LOS ANGELES TIMES
July 23, 1978
4 py §
Necs
Enrtn
U.S. ERRED
Bikini (sland:
Lost Again
fo Radiation
The Rikinians must leave their ancestrat home and its beautiful, fish-
Aceming lagoon because the Amenicans, as they themselves now admit,
made a regrettable error 10 years 220:
Despite what the scientists and the
President said—despite an invest-
ment of $3.25 million for cleanup and
When the atomic bomb dropped, I
rebuilding — Bikinits not safe afterali.
pletely. [tf would have been better,
Andrew Jakco and the others living
on Bikini{sland are being subjected to
unacceptably high doses of radiation
of the Bikini people, 1973
bombblasts that scared the atoll during 12 years oftesting.
Some younger Bikinians may live
to see their homeland again, but An-
thought Bikini would disappear com-
mayoe, if itt had... . Then we wouldn't have all these troubles.
—Nathas Note, scribe
« BY JERRY BELCHER
Times Sialt writer
BIKINI, Marshall Istands—When
the Americans made him leave Bikina
for the first time. in 1946, Andrew
Jakco was 34 years old,
When,after using the fragite Pacific atoll for 23 nucleartest blasts, the
Americans in the person of Prendent
Lyndon B. Johnson assured him, his
fellow islanders and the rest of the
left behind by atomic and hydrogen
drew Jakco will not. It may be 50
years before Bikini is fit for human
habitation.
Andrew Jakco is bitter and angry.
although hike most Marshallese he
yeils his emotions from outsiders.
“The Amencans told us in 16
for human iife, Andrew Jakeo was 56.
that they had come to test a bomb,”
he said not long ago. “They told us
they did not know how much the
bomb would hurt Bikini. They told us
above al) else, he wants to live out
Bikini is good again, they will bring
world that Bikini once again was safe
Now Andrew Jakeo is 66 and,
the days that remain to him on this
tiny curve of coral, sand and coconut
palms with his family and friends.
Then, when his ume comes, he
wants to be buried here among his
ancestors.
.
But the old man will not be permitted to end his days where he wishes.
For one day next month—fcderal
officials say about Aug. 22, allhough
official plans dealing with this place
and these people seem to go awry
more often than not—the Americans
will remove Andrew Jakeo and the
140 others living on 449-acre Bikint
Island, Jargest of the 26 islets that
make up Bikini Atoll.
They will be transported to “temporary” quarters in Kili, a single island with a fand area one-sixth that
of their 2.2-square-mile home atol).
Kili, without a lagoon, lies nearly 500
miles southeast. It is an island some
Bikinians habitually refer to as “the
prison.”
that afler they tested the bomb, and
us back. They did not say how long it
would be.”
But Andrew—Marshalicse address
One anotherbyfirst names and expect
outsiders lo do the same~helieved,
along with the 165 others the US.
Navy removed in 1946, that they
would be back within a year or so.
Meantime, he was convneed, the
Americans would provute for him and
the other peuple of Clam.
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