I think the people of the the Marshall Islands believe nuclear weapons are real. Here's an excerpt from
this book:
Early in the morning of March 1, 1954, sometime around five or six o'clock, American planes dropped a hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll. Shortly before
this happened, I had awakened and stepped out of my house. After only a few minutes had passed we saw a light to the west of Rongelap Atoll. When this
light reached Rongelap we saw many beautiful colors. I expect the reason people didn't go inside their houses right away was because the yellow,
green, pink, red, and blue colors which they saw were such a beautiful sight before their eyes.
The second thing that happened involved the gust of wind that came from the explosion. The wind was so hot and strong that some people who were
outside staggered. Even some windows fell as a result of the wind.
The third thing that happened concerned the smoke-cloud which we saw from the bomb blast. The smoke rose quickly to the clouds and as it reached them
we heard a sound louder than thunder. When people heard this deafening clap some of the women and children fled to the woods. Once the sound of the
explosion had died out everyone began cooking, some made donuts and others cooked rice.
Later some men went fishing, including myself. Around nine or ten-o'clock I took my throw net and left to go fishing near Jabwon. As I walked along
the beach I looked at the sky and saw it was white like smoke; nevertheless I kept on going. When I reached Jabwon, or even a little before, I began
to feel a fine powder falling all over my body and into my eyes. I felt it but I didn't know what it was.
I went ahead with my fishing and caught enough fish with my throw-net to fill a bag. Then I went to the woods to pick some coconuts. I came back to
the beach and sat on a rock to drink the coconuts and eat some raw fish. As I was sitting and eating, the powder began to fall harder. I looked out
and saw that the coconuts had changed color. By now all the trees were white as well as my entire body. I gazed up at the sky but couldn't see the
clouds because it was so misty. I didn't believe this was dangerous. I only knew that powder was falling. I was somewhat afraid nevertheless.
When I returned to Rongelap village I saw people cooking food outside their cook-houses. They didn't know the powder was very dangerous. The powder
fell all day and night long over the entire atoll of Rongelap. During the night people were sick. They were nauseous, they had stomach, head, ear, leg
and shoulder aches. People did not sleep that night because they were sick.
The next day, March 2, 1954, people got up in the morning and went down to get water. It had turned a yellowish color. "Oh, Oh" they cried out and
said "the powder that fell down yesterday and last night is a harmful thing." They were sick and so Jabwe, the health-aide, walked around in the
morning and warned the people not to drink the water. He told them that if they were thirsty to drink coconuts only.
. . . At three o'clock in the afternoon of March 2, 1954 a seaplane from Enewetak Atoll landed in the lagoon of Rongelap and two men came ashore.
Billiet and I asked them why they had come to Rongelap and they responded by saying they had come to inspect the damage caused by the bomb. They said
they would spend twenty minutes looking at all the wells, cement water catchments, houses and other things. The two men returned quickly to their
plane and left without telling anyone that the food, water, and other things were harmful to human beings.
More of the book talks about how the vast number of birth defects and deaths over the following years and how they all had to leave. I don't think
TNT has this sort of health impact.