A man has shown what an island that is "too radioactive" to live on actually looks like, exploring Bikini Island, or Bikini Atoll, of the Marshall Islands located in the Central Pacific Ocean.
Kirk Hays, 57, from Phoenix, Arizona, who is a traveling artist, shared a video of his explorations of the island, which remains radioactive after U.S. testing of nuclear bombs between 1946 and 1958.
"Having grown up during the Cold War, I wanted to see the place that the Atomic Age went from its infancy to adulthood and to witness the effect on the people involved and the environment," he told Newsweek.
Kirk Hays explored Bikini Island, which is "too radioactive" for people to live there. Kirk Hays explored Bikini Island, which is "too radioactive" for people to live there. @vagabondartist/TikTok"It was sobering to visit the island, at the same time impossibly beautiful and a cancer on the environment and source of so many people and children that suffered from radiation poisoning and birth defects."
Hays' video shows him arriving on a white sandy beach under a blue sky, with the deserted island in the background. He was only allowed to visit for three hours, as anything more would have been too dangerous.
He then shows the abandoned houses and buildings within the base that were built by the U.S. military.
The Bikini Atoll nuclear test site has been inscribed on the World Heritage List. After the local inhabitants were displaced, more than 60 nuclear tests were carried out from 1946 to 1958, according to the UNESCO website.
"The site has not undergone any substantial reconstruction; human presence there has remained very limited because of the radionuclides produced by the explosions," says the website.
Abandoned buildings on Bikini IslandAbandoned buildings on Bikini Island@vagabondartist/TikTokYears later, it was declared safe for some to return. However, by 1978, it was discovered that there was an 11-fold increase of caesium-137 within their bodies, leading to women suffering miscarriages and genetic abnormalities in newborns.
"To know that these beautiful beaches were also to source of radiation that caused children to be born without hardened bones and be buried in the sand by their horrified mothers," Hays told Newsweek. "And to wonder how a new generation of politicians and pundits can hope to return to those days."
People took to the comments section of Hays' video to share their thoughts.
Teacher Travel Times wrote: "I only watched a video on this yesterday. Hope the Marshall Islands is able to recover some day."
"Curious to learn what health challenges any of the people who went back have ended up with," said @meacul.
Evie Gray shared: "What a beautiful place and how unbelievably sad the people who lived there had to leave and not least suffered because of what had been done there. I never usually watch info videos but this is fab."
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