No one knew if the bombs were leaching their contents, if chemical agents might one day waft through the waters along Waikiki Beach, or end up in somebody’s sushi. When exposed to seawater, mustard gas forms a concentrated gel: it remains active in the ocean for a tenaciously long time. (Fishermen are regularly burned by contact with mustard shells that surface in their nets.) According to a 2007 U.S. congressional report, more than sixty-one thousand mustard bombs and mortar shells and 1,038 tons of sulfur-based chemical warfare agents were tipped into Hawaiian waters. They were joined by
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