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 a ° . tok oe Ujoe, Rongerik 7. fos * Islands < , “Majuro>* « . . e kil ° ° 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