Wersgail Strange People from Bikini.” stated: ‘’Primitive they are, but they love one another and the American visitors who took their home.” “Two Idaho Potatoes” Unfortunately, the removal of the Biki- nians from their home in 1946 was the only time the United States ever executed an action involving them with such swiftness, energy. or commitment. The Bikinians were left on Rongerik with only a few weeks supply of food and water. The Navy. meanwhile. assured the media that the Bikinians were pleased with their move. One Navy pressrelease reported that the ‘‘natives are delighted. enthusiastic about the atomic bomb. which has already brought them prosperity and a new promising future.’ An Associated Press story, quoting a Navy spokesman, indicated that the move was a blessing in disguise: *““Rongerik is much more beautiful and is a richer island than Bikini. Rongerik is about three times larger than Bikini. .. . Coconuts here are three or four times as large as those on Bikini and food is plentiful.” In fact. the move to Rongerik was ill conceived and poorly planned. The land area of Rongerik Atoll is actually much smaller than Bikini—its 17 islands comprise 0.63 square miles. compared to Bikini's 36 islands and 2.3 square miles—and its lagoon is less than one-fourth the size of Bikini’s. Thelife- sustaining coconut palms and pandanus trees on Rongerik were considerably less productive than those on Bikini. and manyof the fish in Rongerik’s lagoon proved to be poisonous. Moreover, because the Bikinians thought they would be living on Rongerik for only a short time. they did not bother to tell the Navy that according to their Bikinians in July 1947 reported thac they were ‘visibly suffering from malnutrition.” Six months later another medical officer examined them and reported that they were starving. The people were rationing them- selves to one bucketful of water per household a day and were cutting down young palm trees in order to eat the heart of the palm because there was nothingelse to eat. But U.S. military authorities understood neither the deplorable conditions on Rongerik nor the Bikinians’ deeply felr ties to their home. A 1946 New York Timesarticle on the future of Bikini after Operation Crass- toads reported that ‘Juda of Bikini and his people. now living on Rongerik Atoll, will probably be repatriated if they insist on it. though the United States military authorities say they can’t see why they should want to: Bikini and Rongerik look as alike as two Idaho potatoes.” The near starvation of the Bikinians on Rongcrik could not be ignored indefinitely. however, and in March 1948 they were moved toa temporary camp on Kwajalein, an atoll in the Marshalls that was being developed as a U.S. military base. That summer Bikinian leaders again were taken to explore possible relocation sites. They selected Kili. a fertile island 400 miles south of Bikini that had been used as a copra plantation by the Germans and Japanese. (Copra. or dried coconut meat, is the cash crop of the Marshalls: when processed, it yields coconut oil.) The Bikinians chose Kilt partly out of frustration and anger at their plight. In the Marshalls almost all land is owned by paramount chiefs, or trorjes. who historically functioned much like feudal lords. receiving a form of tithe from the subjects who worked were severe food shortages during the winter of 1946-1947; a U.S. doctor whovisited the their land and providing them protection in times of danger. The deprivation and psychological stress the Bikinians experienced on Rongerik led them to question their traditional belief in the power oftheir irorj, whose role as protector had begun to diminish by the twentieth century. One of the strong attractions of Kili was that it was not con- 80. 81. mythology the atoll was inhabited by an evil spirit that contaminated thefish in the lagoon. By May 19467less than two monthsafter they arrived, the Bikinians asked the Navy's permission to leave Rongerik and return home, but their request was denied. There