The
small Bikini community had developed a close
in-group
Teeling during the years of relative isolation prior to the
coming of the white man and found satisfaction and security in
their closely knit
personal
relationships and communal
life.
Worid War TI and the Bikini People
The Bikini people were directly affected by World War II
in that
three
of their young men who had been attending the
Japanese government school on Jaluit Atoll were drafted as
laborers and
sent
to Enewetak Atoll.
They were
later killed
there in the American bombing and bombardment of that huge and
important Japanese military base.
Soldiers at Bikini,
however; wireless
manned the ammurition stores.
and
the Bikini
in areas
where heavy
fignting occurred.
the
such
other Marshallese,
from Japan with
the
consumer goods and
also
Little damage was done to Bikini,
people were much better off than
Marshallese
did
station operators
These men were all killed by
American bombing and shelling.
however,
There were only six Japanese
as Jaluit,
The Bikini
from
resultant
Enewetak and Kwajalein,
the
people
suffered as
cut-off of supply
cessation of imports
exportation of copra.
lines
of necessary
Communications
were re-
stored and wartime hardships were alleviated when the American
armed
forces
serious
9009071
captured the Marshall Islands
hardships
of the Bikini
early
in
1944.
people were yet to come
The
however.