In time all the Rongelapese recovered from this acute radiation sickness. The skin lesions healed except for small areas of loss of pigmentation, hyperpigmentation, some atrophy of hair follicles, and scattered foci of hyperkeratinization (2). With the exception of the thyroid problems to develop later these people have not shown other lesions or illness that clearly are radiation-related, although such changes have been searched for during each subsequent annual medical survey. The only clinical or laboratory signs of possible radiation origin found among Utirik people while they were on Kwajalein were slight, transient reductions of blood platelets, lymphocytes, and neutrophils. only in some persons and disappeared promptly (2). These were found Their clinical symptomatology was negative excepting the upper respiratory infections and gastroenteritis common to all personnel on Kwajalein at that time. and treatment on Kwajalein, After two months’ observation the Utirik people were returned to their home atoll. An extensive radiological and environmental survey, which served as a prototype for similar subsequent observations, had found the foods, water supplies, and terrain of Utirik acceptable for habitation. Surveys of Rongelap and Ailinginae indicated the radiation levels were unacceptably high, so the Rongelapese were resettled in a newly-constructed village on Ejit Island of Majuro Atoll about July 1, 1954 (l). While they recuperated and prospered on Ejit, they were not happy because Ejit was not “their land.” Their repeated requests to return to Rongelap resulted in a series of resurveys and when the radiation doses from the decaying fallout had -.,’Z’. F,., ,, . . ;,. ~ .-