@
Mr. Theodore R. Mitchell
me
4
October 29, 1974
1
standarized and kept 25 simple as possible (seagull tyne engines vs.
Johnstones). A number of interesting case histories come to mind
here including the lobster cannery which‘is the principle employer
among the several hundred islanders on Tristan da Cunha in midAtlantic who were moved from their home after a volvanic eruption in
1961 anc returned there later in the 1960s,
(c) provide a first rate
unified extension service (d) ensure a dependable and sufficient
water transport service and pier and port facilities to connect Enewetak
to neighboring islands (including Ujeland and the relevant market
centers). (e) actively attempt to diversify the economy, always
bearing in mind local desires, interests, needs and expectations.
Especially attractive is the suggestion that the function of the Eniwetok
Marine Biological Laboratory (which apparently will continue under
| AEC sponsorship) be expanded to include technical assistance to the
- people, Couple this with the possibility of a Community College for
the Marshalls which would use the facilities already present on Enewetak,
and one has one way of providing a unified extension service while
possibly broadening the economic base of the people. Such possibilities
however need be carefully evaluated concerning the extent to which the
people will actually be invclved and the extent to which they will actually |
profit. This caution applies even more to the development of a ivurist
industry which even at best is a mixed blessing on small islands.
It seems to me that the future of the people of Enewetak depends on the
extent to which the people regain their independence and the extent to
which their atoll can become economically self-sufficient, It is my
impression that the authors of the Defense Nuclear Agency report do not
understand how much recommended Case 3 alters the assumptions on
which the original Master Plan was based. This alteration also has
major implications for social factors as I hope to show below.
{4) SocialImplications of Settlement. Depending on whether they are
driEnjebi or driEnewetak, the present move home will represent the
fifth or sixth time that the people of Enewetak have been moved since
1944, Since the original move was compulsory, and hencefalls within
thescope of my own research, I suspect that it was accompanied by
a great deal of stress, which, for analytical purposes, can be divided
into psychologicalphysiological and socio-cultural stress. According:
to my own model of how people respond to compu[Sory relocation,
this stress (or transition) period does not come to an end until (a) the
people once again get back on their feet economically or at least reath
the position that they held before relocation, and (b) feel at home in
wh
tw:
their new habitat. Since neither of these factors applies to the people
of Enewetak after nearly 28 years, I would suspect that the older
people (that is, those who were old enough to remember the trauma