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.

Select target paragraph3