In the Marshall Islands, between 1946 and 1958 the United States detonated 67 nuclear tests and the brutal impacts are being felt today.
The radiation spread to the US Pacific territory of Guam and while Washington settled a compensation deal with the Marshallese, Guam survivors have never been acknowledged or compensated.
Now the remaining cancer survivors are still pleading that that wrong be made right.
Sharing their stories for the first time, they want the world to know how it has devastated their lives and their families.
Linda Perez has won the battle against cancer twice.
But her family and extended family, did not make it.
"My sister passed from ovarian cancer. I was diagnosed with uterine cancer. The last two years I was diagnosed with colon cancer," Linda told RNZ Pacific.
"My first cousins - all in 2022 - five of us at the same time diagnosed with cancer, and then four of them passing.
I have to tell that story."
"The federal government acknowledging what they have done would be a start for healing for all of us, the compensation is going to help."
Lourdes Mendiola has six children - four with severe learning disabilities.
She is their sole carer.
"Please help us, because we are just a tiny island.
"Why not take care of us also? We are part of the United States. We are US citizens, and it is not what we did to ourselves, it was beyond our control.
"We were exposed, and we have all these ailments. So, help us for our children," she said.
Perez criticised the US for fighting wars but withholding compensation from nuclear radiation survivors.
"Why are you [US government] going to go and funnel money into these foreign countries to fight their wars, when we, your people, are falling down like flies because of cancer?"
It is their final plea to the US federal government for healthcare compensation before it is too late.
Despite nearly two decades of relentless lobbying, nuclear radiation survivors, also known as downwinders, have just months before a bill before the US Congress to include Guam in RECA (Radiation Exposure Compensation Act) expires and the advocacy will have to start again.
"We are affected, and our offspring are affected," Mendiola said.
"I am also diagnosed as having a nodule in my lungs. I do not drink; I do not smoke. So why me? Why my children?" she asks.
She fears for their future if they have no care or compensation when she is gone.
"I am insecure for the future, because there's not enough residential group homes. He [her son] needs 24/7 care as well as my other son. And if I pass on, I do not know how the government is still going to take care of them, and especially this one with aggressive behaviour. I want to outlive my children."
Lourdes Mendiola and her son. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Eleisha Foon
On Guam, there are more dialysis centres than hospitals.
The current hospital has been in a two-year limbo with Guam's Governor Lou Leon Guerrero in a tug of war with the US military over refurbishing or rebuilding the hospital.
The military want to refurbish the current building while the Guerrero has called for an entirely new one.
It has caused a worsening state of health care on the island, especially for nuclear radiation survivors and their families.
Many are forced to go overseas for better treatment and care - but it is costly.
"Each drug costs at least $10,000 and I had to get five chemo drugs. So that was $50,000 roughly each session.
"We do a lot of medical fundraising. It is sad," she added.
Mendiola said compensation would help secure a more stable future for her children and their care as funding was already stretched thin across the lack of services in Guam.
Albert Perez watched his wife, Gloria, deteriorate into depression after her breast cancer diagnosis.
The pair worked for the military and are calling on Congress to do the right thing.
"We just want to be recognised," Albert said.
"That's all and accounted for what they did. Help us over here, give us qualified professional health care."
The pair wanted to stand in the gap for nuclear radiation survivors who died before they could receive any compensation towards treatment and healthcare, which they say, may have kept them alive.
Gloria said it was not too late for the US to act.
"I just hope that Speaker [Mike] Johnson realises that we are US citizens also. We need to be recognised.
"Guam has more soldiers in the military than any other state per capita. We just need to be part of Washington."
Nuclear testing history
Linda's said the US government tried to cover up its nuclear testing legacy.
But the truth was uncovered by atomic war veteran Robert Celestial.
Unclassified documents released under the Clinton administration on the Atomic Energy website led to a discovery that would go on to uncover an ugly truth about the bombings at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
Radiation Survivors formed in 2002, led by Robert Celestial.
Robert Celestial, army veteran and Pacific Association of Radiation Survivors president. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Eleisha Foon
"We have been fighting for 23 years because of the evidence that we are eligible for compensation," he told RNZ Pacific.
In March 2004, Celestial provided written and oral testimony that Guam received fallout from nuclear testing.
"Not only did I submit sworn testimony from a Lieutenant Burt Striver's sworn testimony that the geiger counters were off the scale but they had an independent assessment of the consequences relating to the weapons testing on the people living in Guam.
As a result of its analysis, the committee concluded Guam did receive measurable fallout from testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific.
The recommendation from the National Academy of Science was that: "Residents should be eligible of compensation under RECA in a way similar to those being considered as downwinders."
They joined with New Mexico, Idaho, Utah for over 15 years.
"Our people have been suffering for many, many years. It's not up to Congress to consider renewing RECA for other States and for Guam. They talk about equity and justice.
"We have all the evidence," he said, resolute in his belief that they had convinced the majority, but "the powers that be just do not want to do it."
Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors (PARS) members at a gathering. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Eleisha Foon
Bill blocked by Speaker Johnson
Celestial said the one person who stands in the way of Guam survivors of nuclear radiation and their compensation is House Speaker Johnson.
"We have been having a very difficult time having our bills passed in Congress. This year, we got it past the Senate, but in the House, Speaker Johnson has been giving us a really hard time."
He said Speaker Johnson "let the program lapse in June".
"So we are still fighting for our issue to be brought up in the house. We have until then to have the bill passed in the house."
Guam Delegate James Moylan said the House Rules Committee ruled his amendment to incorporate the RECA expansion language into the defence spending policy bill "out of order".
It meant that the language did not make it to the floor for the House vote.
"The primary reason was that offset costs were not provided, which were estimated at around US$50 billion," Moylan said in a statement.
In 1998, the US stopped providing medical care for cancer-stricken islanders, leaving many in financial hardship.
RNZ Pacific has reach out to the Speaker Johnson's Office for comment.
Meanwhile, later this month a protest for indigenous survivors, including the people of Guam, will be held in Washington in a final joint push to convince Speaker Johnson and Congress to adopt the bill.
