Accordingly. five weeks after the end of World War II, the Joint Chiefs of Staff began ro plan series of atomuc tests. and it ordered a joinr task force to select ‘'a suitable site which will permit accomplishment of the tests with acceptable risk and minimum hazard.” The project was code named Operation Crossroads. The site for the tests had to meet numerous conditions: It had to be in an area controlled by the United States. in a climatic zone free from storms and cold temperatures, with a large. sheltered area for anchoring target vesSels and measuring the effects of radiation. It had to be uninhabited or have a small population that could be relocated easily. Naturally, the site had to be faraway from popula- tion centers in the United Srates: as the AEC told the Congress in 1953: ‘The Com- mission felt thac tests should be held overscas until it could be established more definitely that continental detonations would not en- danger the public health and safety.” In late January 1946 the Joint Chiefs selected Bikini Atoll for atomic testing. Bikini is one of 29 atolls and five islands comprising the Marshall Islands. which are scattered over 357,000 square miles just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean. The Marshall Islands. along with the rest of Micronesia. were seized during World War II by the United States from Japan, which had earlier taken them from Germany after World War I and held them under 3 League of Nations mandate. Micronesia was the site of many of the bloodiest battles of World Warll. More than 6,000 U.S. soldiers were killed and nearly 23.000 wounded dur- ing operations in these islands. The United States placed them under U.S. military control until July 1947, when the area became a U.N. strategic trust territory administered by the United States. Bikini met all che requirements for Opera- au taereiore Supported oniv a smail com: munity. (In 1946 the population numbered 167.) It is remote. and the Bikinians had never had much contact with other Marshallese or foreigners. In fact, no foreigners lived on Bikini until World War II, when a unit of five Japanese soldiers established a weather station there. On Sunday, February 10, 1946, the American military governor of the Marshalls, Commodore Ben Wyatt. arrived in Bikini by seaplane and told the people at the conclusion of their church services that they would have to leave their homes so the United States could test nuclear weapons there. According. to official Navy records, Wyatr ‘‘compared the Bikinians to the Children of Israel whom the Lord had saved from their enemy and led into the Promised Land.’’ He described the power of the atomic bomb. ‘the destruction it had wrought upon the enemy,” and he told the people that American scientists ‘‘are trying to learn how to use it for the good of mankind and to end all world wars.’ The Navy had searched the entire world for the best place to test these powerful weapons, and Bikini was it. Wyatt then asked the Bikinians: “Would you be willing to sacrifice your island for the welfare of all men?” The Bikinians deliberated, and Chief Juda Kessibuki reported their decision: “If the United States government and the scientists of the world want to use our island and atoll for furthering development, which with God's blessing will result in kindness and benefit to all mankind. my people will be pleased to go elsewhere.” “One Hell of a Good Sales Job”’ Official Navy accounts notwithstanding. the Bikinians’ decision to leave their atoll was not based solely on a naive desire to see man- atolls in the Marshall Islands, it receives muchless rainfall than the atolls to the south, kind benefit from atomic testing. The Bikinians were awed by America’s defeat of Japan and by the fact that the five Japanese soldiers stationed on Bikini committed suicide when American troops landed on theatoll in 1944. Following the establishment of U.S. 76. 77. tion Crossroads. One of the northernmost rae ee