn more about the ongoing intergenerational impacts. People that were still struggling with cancers, birth defects, the leftover nuclear waste like that of the Runit Dome in the Marshall Islands, which is this big dome. And in the ‘70s, the US buried it there in this atoll called – this islet called Enewetak. And they were leaving it there as a temporary solution. And they said that they would come back. But then years later, they never came back.
And the Marshallese government was asking for them to remove it. And they had all these excuses like they can’t import nuclear weapons. You know, they kind of just brushed their hands off of it and left it to the Marshallese people, who we don’t have the capacity to deal with this type of toxic waste. And so it’s been – it’s an ongoing problem. The waste has, from what I’ve heard from the latest reports there, the risk of it leaking, that’s already happened.
And so this just like gave me a big shock that how, how can this be happening in our region? And so I started to get more involved with MISA, try to learn as much as I could because people wanted to hear our stories. And, me not growing up there, I acknowledge the privilege that I had and my position to speak.
And so it was sort of kind of like, take, you know, take the responsibility to share the stories because you are in a position to share them. So I tried my best to learn as much as I could, to hear stories from people. And MISA had done some really great videos and engaged in consultation with different communities. And so, that was an amazing experience.
And that’s kind of how I found myself continuing on in the work. And even at my job after I got this job at the Pacific Conference of Churches, continue to do the work. So I’m really grateful to them for allowing me to continue this work.
And actually, they’ve been doing this work for a long time. Another thing I learned, the Pacific has a great history of resilience, and nuclear justice advocacy, campaigning. And it started a regional movement, and that was really how the region began to start working together on many issues.
Sorry, I feel like I went on a little too much. But there was just so much that I absorbed and gained throughout this journey. So much knowledge that I think a lot of people are not aware of.
Anna: Yeah, such an important – I don’t want to say history because it is an ongoing issue, but that people are not aware about. So glad that they found you, and you found this cause, and, you know, you are really passionately working. So thank you so much for sharing that.
And I think you started to touch upon that a little bit about the resilience of the people. You know, despite such great levels of violence that they faced, unjustly. So, could you share a little bit about how the Marshallese people and maybe even broader, you know, people in the Pacific, are fighting against the impacts of nuclear weapons?
Bedi: My people have been fighting since the bombs. These are not recent developments. The people understood that they misunderstood what the purpose of the bombs were. They were told that, you know, this would stop the war, this would be for the good of mankind. They were kind of coerced into allowing the bombs to take place.
But when they realized that, okay, this is dangerous, this is affecting our health and some of our people are being taken away, and not treated well, by you know, the personnel, the doctors. And it actually came to light in declassified documents that the US was testing radioactive impact on human beings.
So they petitioned in the 1950s, to stop the bombs, to the United Nations. And I’ve read the letters. I was really amazed because these are people that are like, you know, they’re just learning this new culture. They’re learning English. But the letter was so incredible. Went up to the United Nations.
And what happened was the UN actually put out a resolution that said, as long as the US is, you know, within the guidelines, keeping the people safe, they can continue testing. And so that was really heartbreaking to read and realize.
But the people never stopped fighting. And in the 1990s, when people in the region recognized, okay, this testing is dangerous, they’re doing it in [Maunganui], they began a movement in Suva, that started from young people. It started from churches called the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Movement. And there are many around who were from that time that could tell you really well in detail the great experiences that took place.
But they were rallying, having marches. And when we do our marches today as young people, we look back at them and think, wow, incredible. Like we hear their speeches. They really just had a great love for the Pacific, for the people, for the ocean and the environment. And they were just wanting to have the freedom and self-determination to say, “Hey, this is not what we want in our islands.”
But moving on from that, the nuclear movement sort of continued throughout the years, but the successes and the failures, I mean, the setbacks were great. You know, they stopped the testing and then there was nuclear waste dumping.
And so, today we’re still kind of trying to keep people aware of nuclear technology that’s causing nuclear waste and uranium mining in different parts of the Pacific. Like in Australia, where they do uranium mining. In Japan, where they’re dumping nuclear waste from the Fukushima power plant.
And so, there are many organizations right now in the Pacific that are gathering information, performing advocacy campaigns to keep people aware and engaged. And the governments of the nuclear testing states are also very active, I know. Trying their best to find ways forward for nuclear justice.
The Marshall Islands has a National Nuclear Commission that has a national nuclear strategy. And they’re working on education, addressing health problems. And that also means creating better health facilities overall, not just for cancers and things like that, but just overall for the people.
The way that colonialism has impacted the islands means that the ways of life that sustained us before are kind of being lost. And, you know, so people are becoming more dependent on imported, processed, unhealthy foods, rather than their diets that have sustained them for a long time.
So this is exacerbating some of the issues that we see, like heart defects and birth defects and cancers. And if you can believe it, we still don’t have any cancer treatment facilities on our island, despite having some of the highest rates of cancers in the world. So families have to be uprooted to go and seek cancer treatment overseas.
And then they’re working on treating the contamination in the best ways they can. Working with the Department of Energy and any stakeholders that are interested in assisting, like the universities and academics. Also, there was five – Sorry. It just –
So, these are some of the ways that the governments are working. But there are many challenges because they can only do so much with the information they have, with the capacity they have. And a lot of documents and information is still classified. We’ve had many declassified from the US, but a lot of information is redacted.
That’s why we always say we have 67 known nuclear tests. Because there’s a lot of secrecy involving nuclear testing and nuclear technology. And the UK and France, they’ve stated that they don’t want to declassify any information and that they won’t be doing that and that they won’t be providing compensation to people.
And so, it’s really frustrating at times. The UK had made that announcement while we were at the meeting of state parties in New York last year. And so while we’re talking about trying to gain justice for like, for example, people from [Kitavis], it’s really hard to hear that those that are responsible are not willing to work to help these people that were impacted by the decisions and the benefits that they gain from this testing.
And then you have climate change on top of all that, just making things really difficult for our governments.
And then you also have self-determination as an issue. We want to we want to make choices, but because we are thinking about development and donors and we strongly believe, in the CSO network, that our governments don’t have full self-determination to decide what they want to do because they have to worry about geopolitical interests, which is not something that the people care about. We care about, you know, what impacts our everyday lives and not some geopolitics or war that’s going on away from our homes.
Anna: Wow, there’s so much that I want to unpack.
One thing that really stood out for me is this whole system of how the economy, everything is structured is on violence and really disrespecting the dignity of people. And it just doesn’t serve us.
And I think, you know, the communities that you are representing really got hit by such ways of organizing the government and the ways of thinking. So it was just really shocking.
But you also spoke a little bit about climate change, which I’m sure is a huge issue among the people, Pacific, that people really care about. So, could you talk a little bit about that and how that also relates to your advocacy on nuclear weapons?
Bedi: Thank you. Learning about the intersections between climate change and nuclear was a huge part of my journey as an advocate. Because when I first started, I had no idea. Like, I didn’t know they were related. And the more I do this work, the more I realized how intrinsically linked they are.
And the first reason I found out was because of the Runit Dome. You know how climate change is exacerbating that waste facility. The sea level rise that is degrading, eroding the waste facility. And that’s threatening the ocean and the people around them. And there’s actually people living in Enewetak right now. And so, this is an urgent issue.
But also we have climate change that is continually happening in front of our eyes. And the impacts of climate change are exacerbating the struggles that people in communities that already have faced nuclear violence, are feeling.
So a friend of mine who is from – she’s from Bikini. She said that her grandmother, who lives on [Ijit] Island, she was – they were actually relocated from an atoll.
So if you have seen an atoll or a photo of an atoll, there’s a big lagoon in the middle for fishing. These people were relocated to an island with no lagoon. And so they have much less land, much less ocean. And it’s harder for them to fish because they’re surrounded by open ocean rather than the safety of an atoll.
So their food security is already being impacted, but climate change is making it harder for them to get fish because, you know, the fish are migrating differently. They’re not producing as much catch. And then there’s king tides that happen on that island that flood almost the entire island, which if you’ve seen king tides rushing into your house, it’s a really scary experience.
And so, [Rosana] told me about her grandmother and her family experiencing these things. And she said, “My people were relocated for the good of mankind, and now we are having to relocate again because of mankind.” So I really felt for her trauma and the distress that she has to carry with her continuously, while still carrying the weight of what’s happened to her family. And I can’t even imagine what the elderly people are facing.
When MISA went and did interviews with them for a documentary, all they wanted was to go home. That’s all they were saying, “We just can’t wait for the day that we get to go home.” And they’re quite tired of being prodded by journalists, and interviewers, and even as youths so if you can imagine, even in their community, it’s really hard for them to continue to speak without seeing results.
And so, that’s another reason why I feel like it’s important for us young people to continue to step up and speak out so that we can continue to share their stories. Sorry, I went off on a tangent, but yeah, climate change exacerbates those impacts.
And then there’s the global perspective on nuclear weapons and climate change, which I did not also realize. That any nuclear detonation will even just 1% of the nuclear arsenal will create an Arctic winter. There have been studies that have shown that.
And that will threaten the hunger, and the food security of so many communities out there who are already struggling. It will, I’ve heard that when that happens, people – the world will turn to the oceans for food, which will be less impacted by nuclear weapons. And that is our people’s primary food source.
And so, now I can see that, you know, not only the past impacts of nuclear tests will affect us, but future nuclear weapons, future detonations, more war, the culture of nuclear – this empire that’s already been built and will continue to hurt people.
Anna: Yes. And you actually went on a tangent that I wanted to continue on. Which is about the trauma that you mentioned, of you know, this frustration and, you know, anger of having to share such traumatizing stories over and over, and often there’s no result.
And you mentioned about the – especially the elder community perhaps feeling that burden, but I’m sure it’s a shared burden on everyone in the affected community. So, I know that it’s such an impactful way to have the story to show the urgency of the issue. And I think it really moves people for action, but I know it comes with that burden.
So, yeah, I just wanted to see if you had any more thoughts about how you and others from the affected communities, despite that, you know, continue to do that. And how do you not lose hope and, you know, keep going?
Bedi: I never want to position myself, you know, as someone who is like a victim because there are so many more struggling and who deserve to have to be the ones to tell their stories.
But from my own perspective, I – when I learned about these things, I really questioned the worth of my people as human beings. And I wondered – I read a quote that was by the president that was saying, you know, these weapons should never be used on innocent men, women, and children, ever again after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.
And I wondered, why would they then continue to test it in the Pacific? Are we not considered human beings? I’ve seen documents that compare my people to rodents. And, that’s just really disheartening.
And then I continue to see the ways that nuclear weapons are normalized. People make light of it? You know, I continue to see that. And it’s so it’s something that’s ingrained, is starting to be ingrained in our culture. You know, we have Bikini Bottom from SpongeBob. We have bikinis, the outfits for the beach named after Bikini Atoll because they’re so hot. Little ways that people don’t recognize that they’re normalizing nuclear weapons, and diminishing the experiences of nuclear affected communities. That really takes a toll sometimes.
And I can see why our elderly people, who are already suffering so much in their life, would rather not deal with that continual emotional trauma.
But one thing that gives me hope is when I meet people from all over the world, from corners of the world that I would never think would know about our stories, tell us like, you know, we’re with you, we want to help you. We want to make sure that this never happens again.
And so, it was really those experiences as a young person – I mean, as a youth in MISA, getting to see the solidarity between, first the Pacific, you know, like, from Marshallese to [Kitapian], to Fijian to [Mal he milian]. All the other countries in the Pacific, young people, and activists, and old people coming together and saying we stand together, we are not alone.
And then seeing that zoomed out into the international lens, and being able to go to the MSP and seeing people care about this issue or share the same struggles and solidarity was amazing. And this is why I continue to do it.
And I hope that more young people, more Indigenous people, more Marshallese people could take on the torch and share that hope and solidarity with others. Because I think we really need it, especially in light of the challenges that we face.
Anna: Yeah, and that solidarity is, I think, what makes these things happen, I think eventually. We cannot resolve these issues all alone, we have to work together. And yes, I think in some places that is more obvious.
You keep talking about the TPNW, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and that’s a, perhaps a positive example of how the UN member states and civil society are working together to tackle such an issue. Although it’s not perfect.
But then you also mentioned the disheartening example. Was it from the 1950s of the UN, the letter to the UN and how it was addressed. So you’ve been to some of the UN processes, I know, on the nuclear weapons side, but also on the climate side. So, yeah. What’s your what’s your impression about the UN system, and where do you think we can make progress?
Bedi: Thank you for your comments. I think the TPNW, the meeting of state parties, is an incredible space that has so much potential but receives so much pushback.
You know, everyone still believes, like, “Oh, deterrence is still the answer. Having nuclear weapons keeps us safe.” But really, it’s just pushing the violence. It’s exporting violence somewhere else.
You keep your country safe while other places in the world feel the terror, feel the horror of war. And it’s a space where Indigenous people have a really powerful voice. And when I go to other spaces, you know, where we talk about the nonproliferation treaty, it’s just a different feeling. And I hope that the spirit of that really high ambition that comes from the TPNW will start to permeate into other areas of the nuclear discussion.
But at the same time, we in the Pacific, I believe, are understandably wary of nuclear power and nuclear energy. And this is a really big conversation that, I think, is not being had at COP. People are really pushing nuclear energy as a viable solution to climate change, without recognizing some of the impacts of nuclear accidents, nuclear waste dumping, uranium mining.
And I am a supporter of any sustainable technology. But I think we really need to have critical conversations that are missing at COP.
And I was really sad to see that there wasn’t that other side of the discussion in the climate change spaces, which I really hope to bring forward if I have an opportunity to go the next time.
And I was sort of having these discussions with other young people, nuclear activists, on the side. What about nuclear weapons and nuclear power? So it was really interesting.
I think just to give you an idea of the ways that we are very concerned. There is a pact by the US, Australia, and the UK is called the AUKUS pact, and they have decided to deploy nuclear-powered submarines into the region to enhance regional security.
And so, that is the exact quote, ‘enhanced regional security’. And so, for us, we have already dealt with the impacts of radioactive waste, we’re wondering, what about our security? Which part of security are we enhancing, you know, where we’re having these nuclear-powered submarines?
And I’ve read of over 300 nuclear reactor accidents happening, the worst being Chernobyl and Fukushima. And we are so afraid that a nuclear submarine could have an accident right off the coast of the beach where our children are playing, you know, where our people are fishing, and who’s going to pay for that? Who’s going to deal with the impacts of that?
So, I really think that these UN processes need to have deeper conversations and platform the voices of Indigenous people, more.
Anna: Thinking about that, I think the UN does have such a potential. And I think, you know, it’s up to us working on these areas to really imagine, you know, what it can do and how we can address these issues better despite the challenges, you know, especially with the limitations of the relationship between the government and some of the ways people think.
But yeah, I think maybe perhaps to conclude, what for you, what would a world or nonviolent world, look like? And, you know, how do you think the UN can contribute to shaping such a world?
Bedi: I think firstly, when we talk about justice, there is a notion that it’s about compensating people paying, but in the Pacific we have a different type of justice that is reparational, that is spiritual. And I hope that one day there will be a world where we can repair those spiritual, emotional harms to people, you know, those that never get to see home again will feel like their plight has been acknowledged. And not in the way that says thank you for your sacrifice, but that is a real apology.
And that those who are afraid for what is going to happen in the future, feel empowered, and feel like they have the self-determination to decide what a safe and healthy environment means for them and to act on that.
And I hope that, of course, the very high ambition of abolishing all nuclear weapons will be a reality one day. And it’s really up to us to do that for our children and the next generation and the next generation. I know it’s going to be a big struggle, but I have seen strides happen.
And I know that the UN can play a huge role to continue to foster these discussions, but also as an international organization to care for creation and to care for one another by doing the necessary things to remove the threats of violence from the world. Including nuclear threats, including the threats to our health, our livelihoods, all those things. I just want to live in a peaceful island and be happy with my family. That’s all.
Anna: And that’s something I think every person wants and deserves.
It’s such an incredible irony that during the “cold” war, the two nations with the largest Christian population should be the nations with the most nuclear weapons. It seems a weird type of Christianity to ignore Christ’s dictum,’ Love your enemy.”: and “: Love one another as I have loved you.”( die before you kill)