Don’t Ever Whisper — Darlene Keju: Pacific Health Pioneer, Champion for Nuclear Survivors, the biography of Darlene Keju has just been released. It was written by Keju’s husband of 14 years, Giff Johnson.
A a young woman Keju championed the cause of nuclear weapons test survivors. She took to a global stage at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canada in 1983 to tell the world about the health impact of the American nuclear tests, and of the US Army’s discrimination against Marshall Islanders at its missile-testing base at Kwajalein Atoll.
“This book is a story of a personal transformation of a young lady who once knew little English to an advocate for her people, the victims of the weapons of war,” writes Fr. Francis X. Hezel, SJ, in the foreword to the new book.
Hezel, who founded the Jesuit think tank known as the Micronesian Seminar in the early 1970s and is now based in Guam, says the book is the “tale of a woman who loved her people, seeing them as so much more than victims of nuclear irradiation and colonial despoilment.
“For those of us who have cheered on island Micronesia through the years, it is a welcome change to read a tribute to someone who is home grown.
“Although no saint or flag-waver, Darlene shared with Mother Theresa and Greg Mortenson (of Three Cups of Tea fame) the courage to dream daringly along with the commitment and patience to settle for one step — one family, one atoll — at a time.”
Source