Weisgall
trolled by an rroij; the island had passed to
the United Srates as public domain land after
World War II. By moving to Kili the Bikinians effectively rejected their own paramount
chief, who had been ugable to help them return home, and adopted the United Srates as
their surrogate trory. To this day the people
refuse to recognize the rroiy who claims dominion over Bikini.
island is virtually inaccessible from November
to May, when the trade winds cause heavy
surf to pound it.
Since visits by trust territory ships to Kili
are infrequent and irregular, the Bikinians
have lost their incentive to produce copra,
which is frequently left to spoil or is eaten by
rats before the ships arrive. At times. food
supplies on Kili have run critically short. In
1952 supplies were so low that the U.S. gov-
ernment airdropped emergency rations onto
the island (without the aid of parachutes, so
that most of the food was smashed and rendered inedible).
The drastic change from an atoll existence,
.Hawaii
.
g
8
with its abundant fish and islands as far as
the cye could see, to an isclated island with
no lagoon and inaccessible marine resources.
.
Marshall Islands
lm
A Pe .,
: ‘
comes
a
took a severe psychological and physical coll
on the people. Kili’s soil is richer than Bikini’s, but the Bikinians are not skilled in the
New
intensive agricultural techniques needed to
make the island productive. Theyare fishermen. not farmers.
* The Bikinians were completely self-suffi-
4
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Islands
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MILES
© 1980, The Washington Post.
The majority of the Bikinians. who now
number more than 900, continue to live on
Kili. Life is difficult there. Kili is an island.
not an atoll, and a small island at thar—0O.36
square miles (230 acres) or less than one-sixth
the land area of Bikini Acoll. Ir has neither a
lagoon nor sheltered fishing grounds, so the
skills the people developed for lagoon and
ocean life at Bikini are useless on Kili. More-
cient before 1946, but after years of living on
free U.S. food programs on Kili, they have
virtually lost the will to provide for themselves. Moreover. since they refuse to accept
the move to Kili as anything but a temporary
resettlement, they have been reluctant to ad-
just fully to life on the island. They miss the
diversions available on the islands of Bikini
Atoll. As one Kili resident lamented: “At
Bikini, one could always go to anotherisland.
but here it’s always the same. Sleep. wake up,
Kili. Sleep. wake up. Kili. Again. sleep, wake
up, Kili. Kili is a prison.”
Baker and Bravo
While the people of Bikini were all but
neglected by the United States, the nuclear
testing program at Bikini Atoll received top
trade winds it has no leeward side, and the
government priority. The United States detonated 23 nuclear devices there between 1946
and 1958, and the testing formed a crucial
part of the U.S. nuclear weapons development program. Bikini suffered severe damage
&2.
83.
over, since Kili runs parallel to the northeast