Rongelap Atoll: America's Nuclear Mistake

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Not gonna lie the story about the child born without parts of his skull was nearly too much for someone with a 1 year old. What a horrendous thing to happen to anyone.

Your channel is criminally underrated. The quality of your videos deserve millions more views, always great journalism.

This story was unbelievably horrific and I had never, ever heard any of it before. Thank you for telling it. As an American, I am used to my country having done horrendous things, of it still doing and enabling horrendous things even now, but... I wasn't prepared for this. The sheer, callous evil of it all is almost impossible to understand. But I can understand it. It's sick and wrong and unbelievably abhorrent... but they could get away with it. And they did. So what else matters? It's depressing, it's sickening to think of the evil that's been done and is still being done. But it's important to know. It's my government. A democracy, however flawed. The only way to fix this is if enough people learn these things and choose to care and push for something to actually be done. Thank you so much for doing something that can hopefully push a couple more people in that direction.

"They're more like us than the mice." Uff. That one get's a place on my 'quotes that should've never existed' list. If you'd asked me without context who said that, I'd answered it must've been someone like Dr. Mengele. Even as disillusioned and jaded as I am after 5 decades as a curious person on this planet, I wouldn't have thought of an American scientist in the 50s. Although ... I prpbably should've. Sadly, I should've ...

When the Japanese were bombed, the American military made sure no footage was ever shown to American audiences, so as to not show the human price and suffering, and invoke sympathy. Castle Bravo took place in March 1954; the fallout reached the Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukuryū Maru, or Lucky Dragon No. 5. This incident heavily inspired the opening scene of the original 1954 Godzilla film, where the Bingo-maru vessel is destroyed by the kaiju.

I haven't encountered a youtube channel or any media for that matter, that so succinctly, so...brutally, but also poetically tells stories from around the world. You have created something very very special here and the more people you will reach the better place the world will become

Another Rare Earth video that brought me to tears, which honestly is hard to do. Thank you very much for your journalism.

This is horrifying, heartbreaking, and informative. Never stop making videos, Evan. That’s why I’m a patron <3.

Well damn, I wasn’t asking any of those questions…. I really hate war, I hate what happened to these people.. I too have had thyroid cancer, a thyroidectomy, and lost my singing voice in the aftermath and it depressed me for so long. Singing was the one fun thing I could do all by myself with no other tools needed. It was my escape for so many years, my secret hobby that I took very seriously in my youth and now it’s just a fond memory 😢….. but even that pain doesn’t come close to what nuclear weapons did to an entire people for generations. Reality is harsh, history is brutal, I wish I knew a way to help.

The horror that needs to get much more attention.😢 Thank you for your sincere efforts Rare Earth.

This is brutal...also fantastic work. This hits like old school 60 minutes.

i live in the town that made 2/3rds the US stockpile of plutonium for nukes. This entire city exists because of the cold war arms race. The countless tragedies caused by nuclear weapons weigh on my mind a lot, but I can't ever shake the feeling of "what the hell can we do about it now." I feel like i was never really taught what happened in the manhattan project, at least that's the impression i got talking to my late neighbors as a kid. There's a lot of history, culture, and knowledge that I'm scared is being quietly wiped away as people retire into seclusion or die off. I know there's a good amount of social progress and government change that came out of here as well, I'm just sad I'll probably never fully understand the history of it, even having lived here on the same hill i was born on my entire life.

I don't understand why some people find it so easy to dehumanize certain people. It's like sociopathic. It makes no sense how someone could look at a person dying and be like "wow, this is amazing data!" The fact that these people always seem to be able to get into positions of power is also something I don't understand. Like sure, I understand making a mistake that causes harm, it wasn't intentional. But then doing less than nothing, actually encouraging more harm, is just outrageous to me. Making it AGAINST THE LAW to rescue these people is insane, and then to try and put them back?! How can they possibly live with themselves? How can anyone who made those laws and tried to bring the people back agree to do it? And 150 Million is an insult, and making them pay for their own medical treatment after doing this to them? AND STILL TREATING THEM AS LESS THAN HUMAN?! Imagine thinking "what do I get out of it?" as a reason to help these people. I can't believe there were people like that in the comments. I can't understand why we're being so cruel, why altruism seems to be seen as a sin of some sort.

My dad was a sailor in the US Navy who was on a destroyer offshore of this blast. He died at 53 from lung cancer. He never smoked.

always putting a spot light on the stories that need to be told and not forgotten. I have a huge respect for you Rare Earth team!

This is what happens when the United States exercises its exceptionalism with impunity. It is clear that there is absolutely no justification for this ongoing atrocity and yet they get away with it time and time again. I get so sick of the "might makes right" attitude of the big powers. To them, all of us are nothing but mice. Thank you for telling this story so eloquently.

You should do a follow up in Maralinga with the UK testing and the effects on the indigenous there. Not many left now, but it left a lasting imprint on Australian politics to this day, affecting nuclear power in Australia. (a very big issue considering the AUKUS agreement)

Thank you Chris, for bringing this to my attention. I have never heard of this. Names and pictures of those at fault should be publicized. Even if too late, any justice if better than no justice.

6:45 the fit is stupendous