bloke ot ae the tig ee, wy c: eee . ate oe er: + - . - aye *-f - ‘Whe Bikini council picked Rongerik, «:about 100 miles to the east, to settle on. #*yillage was built there by Seabecs and the people, then almost 170 in number, ~were taken there by Navy LST on March 6 and 7, 1946. The people took with them (personal possessions, pandanus : thatch panels and outrigger canoes. “Word was sent out through official " -government channels that the ‘people of sBikini had gotten:-a good deal. “The ‘<Miatives are delighted and -enthusiastic -eeabout the atomic bomb,which has already ' - brought therm prosperity.and a new-prom. ising future,” said a Navy press release. An -Associated Press story said “Rongerik is much more beautiful and ‘is a richer island than Bikini. Rongerik is -about three times larger than Bikini and roughly triangular. Coconuts here are ‘three or four times as large as those on Bikini and food is plentiful.” :But the Bikini council knew differ-ently. While their ato}] had 26 islands and 2.32 square miles of land,-Rongérik had -ten islands with 0.17 square miles of land. lt was also believed to be influenced by -.an evil spirit and the fish in the lagoon ” were consistently toxic. ' “Relocation was accomplished swiftly and with little planning,” anthropologist Robert Kiste wrote in his book on the Bikini people. ““As soon as the people began to subsist on local foods, it became apparent that Rongerik’s re- sources had been greatly overestimated, _and were, in fact, inadequate.” Two months after they arrived, the Bikini people made their first request to return home. In’ June of 1947, a Navy board of investigation found the pcople were in serious straits and recommended they be moved. . By now, it was becoming clear to scientists studying Bikini atoll that, more thana year after the twoinitial tests, no. - one could take the responsibility for cer‘tifying the atoll as safe for human habi- tation. . Neal Hines, in his book “Proving ever, to be optimistic. “One year later the = Scientists and military personnel now en- gaged in an intensive six week survey of Bikini atoll can find few visible effects of in the assembly’ facility at Parry Island on Enewetak to risk its destruction. Activity moved back to Bikini, but at a scale that dwarfed the earlier tests. subjects sailed in outrigger canoes.” Feo much had “Bravo” was 750 times more powerful ‘been invested than the atomic bombs detonated there eight years before. Meanwhile, the people In.March of 1948, the people of of Bikini stayed on Kili, a harsh andisola- :Bikini-were moved to Kwajalein and the . ted place. following fall to Kili, an island which had President Eisenhower announced a headquartered a copra plantation during moratorium on atmospheric testing in 1958 and the Pacific Proving Ground fell the German period in the Marshalls. Kili had rich soil but a number of serious | -silent. Ten years later, President Johnson announced that, with the exception of several islands, radiation levels on Bikini =MARSHALL ISLANDS atoll were low enough to allow safe rehabitation. Sources on Kili at the time . 7 oHR ran - sore said the news was greeted with outright ehewetax = wif wo jubilation. . Asmonths went by, the mood tume ° ++ I _ “ x . eo — ™~ N : SS - BARRO “mar publicized event,.and brought back a disturbing report to Kili. “There were differences,” said Nathan Note, scribe of Bikini. “IiL.was not the original Bikini people have seen, just because of bombs wiping it out.” Kiste, the anthropologist, said the , “cma Aorewrta restoration program at Bikini did not receive the full support of the Trust Territory administration. Equipment was frequently out of repair, air service to the atoll was terminated and supplies and wages for workers came through spora. dically. By 1969, the ‘population on Kili -was 344 and the Bikini people were spreading out through the Marshalls, to - Ebeye near Kwajalein, to Majuro and to other atolls, such as Jaluit, Ailinglaplap and Lae.What had once been a community was being pulled apart. Whether or not their atoll was a The Morsholls, 29 coral atollmand five istands scattered over 357,000 square miles of acean, served os the U.S. Pacific Proving Ground until the late 1950°s, ‘ed to deep disillusionment. Several Bikini people went to their homeatoll, a widely- 9 eget, £ ran 7 x * “2 PAP et é r “ “Ny x % © = . i ‘a, e drawbacks, not the least being it was an island, not an atoll, and with a land mass one sixth that of Bikini atoll. | It had no sheltered fishing area or protected anchorage and was virtually inaccessible during the heavy seas of the winter months. Generations of skills useful for lagoon life were worthless on this island. Efforts at development at Kili were set back by typhoons, food became, .safe place to return to becamean increasScarce and pressures grew to return to ingly complicated question. According to . Bikini a suit filed by the Bikini people in federal Fite ated ENOd eta LeeSL GdSerer Lee cee pears AEC officials were concerned over the -the possibility of radionuclides | -) os tribution of radioactive substances in the organisms in and about Bikini Lagoon. In fact, some activity was found in organ‘isms taken from every part of the Bikini area that was sampled . . Official statements‘continued, how- bigger tests. Too much had beeninvested ed lagoon on which King Judah and his ed to the atoll in 1947 and found the almost opaque. Hines said the Radiobiology Group found ‘“‘very widespread dis- . . AEC that Bikini would be needed for the that blast,” the Navy. said, referring to Bikini atoll as “the same placid palm ring- Ground,” recounts how scientists return- lagoon waters, once clear, had become $ -such as strontium 90, cesium 137 cand plutonium 239 and 240 -- all ‘known cancer-causing agents- - - oo - getting into the water supply and - cultivated food on Bikini. The AEC’s oe re: yO 7 cautions, for the most part were iqnored. befeiLheandesSel al PATS,lraeeReore “ raattae ea erry Pee alyte id After the two nuclear shots in 1946, the atoll was used as a minor support area and the action shifted to Enewetak. But the detonation of “Mike” there and the atomization of an entire island by that hydrogen device, made it clear to the a ~ © woe A = court in Hawaii, a number of reconymendations made by the AEC on how theresettlement should be done on Bikini Island, the spot favored by the people to tclocate, were. not followed by the Department of Interior or the Trust Terri.