It was obvious that the Bikini leaders refused to accept the fact that they would not be allowed to return to Bikini some day and for that reason preferred to suffer the hardships of neighboring Rongerik to a new move, in hope of being able to return to their ancestral home. It was decided however, that, the best interests of the Bikini people would be served by transferring them to Ujilang St me ea ee ee cen ee preneemen ee Atoll, the westernmost of the Marshalls. Ujilang belonged to the government, as heir to the Imperial Japanese government which had seized it from its former German ownevs, who had “purchased” the tiny atoll from its former chief. A group of Bikini men and Navy Seabees arrived at Ujiiang in late November to prepare a village for another resettlement attempt. Shortly after their arrival, an annoucement was made that the atoll of Enewetak, west of Bikini, and north of Ujilang, would be commandeered as another testing ground for atomic weapons. It was then decided that the Enewetak inhabi- _ tants would be resettled on Ujilang. This left the ex-Bikini people right where they were six months earlier, but undoubtedly with increased feelings of insecurity, frustration and general bewilderment. In January of 1948 Anthropologist Leonard Mason of the . Universityof Hawaii, made a field investigation of the prohlen at the request of the Navy. He found among other things that the relocated Bikinians were suffering serious hardships on Rongerik, and, despite a well-organized communal organization