WWII skeletons exposed by climate change in Marshall Islands

Transcript

The Marshall Islands Foreign Minister, Tony de Brum, has told a United Nations climate change meeting in Germany that rising sea levels have exposed the skeletal remains of World War Two soldiers from their graves.

Our correspondent in the Marshall Islands, Giff Johnson, told Jenny Meyer the 26 skeletons have been identified as Japanese and the discovery highlights the ongoing threat posed by climate change.

GIFF JOHNSON: At the end of World War Two there was very fierce fighting in the Marshall Islands as US forces moved in to take over the Marshall Islands and Kwajalein was the site of a lot of the fighting. So the fact that this grave site, mass grave site, was located recently really isn't a surprise. But it was located some months back by a local resident on a small island on Kwajalein Atoll when he found out, when they discovered some bones had become visible. And obviously this was from ongoing coastal erosion. The grave site had been somewhat near the water. So then officials went in and exhumed the remains and they were identified as Japanese in origin.

JENNY MEYER: It's quite a graphic example of the effects of climate change, I guess, washing up history?

GJ: Well you know in Majuro we've seen a lot of erosion, a lot of graves washing into the water. The real challenge is; what is climate change, what is just caused by man made type things like dredging and so on. But anyway erosion is certainly happening. And in small islands like the Marshall Islands, with even a moderate sea level rise which we now know is ongoing, these sort of things are going to happen more regularly, there's no question about it.

JM: Has there been any effort with the skeletons to repatriate them to Japan or  anything like that do you know?

GJ: I know that there's very active organisations in Japan which frequently send groups out to the Marshall Islands who are relatives of deceased members of the Japanese military who fought in the Marshall Islands, so I'm sure there will be an effort to repatriate the bones at some point.

JM: For the people of the Marshall Islands, one of their leaders is in Germany, do they have hopes for some sort of action after this meeting?

GJ: You know it's such a fundamental issue in a place like the Marshall Islands which is just a foot or two above sea level. So sea level rise really means the demise of the country if things continue in the direction they're going. You know it's a real challenge for small island countries like the Marshall Islands to be faced with a problem that they didn't cause but that we're feeling the first problems of.