Evacuation of Bikini ! Early in 1946 it was decided that Bikini Atoll was the most Suitable iocation for tne testing of atomic weapons. people were asked to leave and, The Bikini as mignt have been expected of a people of their historical conditioning to obedience, especially after more than @ quarter of a century of autocratic Japanese rule, agreed to leave their ancestral home. of resettlement in the Marshalls were very The possibilities limited because land 1s scarce (only about 74 square miles) and very little of it ts available for settlement. The Marshallese jealously guard their land rights and will not willingly part with them. r Problems of Resettlement The 166 Bikinians were offered the choice of moving to either Ujae, Marshalls. Lae, or Rongerik, all by the people who had land rights on the atoll. to make copra, to fish, presumably, to Bikini, in the northwestern Ujae and Lae were already regularly inhabited, Rongerik was only exploited reason, atolis and as well but of neighboring Rongelap, These people visited Rongerik to gather other foods. For this as the the fact that it was closest the Bikini people opted to go to Rongerik rather than Ujae or Iae. A village was built on Rongerik by Navy Seabees and a group of Bikini men, 1 and ail of the Bikini people were moved to that por a detailed report of Lhe movements of tne Bikini people from Bikini to Rongerik and to Kili, see Mason, Leonard The Bikinians A Transplanted Population, | Human Organization, Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 1950, 5009012 pp. 5-15. -