New Zealand’s nuclear horror still not acknowledged say vets
Stuff, Janine Rankin May 02 2021 Photos on a wall, names on a board and an academic study will ensure the radiation damage to 551 men who witnessed Britain’s nuclear bomb explosions in the Pacific is never forgotten.
But what the New Zealand survivors of those blasts really want is an apology and compensation from the Government.
The stories of the nuclear veterans and the subsequent heartache and illness affecting them and the off-spring of those who had families have been retold in Palmerston North this weekend.
It was the third opening of Denise Baynham’s exhibition of the photographs and stories of navy veterans “Operation Grapple, We were There” at Te Manawa art gallery……………
Janine Rankin14:21, May 02 2021
WARWICK SMITH/Stuff
Veterans of the nuclear testing programme, Richard Bishop from Christchurch and Brian Harnor from Mount Maunganui, were in Palmerston North for the launch of a photo exhibition in their honour.
Photos on a wall, names on a board and an academic study will ensure the radiation damage to 551 men who witnessed Britain’s nuclear bomb explosions in the Pacific is never forgotten. But what the New Zealand survivors of those blasts really want is an apology and compensation from the Government. The stories of the nuclear veterans and the subsequent heartache and illness affecting them and the off-spring of those who had families have been retold in Palmerston North this weekend.
They scoop up debris and wipe what they can, restoring graves covered in dirt, leaves and cracks.
Remembrance Army CEO Simon Strombom says many graves are well overdue for a cleanup. A lot of them in the 1920s or 1930s have no paint on them so they ve never been touched in 100 years.
Despite the work they do, getting into public cemeteries can be a challenge for the Remembrance Army.
Some councils require permission from families of the dead before grave sites can be restored or cleaned.
That permission is often hard to get - so they want a War Graves Commission established to make the estimated 200,000 graves more accessible.
DAVID UNWIN/STUFF
Tere Tahi discusses the fight for Kiwi navy veterans and their families who have endured medical conditions since their exposure to nuclear radiation, following the death of crusader Roy Sefton.
The late Roy Sefton never stopped advocating for New Zealand sailors who witnessed nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean in the 1950s and 1970s. His work will live on,
Jimmy Ellingham reports. One by one they stood, telling tales of cancers, deformities in their children and miscarriages. Some who escaped those horrors had inner demons, mental scars left by the mushroom clouds’ fallout. It was 1995 and the New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans’ Association was meeting for first time, almost 40 years since Kiwi sailors had witnessed British nuclear testing in the Pacific and nearly 25 years on from the navy being sent to protest French testing at Mururoa.