Chapter Four
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Ronpeok and Kwapeler
t Aye Coppa
impressed the Bikinians. The island's developmen
ased it
plantation had begun in the 1870s when a trader purch
and Ger
,
from a paramount chief. Kili passed to German hands
ved the plan:
man, and later, Japanese plantation managers impro
rows af
tation. By the end of the Japanese period, well-ordered
of
excellent quality coconut palms covered ninety-five percent
althe island. Few pandanustrees and na arrowroot had been
Bikinians lad
lowed on the plantation. Crops with which the
potato, and
little familiarity - breadfruic, papaya, banana, sweet
thirty toland
tara remained fron the small population of about
an the isdand, boast
ers who luacl worked als laborers
tesa were bel
nity. As Kah
sufficient in quantity Co support the Bikint Commo
crops were tn
all
er,
had been uninhabited for four years, howev
maximum abundance when the Bikinians surveyed it.
shelKili has great disadvantages. It has neither lagoon nor
Cheops, tl
lease
uu thes Weapdos ative stapes, Peapibdae Fobeode OCC bee
aod cate than do the plants common to Bikion
Che cuttvacena
of tara is especially arduous and involves long hour of continuous
back steamy labor,
The administration assumed chacatche Gektnians were reset
thed on Kili, the palm proves would yield a coconut crop fara
excess of the people's subsiscence needs and that this surphe.
could be Converted into copra and a substantial cash income bot
the purchase of imported foods.
At the peak of the copra tore
in the date PO 3OQs, an annual AVCT ABE of one himdred tons ofc op
racwere prodiwcdon Koby an moun) five times peeater chan ehe
nas tnunn wnnual yield at Birkin Olfiiads chouphe chat weel
hoient planning and management of resources, the Bikintans oould
store up oa quantity of imported food apamse the winter season
when they would be cuc off from fishing and the outside work
feeding grounds
tered fishing area, and the reef shelf offers poor
The Bikinis, however, had ticle experience in trading. and com
the open ocean
water fish as cuna and bonito which arc found in
required,
such deep
for marine life. ‘The mose abundant marine fauna are
northeast to
aground the island. Kili’s long axis tends in an case
a lagoon, ts
west-southwest direction, which in the absence of
co the northeast
quite unfavorable because it runs alinost parallel
as leeward, and
trades. No side of the island can be described
might otherwise
which
s
there is no protected anchorage for vessel
conditions occur
be used for trolling the ocean waters. The worst
create heavy
from November to late spring when the tradewinds
spells cur
cal
uent
infreq
for
t
surf which isolates Kili and excep
thirty
tails fishing. In Japanese times, vessels based at Jaluit Atoll
shore con
miles away took advantage of such calms to make the
exis:
to Kili to load copra and unload supplies. Carving out an
winter months
tence on Kili is made even more difficult during the
with the
when the season of minimal breadfruit yield coincides
roughseas.
Skills and work habits quite different from those of the Br
kinians were required on Kili. To achieve an adequate subsistence
level, they would have to rely less on marine resources and take
full advantage of che island’s agricultural potential. Their casual
attitude toward agricultural work would have to be abandoned
and they would have to learn and practice the techniques required
to cultivate the subsistence crops unfamiliar to them. All of these
mercial operations and lacked the managerial and planning shill.
Kili also offered the potential for incteased contacts with
the Marshallese who had had the longest contace with foreipner..
Within a sixty five mile radius of Kili are the three southernmost
atolls of the Ralik chain. As noted, Jaluit, the former capital of
the German and Japanese colonial governments, is only thirty
miles co the northease.
Ebon, where both missionaries and tea
ers bepan their activities in the 1850s, is sixty five miles to che
southwest, and Namorik is siecty miles due west. All were served
by the southwestern field trip which originated: at Majuro Atoll
some 170 niles to the northeast in the Ratak cham. During the
first years of the American administration, che southern atoll:
were wdannistesed from Majuro and the notdhern atolls trom: ot
fices at Kwajalein. Inthe fall of 1948 Majuro became the diacniet
center from which all of the Marshalls were admintstered.
Thus, ithe Bikinians were to make a suceesstul adaptation
to Kili, chey would have to alter the entire basis of their econs
mic system and acquire new skills and work habits. Further, che
Bikinians would no longer be isolated at che farchermose ends of
ship routes and distant from the center of government activity.
Increased contacts with more acculcurated ishinders would be in
evitable, and the Bikinians would be required to make an adjuct
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