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SPEAKER_04: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Melton Burak. I'm the host and producer of the podcast, SESTA. We aim to harness the power of arts and culture to foster conversation and build peace in Cyprus. I'll be your guest host for this month of Womanika. This month, we're highlighting peace builders. In times of conflict, these women have stepped in, bringing their creativity and insight to help facilitate peace across the globe. Today, we're talking about a woman who fought against nuclear warfare after learning that her own homeland had been secretly used as a testing site. Let's meet Darlene Keiju. Darlene Keiju was born on Iba Island in 1951. Iba is part of the Marshall Islands, a collection of islands and coral atolls clustered in the Pacific Ocean. In local folklore, the islands were called gifts from God. But by the time Darlene was born, they'd been subject to centuries of occupation from Spain, Portugal, England, Japan, and Germany. When Darlene was 16 years old, her parents sent her to Hawaii for school. The transition wasn't easy. She didn't know a lot of English, and she was far from home. But Darlene was determined to succeed, and in 1984, she became the first Marshallese woman to earn a Master's in Public Health. While in college, Darlene went to a talk given by a German who was a teacher at the University of Hawaii. In college, Darlene went to a talk given by a journalist, Giff Johnson. There, thousands of miles from the Marshall Islands, Darlene learned that she'd grown up in a nuclear test site. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States tested 67 bombs in the Marshall Islands. Darlene was born in 1951. In 1954, when she was three years old, the U.S. detonated the Bravo hydrogen bomb in the Bikini Atoll. It was a thousand times more powerful than the bombs the U.S. had dropped in Japan during the Second World War. The bomb exposed many Bikinians to high levels of nuclear fallout. Generations of people struggled with cancer, birth defects, and radiation illnesses. Surrounding islands also suffered. One of those surrounding islands was IBAI, Darlene's home. It was just 200 miles downwind from Bikini. Deeply disturbed by the secrecy, Darlene decided it was finally time to come home and learn the truth. Darlene later said, This is when I made a personal commitment to the Marshallese victims that I would do what I could to help them. Keeping this promise, Darlene wrote to the U.S. government, asking for more information about the bomb testing. She started touring the islands, interviewing people about their experiences with nuclear testing. She learned about the birth defects plaguing young families, communities displaced from their homes because of radioactivity. She was often accompanied by Giff Johnson, the journalist who'd first told her about nuclear testing. They married in 1982. The next year, in 1983, Darlene gave an address in Vancouver in front of the World Council of Churches Assembly, where she uncovered the truths about the radioactive fallout and called out the U.S. for not admitting how widespread the issue was. All we know is we must travel throughout the world
SPEAKER_00: and share this kind of experience from the bombs so that we must stop it before it gets to you. Remember, we are the victim of the nuclear age. Don't become a victim.
SPEAKER_04: Her speech garnered widespread support from Marshallese people in their fight to create public awareness. But Darlene wanted to do more than bring awareness to the atrocities committed in the Marshall Islands. She wanted to help her communities heal and find peace. Confronted with the high suicide and teen pregnancy rates throughout the Marshall Islands, Darlene founded an organization called the Youth to Youth in Health. The organization trained teens about family planning and activated young people as role models with art, music, and drama to establish a strong cultural identity. In 1991, Darlene was diagnosed with breast cancer. She passed away in 1996 at 45 years old. In 2013, Darlene was posthumously awarded Pacific Person of the Year for her fearless activism. All month we're talking about peace builders. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Womanika Podcast. Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for having me as a guest host. Talk to you tomorrow!
