Essay
Revisiting Eniwetok: Nuclear Legacies and the Evolving Concept of Cultural Heritage
An essay on the nuclear legacy of Eniwetok Atoll and what it asks of our definitions of cultural heritage, read through my grandfather's account of the island after the H-bomb tests.
The essay examines Eniwetok Atoll, the site of numerous US nuclear tests, and the paradox it poses for cultural heritage: a place of ecological richness and Indigenous significance turned into a symbol of technological destruction. Drawing on Chakrabarty, Meskell's "negative heritage", Lowenthal and Latour, it argues that heritage in the Anthropocene has to hold the scars of the recent past — the Runit Dome, displacement, contamination — alongside its achievements.
At its centre is the account of my grandfather, Bun O'Shea, who saw the aftermath of the tests:
"More than 10 years ago, I walked onto the blood-stained coral island called Eniwetok. I used to swim under water with water-tight glasses on to better observe the coral formations, the sea vegetation, and the beautifully colored and oddly-shaped fish that would swim by my eyes. I was thinking of all this while looking at pictures of the H-bomb blast. The island I describe is now only a black crater in the sea."