Ve
t was obvious that the Bikini leaders refused to accept
the fact that they would not be allowed to return to Bikini
some day and
for that
reason preferred to
of neighboring Rongerik to a new move,
suffer the hardships
in hope of being able
to return to their ancestral home.
It was decided however,
Bikini people would
Atoll,
be
the westernmost
the government,
that
the best
interests
of the
served by transferring them to Ujilang
of the Marshalls.
Ujilang belonged
to
as heir to the Imperial Japanese government
which had seized it from its former German owners,
"purchased" the tiny atoll
who had
from its former chief.
A group of Bikini men and Navy Seabees arrived at Ujilang
in late November to prepare a village for another resettlement
attempt.
that
Shortly after their arrival,
the atoll
Ujilang,
of Enewetak,
would be
atomic weapons.
west
of Bikini,
It
where
undoubtedly with
and
north
was made
of
commandeered as another testing ground
was
then decided
tants would be resettled on Ujilang.
people right
an annoucement
they were
that
for
the Enewetak inhabl-
This left the ex-Bikini
six months
earlier,
but
increased feelings of insecurity,
frustration
and general bewilderment.
In January of 1948 Anthropologist Leonard Mason of the
University of Hawaii,
at
the
the request
made a field investigation of the problem
of the Navy.
relocated Bikinians
Rongerik,
and,
circa,
ia
were
He
found among other things
suffering serious hardships on
despite a well-organized
9009074
that
communal
organization