Ikuko Matsumoto

For a century, the Marshall Islands was ruled by Germany, Japan and the United States and was subjected to militarization. Following the Japanese military occupation in 1914, the Marshall Islands became the League of Nations mandate where Japan was granted the Mandated Power in 1921. In 1944, the U.S. military through the Pacific War occupied the Marshall Islands that later became the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands where the U.S. was granted the Trusteeship in 1947. During 1946 and 1958, 67 nuclear weapons were experimented on Bikini and Enewetak atolls of the Marshall Islands, followed by numerous inter-continental missiles tested in Kwajalein atoll since 1959. These military operations prevailed for decades, despite repeated petitions to the United Nations organizations by representatives of the Marshallese victims who were suffering from serious health, environmental, and socio-cultural adversities. This phenomenon represents a case of structural, direct, and cultural violence by the post-war international architectures and their notion of “security”. I examine how victims from Rongelap and Kwajalein confronted the violence and mobilized the support of the Nuclear Free Independent Pacific Movement (NFIP). I also inquire into the roles played by the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC). Employing the sociological concept of “Public Religion” by Jose Casanova, I explain the role of “transnational” public religion performed by the PCC and WCC, which provided organizational and spiritual pillars to the victims and NFIP. Distinct from the old religion that legitimizes State and Authority, the PCC and the WCC, as transnational public religion, performed a new role of religion embedded in civil societies. The voiceless victims, through the PCC and the WCC, gained access to, and voices in, the international arena.