Page Nine Jonathan Weingal] January 21, 1982 interview with Nine Letobo is typical of the responses I elicited about the post-evacuation period at Utirik: “After our return from Kwajalein three months later (in June, 1954) things began to change. We resumed eating our own foods--some did this secretly at first--after we ran out ofthe food and pontoon water the AEC gave us, and some people even ate our own foods during the time west hadcanned food and water.” (Interview with Nine Letobo, aged 63, on Utirik Atoll, March 2, 1981) More recently, I spoke with John DeYoung--an anthropologist by training--who has worked for many years on the problems in the Marshalls through the Territorial Affairs Office of the Interior Department, where he is employed. When I asked DeYoung about the feasibility of the proposed dietary restrictions for the returning Enewetak islanders, he said, “It is unrealistic to expect artificial living conditions, i.e., the restricted diet and living patterns, to be adhered to for 30 years." A more expansive version of my conversation with DeYoung appears in my article "A Tale of Two Islands: Bikini and Enewetak," in The Ecologist, volume 11, number 5, September/ October, 1981, pp. 222-27. In my estimation, I think it is fanciful to expect the people of Bikini--who have already violated their previous past with the Interior Department during their aborted relocation--to restrict their intake of locally grown feeds at Bikini Atoll. I am not convinced that the people truly understand--and this is the key-the long-term effects associated with living in a mildly radioactive environment. There is nothing in the Marshallese experience or cultural configuration which relates to an action in the present and a consequence 20, 30 or 40 years hence. "6. DOE model diet. As I explained to you when we met, the diet used in DOE's 1978 survey assumed a daily intake of coconuts of approximately 300 grams, which amounts to a little over one coconut. This diet was connected by Micronostan Legal Services Corporation, and I suspect that they have purposefully chosen a Tow number. Do you know of other diet studies in the Marshalls?" Response: I have not yet seen the data for dietary patterns which ormed the basis for Micronesian Legal Service's Enewetak dose assessment, nor have I seen Jan Naidu's material on the Marshallese diet which he collected for Brookhaven National Laboratory. The following comments will be based therefore on Nancy Polleck's 1970 -——doctoral dissertation titled: “Breadfruit and Breadwinning on Namu Atol1l, Marshall Islands," as well as my own information. As an agricultural and cooperative advisor on Utirik for two years, I became quite familiar with the Marshallese diet--especially the role of coconuts in the diet--insofar as my role as an agricultural (cont ‘d.) ALL DQ.