DRAFT viv HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Low-lying coral atolls and islands scattered over some 180 square miles of the Pacific Ocean, the Marshall Islands have been home fo the Marshallese people for over 2000 years. In recent times the situation of the has captured world attention because of the effects of United Stat testing in the Marshall Islands. arshall Islanders nuclear weapon Although the Spanish navigator Alvaro Saavedra sighted the arshalls in 1529, westerners showed interest in the Marshalls only after British naval ptains explored someof these islands in the eighteenth century. The British nam the islands after one of those exploring naval captains. As a result of agreements pith island chiefs and Great Britain, Germany established a protectorate over the Marshalls in 1886. Japan seized the islands during World War | and in 1920 receWed a League of Nations mandate to administer them. Japanese troops used the islands during World War II until 1944 when United States troops ousted them and occupied the Marshall Islands. Meanwhile, during the final months of World WarII UnitedjStates and Allied scientists successfully developed the atomic bomb, which the U.S. uged against Japan. After the war ended, the United States sought a remote area with acressible ports and land for installations to test atomic weapons. In 1946 U.S. offifials selected the Marshall tslands’ Bikini Atoll and obtained the consent of the Bikirg chief to relocate his people elsewhere. The United States subsequently conducted nuclear weapon tests at Bikini in July 1946. In 1947 the United Nations designated the United States as administrator of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, wilich included the Marshalls. The trust agreement permitted the U.S. to close off the Marshall Islands for security reasons. Subsequently, the United States expanded its wegpon testing area, which the government named the Pacific Proving Grounds. After rdaching an accord with the Enewetak people and relocating them, the U.S. used Enelvetak for nuclear weapon testing in 1948, 1951, and 1952. The U.S. nuclear wegpon testing task force returned to Bikini for the 1954 Castle series. The first shot of the Castle series produced such extensive radioactive fallout that a third Marshallese group, the Rongelapese, was evacuated from its contaminated home island nd relocated for After Castle Bravo the Marshall Islanders petitioned the Unitad Nations to stop several years. the nuclear testing in their territory or, if the testing was essentipl, to exercise all precautions to safeguard the inhabitants and their possessions. to test at Bikini and Enewetak in 1954, 1956, and 1958. THe U.S. continued By October 31, 1958, the U.S. had tested 66 nuclear devices in the Marshall Islands since 1p46. Since Castle Bravo the U.S. has conducted medical, e radiological safety activities in the Marshall Islands and has car ironmental, and for inhabitants