{"id":75199,"date":"2025-06-06T07:35:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T05:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=75199"},"modified":"2025-06-06T13:53:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T11:53:49","slug":"a-defining-moment-in-history-40-years-ago-the-marshall-islands-fought-to-protect-their-future-and-defied-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/75199\/a-defining-moment-in-history-40-years-ago-the-marshall-islands-fought-to-protect-their-future-and-defied-the-us\/","title":{"rendered":"A defining moment in history: 40 years ago the Marshall Islands fought to protect their future\u2026 and defied the US"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In May 1985, Greenpeace took on a mission unlike anything they had done before – to mass relocate the people of Rongelap atoll in the Marshall Islands, whose ancestral home was no longer safe as a result of the US government\u2019s nuclear testing in the region<\/a>. About 350 people were relocated, including livestock and 100 metric tons of building material, to Mejatto, another island about 180 km away.<\/p>\n\n

This is the story behind \u201cOperation Exodus\u201d – one Rainbow Warrior boat and an island community, versus a huge colonial power who discredited the act as \u201cmanipulation\u201d<\/a> for Greenpeace\u2019s anti-nuclear agenda.<\/p>\n\n

As we mark 40 years<\/a> since this defining moment in Greenpeace and Marshall Islands history, Bunny McDiarmid, one of the original crew members, looks back on her experience.<\/p>\n\n

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