Bill Text: HI SCR179 | 2022 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Designating March 10 As Enewetak Atoll (marshall Islands) Liberation Day.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2022-04-18 - Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on JHA with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Ohno, Woodson excused (2). [SCR179 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2022-SCR179-Amended.html

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THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	179
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022		S.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

DESIGNATING MARCH 10 AS ENEWETAK ATOLL (MARSHALL ISLANDS) LIBERATION DAY.

 

 

     WHEREAS, Enewetak Atoll is a large coral atoll of approximately forty islands that forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands, now known as the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific Ocean; and

 

     WHEREAS, Enewetak Atoll, with the rest of the Marshall Islands, was captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1914 during World War I and mandated to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations in 1920; and

 

     WHEREAS, many inhabitants of the Marshall Islands initially welcomed the new governance as the Japanese worked to build up infrastructure, including schools, and to increase economic trade in the Islands; and

 

     WHEREAS, with the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese military took over administration of the Marshall Islands and began fortifying several of the atolls; and

 

     WHEREAS, as the war progressed and support and supplies from Japan dwindled, starvation beset both the Japanese and the inhabitants of the Marshall Islands; and

 

     WHEREAS, as conditions worsened, the Marshallese population was subjected to physical harm, hard labor, shameful punishment, and hunger; and

 

     WHEREAS, towards the end of World War II, inhabitants of the Marshall Islands, including Enewetak Atoll, suffered from fear, displacement, deprivation, and starvation, and were subjected to executions; and

 

     WHEREAS, the United States captured Enewetak Atoll in a five-day amphibious operation between February 17 and February 23, 1944, during what is known as the Battle of Eniwetok; and

 

     WHEREAS, Enewetak residents commemorated March 10, 1944, as the day they "came out of the holes (bomb shelters)" following the Battle of Eniwetok; and

 

     WHEREAS, after gaining military control of the Marshall Islands from Japan, the United States assumed administrative control of the Islands in 1947 under United Nations auspices as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, for the purpose of protecting the inhabitants against the loss of their lands and resources as well as their health; and

 

     WHEREAS, attracted by its remote location, sparse population, and nearby U.S. military bases, the United States began using the Marshall Islands as a living laboratory for nuclear testing to better understand the impacts of radioactive materials on human beings and the environment; and

 

     WHEREAS, from 1946 to 1958, the United States detonated sixty-seven atmospheric and underwater nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, of which forty-two were in Enewetak Atoll, with a combined power of 7,200 Hiroshima-sized bombs, that is equivalent to 1.6 Hiroshima bombs every day for twelve years; and

 

     WHEREAS, the people of the Marshall Islands, including Enewetak Atoll, experience numerous challenges today connected to the United States nuclear legacy, such as displaced communities that cannot return to their ancestral lands because of lingering contamination, those who were prematurely resettled on contaminated lands, and health issues related to radiation exposure and diaspora, including cancer and other radiogenic illnesses; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Compact of Free Association (COFA) Act of 1985, P.L. 99-239, approved a joint resolution between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands that terminated the United States' trusteeship and established the Republic of the Marshall Islands as an independent nation effective October 21, 1986; and

 

     WHEREAS, the COFA Amendments Act of 2003, P.L. 108-188, amended the Compact in a number of significant ways, including changing the immigration provisions and providing that the citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, including those from Enewetak Atoll, have the right to live, study, and work in the United States without a visa; and

 

     WHEREAS, many people from Enewetak Atoll are displaced immigrants who currently reside in Hawaiian Ocean View Estates on the island of Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, the March 10th coming-out-of-the-holes day in Enewetak Atoll, which began in 1944 as a social practice infused with fear, was selected as a day of celebration in the 1970s to commemorate the defeat of Japanese forces by the United States military, and came to be known as "Liberation Day" in the 1980s, one of the most important and enjoyable events on Enewetak Atoll; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2022, the House of Representatives concurring, that March 10 be designated as Enewetak Atoll (Marshall Islands) Liberation Day in honor and remembrance of the people of Enewetak Atoll and the community of their descendants in Hawaii; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Mayor of the County of Hawaii, President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Mayor of Enewetak Atoll, and Consul General of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in Honolulu.

Report Title:

Republic of the Marshall Islands; Enewetak Atoll Community; Liberation Day; March 10; Hawaiian Ocean View Estates