BIKINI RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM

I.

RESETTLEMENT OPTIONS

In light of the Interior Department's finding in
1978 that Bikini Island would not be safe for the foresee~ able future, the people of Bikini have spent over a year
"exploring possible resettlement sites.

With the help of High

- "Commissioner Winkel, four trips were conducted, one to Hawaii, one to
Wake, one to fly over Palmyra, and one to various atolls in
the Marshall Islands, including Mili, Knox, Jaluit, Ailinglaplap, Erikub and Likiep.
Only one of these potential relocation sites -Wake -- interested the Bikinians.

Wake has very little rain-

fall and virtually none of the life-sustaining trees or
vegetation commonly found throughout the rest of the Marshall
Islands, but it does pose one very attractive future for the
Bikinians -- the American military.
them from Bikini in 1946.

The U.S. military removed

The people have not yet found a

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home, so they anxiously look to the United States to continue
to care for them.

The Bikinians view Wake as a pocket of

continuing U.S. presence in the region, so they immediately
seized on it as a possible resettlement site.

The Pentagon,

however, has been adamant in its refusal to permit Wake to
be used for resettlement.
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In sum,

the Bikinians would be

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