Paying the price for obeying orders
It speaks volumes for the discipline of the nation's Armed Forces that service personnel ordered to stand without protection and 'witness' the testing of nuclear bombs did so without protest.
They obeyed orders not simply because they had been trained to do so unquestioningly but because of an implicit faith in the system.
If the Government of the day required the testing of its nuclear bombs to be 'witnessed' en mass then there must be a good reason for it.
If they had not been issued with protective clothing then it must be because they were not in the danger zone.
In reality, the men were human guinea pigs. They were in a danger zone.
They were there in the nation's name so the effects of weapons of mass destruction could be evaluated.
Half a century later and the effects have long since become all too apparent.
In a lengthy test case, a thousand nuclear veterans - among them Malcolm Pike of Bexhill - have put their case for compensation.
Counsel for the Government has argued that it is too long after the event to bring such an action.
Potentially, millions of pounds are at stake. The veterans now have to wait until after Easter for judgement on the issue.
Both sides await with bated breath.
There is a question of basic justice at stake. The effects of radiation were known long before the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
More people died from radiation sickness as a result of these bombs than died in the actual blasts.
Not only was a gross injustice perpetrated on the servicemen back in the Fifties, successive governments since have evaded the issue of responsibility.
A court decision in their favour would be too late now for the many nuclear test veterans who suffered early and painful deaths.
But compensation would not be too late to provide material comfort for those who still suffer or to the children and grandchildren to whom they have, unwittingly, passed on the nuclear curse.
A simple admission that the order to witness nuclear bomb tests was a flawed and shameful act would have been a good starting point - many years ago.
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Monday 28 May 2012
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