![]() ![]() ![]() The US military has now closed down JACADS so the island can be handed over the US Fish and Wildlife Service as a nature reserve. Throughout the 1990s, the island was also the site for the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agents Disposal System (JACADS), an incineration plant for chemical weapons removed from Okinawa and Germany following the end of the Cold War. Beyond the 1962 nuclear tests, Johnston Atoll was used to store chemical weapons from Okinawa after 1970 and drums of Agent Orange defoliant from the Vietnam War in 1972. Johnston was used by the US military from 1934 until 2000, and the island was expanded many times in size through dredging and reconstruction. With the US take-over in Hawai’i in 1898, Johnston effectively became a US possession, even though the Territory of Hawai’i continued to claim jurisdiction over Kalama Island and Sand Island (which made up the atoll) into the twentieth century. The island was claimed for the Kingdom of Hawai’i in July 1858, with the support of King Kamehameha. Johnston Atoll is located between the Marshall Islands and Hawai’i, and is known to the Kanaka Maoli people as Kalama Island. Less well known are the US nuclear tests on Johnston Atoll in 1962. The nuclear powers showed little concern for the health and well-being of nearby island communities, and those civilian and military personnel who staffed the test sites.īetween 19, the US military conducted 67 nuclear tests at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls in the Marshall Islands. Between 1946-1996, over 315 atmospheric and underground nuclear tests were conducted at ten different sites in the desert of Australia and the islands of the central and south Pacific. Seeking “empty” spaces, the Western powers chose to conduct Cold War programs of nuclear testing in the Pacific. From the beginning of the nuclear age, the peoples of the Pacific islands have borne the brunt of nuclear weapons testing by France, Britain and the United States. ![]()
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