Islands Lost Again to Radiation
and churned outof the blue-green la-
cept of nationality.
“To say, ‘I'm Marshallese,’ that is a
foreign concept,” Kiste said. “West-
main deck to sing traditional songs of
farewell. The next morning they were
goon, the people gathered on the
erners named those islands the Mar-
shalls. So ‘Marshallese’ has less
meaning than ‘I'm Bikinian.’ And
among themselves, they speak not of
bemg Bikinians, but say, ‘I'm a person
of this particular piece of land.” Land
is an expression of who | am—of individual identity.”
Or, as fellow anthropologist Jack.
Tobin. another academic expert with
long experience in the Marshalls, ex-
unloaded at Rongerik.
On the morning of July 1, a B-29
bombercalled Dave’s Dream dropped
a “nominal yield" 20-kiloton (the
equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT)
atomic bomb overtheficet of 70 obsolete U.S. and captured Japanese and
German warships moorcd just off Bikani Island. It exploded 500 feet above
the fleet, sinking five ships, twisting
and crushing others like cheap toys—
atoll The Navy, which put out press
releases at the time indicating that
“the natives were delighted” by the
move, was only slightly more restrained a year Laterin its official history of Crossroads, “Bombs at Bikini.”
“The Bikiniars, convinced that the
{A-bomb) tests would be a contribu-
spring of 1947, fire destroyed a third
of Rongenk’s coconut trees. The people pressed for a return to Bikini, but
t
E
NTE R
historian wrote.
Kt wasn’t quite that way, according
to Tobin, emeritus professor of an-
thropology at University of Hawaii.
“They did not go willingly,” Tobin
sad “They were forced to go... .
They agreed because they had to,just
as they had agreed to do things when
the Japanese had bayonets in the
backgrognd.
“Put yourself in their shoes: You've
been told what to do by the Japanese
for a quarter-century . . . and told by
the Japanese mulitary the Americans
were weak. So when the Amencans
wiped out the Japanese. . . all those
Amencan ships appearing, the natur-
al reaction . . . would be to go along
with what they are told.”
On the afternoon of March 7, 1946,
the 166 men, women and children of
Bikini were loaded aboard Navy LST
1108 As the awkward landing craft
backed off the beach at Bikini Island
« teat camp at Kwajatein, In Septem-
ber, the Bikinians voted to resettle on
Kili, and in November, they werefl-
ing a new and bigger village than
they had had on Bikini.
a
Severe food shortages developed
during the winter of 1946-47. In
of Bikini.
Among the 42,000 observers of the
awesome blast was Chief Juda,
watching as a guest of the Navy from
the deck of the amphibious command
lon to world peace, indicated their
willingness to evacuate,” the Navy
nally settied on Kili and began build-
stand.
and initiating the radiation poisoning
its
“In those islands, a man without
land is no man.”
By 2 split vote of the atoll’s leaders,
the Bikimans chose to go to Rongenk
Atoll, 123 miles east of their home
scemced tobe little to Bikini itself. The
trees werestill standing, stall bearing
coconuts. But the radiation, invisible.
was not something he could under-
They thought they
could bear up under the
hardships of Rongerik.
erry ve ara
+ se
en oy
anes
aFathwearsaatiCatalMAE,
Ch
(
ship Mt. McKinley, severa) miles
away. The Navy used more than 10,-
000 mstruments {o record test data.
Chief Juda's reaction was not recorded. The next day he rejoined his
people at Rongcrik.
Rongerik was a disaster. It was too
small. There was too little food. And,
according to legend, it was haunted
by an evil witch named Liborka, who
poisoned the fish of the lagoon. In
fact, certain fish of the lagoon were
poisonous which was why Rongerik
had been uninhabited for years.
But it was close to Bikini and the
people had chosenit for that reason.
They thought they could bear up under the hardships until they went
back to their homeatoll..That, they
wereconvinced, would be in a couple
of years at most.
Chief Juda had returned from the
first bomb test (the second, an underwater shot, was held July 25, 1946) to
tell his people that while there had
been great damage to the ships, there
than at Bikini. Supply ships could
neither land food nor take away copra
dried coconut, the only cash crop—
for months at a time because of the
heavy surf. Sometimes six months
passed before a ship could unload.
In an attempt to relieve the isola-
tian the Navy fiienad avae a aN fant
a radiological survey indicated thatit
was too “hot” for permanent occupancy and would be for many years.
In October, the Navy announced
that the Bikinians would be relocated
on Ujelang. But two monthslater, the
Pentagon announced a newseries of
nuclear tests would be held, this time
at Eniwetok, another atoll in the
Marshalls. The Eniwetok people
would go to Ujelang instead of the Bikinians. The Bikinians had to wait.
Andrew Jakeo remembered the
Rongerik period well. “I was a big
man then,” he said, “but I got skinny.” He held up thelittle finger of his
left hand. “Skinny like this. One old
woman died from hunger... . Fora
year and a half, we did not hava
enough food, (sometimes) got our
food by cutting open the coconut tree
and eating the heart of the tree. This
killed the tree.”
Jeladrik Jakeo, Andrew's 48-yearold brother, was a teen-ager on Rengerik. “It was terrible,” he remembered. “We ate things that were not
good, gathered coconuts that floated
in from the sea. Bad food; we got sick.
Arms and tcgs swelled up, and we got
blisters on the arms and we had diarrhea.”
Late in January, 1948, the Navy
dispatched anthropologist Leonard
‘ason, now of the University of Hawan, to investigate. He found the exiles at the point of starvation, living
on raw flour diluted with water.
In strong terms, Mason recommended that the pcople be removed
(rom Rongerik as soon as possible. He
also recommended Kili Istand, al-
though he admitted it had many dis-
advantages, as the best available
place to relocate the Bikinians.
In March, 1948, they were moved to
and the problems of the Bikinians—to
the civilians. A high commissioner
was appointed by the President to
work with and through the U.S. Departmentof the Interior.
Matters did not improve right
away. But under pressure from the
United Nations, the high commission-
«aca
Coatinned from Third Page
man and his land overrides the con-