Melal, By Robert Barclay

In a novel “Melal”, a lot of incidents mostly happen on Marshall Islands. The Marshall Islands are located near by the equator in the Pacific Ocean, and the Marshall Islands country consists of a group of Micronesia. Official languages of the Marshall Islands are Marshallese and English. This means that the islands were used to be related to U.S army. The Marshall Islands were independent from the United States, and did set up a government in 1979. Even though most of citizens of the Marshall Islands are Marshallese descent, there are many immigrants from United States. Historical events such as World War 2, and nuclear testing on the islands has a huge effect on the Marshall Islands, but the islands are still beautiful, and people keep their traditional life style. Robert Barclay, an author of the novel “Melal”, usually deals with U.S military occupation to the Marshall Islands. The author describes colonization, westernization and environmental damage to the islands by nuclear testing. When he was young, he used to watch missiles and U.S soldiers on the Marshall Islands. Before he is becoming a writer, he wasn’t really interested in the islands, and didn’t realize how terrible wars are. When he grows up, he debuts with “Melal” and visits the Marshall Islands again for information. He can look
around the island in detail, and finally see another side of the islands. In the novel, Rujen who is the main character lost his wife since she suffered from cancer by the U.S nuclear test on the Bikini Atoll.
He works at a sewage plant, but he is not able to access his workplace after working by U.S military. His two sons, Jebro and Nuke, are different toward this circumstance. Jebro try to keep Marshallese tradition. On the other hand, Nuke eager to American culture. They live on Ebeye island, but they are forced to move other place because of nuclear missile tests several times. Sometimes, they argue with each other for their different perspective about the nuclear missile testing, but they try to solve current problems as much as they
can. After World War 2, United States was looking for a place where U.S military can test a new nuclear weapon, and develop war industry. U.S military chose the Marshall Islands as their testing place for the missile, and a strategic location. When nuclear missile experiment was conducted, it caused a lot of radioactive fallout, and then these radioactive fallouts started to spread almost entire islands. This historical event resulted in ecosystem destruction, and health problem of local people.
The test on the Marshall Islands persists for many years. Most victims of the nuclear missile tests are people of Rongelap Atoll. Very large thermonuclear explosions happened on their homeland, therefore people had to escape. Because of the thermonuclear explosion, they suffered from diseases such as burn, or skin problems related to a radiation leak. Even though scientists who work for Atomic Energy Commission gave people of Rongelap Atoll warning that nuclear radiation is still throughout their hometowns. In addition, they insisted that Rongelap Atoll is the most contaminated place in the world, therefore living there doesn’t make sense. Nevertheless, people returned to their home area. The people of Rongelap Atoll had to leave their hometown at the end since the level of contamination reached to the maximum which means that people can’t live there anymore. In 1991, these problems were revealed by U.S senate committee on governmental affairs. Therefore, the U.S congress ended a nuclear test program, and set a standard to prevent the nuclear experiments from happening again. It has been 60 years since U.S military launched nuclear missile tests.