Students from Japan and the Marshall Islands have learned together about an incident 70 years ago in which a Japanese tuna fishing boat was exposed to radiation from a US hydrogen bomb test on the Bikini Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The boat, called Daigo Fukuryu Maru, was contaminated by radioactive fallout from the nuclear test on March 1, 1954. Its 23 crew members were exposed to radiation, and one of them died six months later.

Some 40 junior high and high school students took part in the online exchange event on Wednesday. Kanagawa Gakuen, a Japanese school operator in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo, organized the event with a school in the Marshall Islands. They have had exchanges since 2020.

Japanese students used a digital mapping archive to explain the incident in English. They told students from the Marshalls that the boat met with the tragedy after leaving a port in Kanagawa and marine products were also affected.

They also explained that one of the former crew, Oishi Matashichi, had delivered a speech every year at Kanagawa Gakuen. He died in 2021.

Marshall students then asked questions, such as what symptoms were observed in the crew after they were exposed to radiation.

A similar exchange event is scheduled for next month so Japanese students can learn how people in the Marshall Islands have been exposed to radiation as a result of US nuclear testing.

One participant from Japan said Wednesday's event served as a good opportunity for her to learn not only about the Marshalls, but also her community's links to the incident.