Ignored by 'Oppenheimer,' atomic test victims speak out

https://www.rawstory.com/ignored-by-oppenheimer-atomic-test-victims-speak-out-2667397510/

Ignored by 'Oppenheimer,' atomic test victims speak out

Agence France-Presse
February 29, 2024 7:35AM ET

Wesley Burris was fast asleep in bed when the world's first atomic bomb exploded just 25 miles from his front door. A blinding light filled the home in the New Mexico desert, before the impossible force of the blast shattered its windows, spraying glass across the four-year-old boy and his brother. "It was so bright, I couldn't see," Burris recalls. "I can remember asking, 'Dad, what happened? Did the Sun blow up?'"

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The test took place amid thunderstorms, despite scientists' warnings, in the race to have the bomb ready for a key World War II summit with the Soviets. Torrential rains brought toxic debris straight back down, where it irradiated the desert dust, the water supplies and the food chain. Burris has lost his brother to cancer. His sister had it too, as does her daughter.

And he himself has skin cancer, which he tries to treat with traditional Native American medicine. Despite all this, no New Mexican affected by radiation from the Trinity test has received a dime in compensation. "We were guinea pigs," said Tina Cordova, a cancer survivor who runs the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, calling for justice. "But they come back and check on guinea pigs. Nobody's ever come back to check on us."

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"Wouldn't it be remarkable if during the Academy Awards, any one of them said, 'I want to acknowledge the sacrifice and suffering of the people of New Mexico,'" said Cordova. "They knew about us when they made the film -- they just chose to ignore us again."

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