By Kristin Scheer
On April 4, PeaceWorks KC hosted a showing of the film Silent Fallout at Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church in Lenexa, KS. Attendees discussed the film afterwards, some saying they will watch the movie again, on April 13 (see time/place below).
Promoting the documentary, peace activist Hideaki Ito, in a press release, announces, “This powerful documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Hideo Ito tells the extraordinary true story of how women and children with nothing but baby teeth helped expose the devastating effect of nuclear testing and ultimately led to a historic change in United States policy.”
During the Cold War, the US conducted 100 atmospheric nuclear weapon tests between 1945 and 1962. These tests spread radioactive dust across North America. Fallout contaminated the environment and the food supply, exposing millions, including children, to harmful radiation. Silent Fallout follows the courageous women who refused to stay silent. “Their groundbreaking research on baby teeth, collected from 320,000 children, proved the extent of radiation exposure, forcing the US government to confront the consequences of nuclear testing,” Hideaki Ito says.
Alec Baldwin narrates the English version that covers a compelling collection of never-before-seen archival footage, firsthand testimonies, and declassified documents. Hideaki Ito says, “Silent Fallout is a film for the people of the United States, a country that continues to hold nuclear weapons while keeping its citizens in the dark about the consequences. Americans must recognize that they, too, are victims of radiation exposure.”
Ann Suellentrop, vice chair of the PeaceWorks Board and a Board member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, led the April 4 discussion after the film. “I saw Silent Fallout in New York City during the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,” said Ann. “I thought I just had to bring it to KC. After working on nuclear weapons issues for 15 years, I thought I had heard pretty much all the stories about nuclear weapons. But I found this film to be shocking.
“The nuclear bombs used in New Mexico and Japan during 1945 and the US nuclear tests in Nevada and the Marshall Islands are not just events of the past,” said Ann. “The contamination from all those tests spread over the US and will remain for generations. It has caused fertility problems and many deaths from cancers, heart disease, brain disease. A physicist I know through ANA, the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, Arjun Makhijani, has estimated there will be 2 million deaths to come in the future from the radiation. I thought to myself: What have we done to our beautiful world?
“The awareness of radiation from our nuclear tests is crucial as we face the government plans to double the KC National Security Campus and make new plutonium pits in New Mexico and South Carolina for new nuclear weapons. ANA won an environmental lawsuit against the government last September concerning new plutonium pits, so there will be public hearings this year online and in 5 sites—including KC. This will be our chance to say NO to new nukes.”
Join us on April 13, 2-4 pm, at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, at 4501 Walnut, in KC MO, where we will show Silent Fallout again. It is powerful and informative. We are all downwinders.
–Kristin Scheer, an environmentalist and peace activist, sits on the Board of PeaceWorks KC and leads its Communications Team.
