Documentary filmmaker Johan Candert is at Bikini Atoll, diving into a strange sea. 80 years ago, the US detonated 23 nuclear bombs here, wiping out all life. But what Johan sees is a sea that is recovering. Life is coming back.
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I swim past the contours of two large gun barrels but they are almost completely covered in glassfish. I have never seen such a large school before. We swim on and slowly sink along the hull of the USS Saratoga. It's 52 metres to the bottom.
This is the story of a very remote place in one of the least visited countries on earth. And about people forced into exile.
The Saratoga is one of the world’s largest shipwrecks; it was sunk during what was known as ‘Operation Crossroads’. Twenty-three atomic bombs were test-detonated over and within the Bikini Atoll shortly after the end of the Second World War. It is a story of total destruction, but also a story of how life returns.
