RADIOLOGICAL CLEANUP OF ENEWETAK ATOLL AMERICAN Killed & Missing Wounded JAPANESE Killed & Burial Count Enjebi Is, 85 166 934 MedrenIs. Other 73 261 195 521 1027 12 2677 Enewetak Is. 37 94 704 Prisoners Total 16 1201 25 1386 12 3457 23 64 858 FIGURE 1-34, CASUALTIES IN THE CONQUEST OF ENEWETAK ATOLL. Aomon, where a few houses and some coconuttrees werestill standing. The total number of people gathered on Aomon wasIi7; 18 had been killed during the battle. After its capture, En¢wetak was used primarily as a support or staging area. A 7,000-foot bomberstrip was laid down on EnewetakIsland. Little or no attempt was madeto clean up the debris resulting from the invasion. The beaches contained many rusting hulks of landing craft, tanks, and other vehicles. Ammunition, mortars, and other implements of war littered the land and the reefs. The coconut trees of the islands, which had been bombarded andassaulted, were largely destroyed.47 Yearslater, Iroij Johannes Peter spoke of the battle—the airplanes, the bombs, the fears, the wounded, and the dead. Herecalled that these had been very sad times. . After the surrender of Japan, all small naval vessels moving through the Marshalls picked up and carried repatriates back to their home islands. Those who returned to Enewetak Atoll found that the U.S. military forces had placed all people from Enjebi and Enewetak Islands on Aomon in the northeastern part of the atoll chain. The U.S. Navy provided building construction materials, food, and water.48 The dri-Enjebi were not content with dwelling on Aomon because, in spite of its northern location, it was under the authority of the iroij of the _dri-Enewetak. Consequently, the dri-Enjebi were moved to the neighbor- ing island of Bijire.49:59 Their stay there was.also brief due to major events in other parts of the world. THE NUCLEAR AGE BEGINS: JULY 1945 The nuclear age arrived with the detonation of an atomic bomb on 16 July 1945 near Alamogordo, New Mexico. That test, known as the Trinity Event, was part of the Manhattan Project organized to develop the military application of atomic energy. In August of the same year, two nuclear becachypHiGil UH LEistUipy. boeUrl Ffa J bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thereby accelerating the end of World WarII. While the use of nuclear weapons already had modifted military concepts of war, they still needed further study and development if their full capabilities were to be realized. Interest in their development was shared by the scientific community and the general public as well as the military establishment. On 10 November 1945, a subcommittee of the Joint Chicls of Staff (JCS) began developing detailed plans for a series of tests of existing and newly developed nuclear weapons. Thetests were to be conducted under very carefully controlled conditions and as a matter of primary concern, were to explore the effects of atomic explosions on naval vessels. The subcommittee proposed a program to be headed by Vice Admiral William H. P. Blandy, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Special Weapons. The program was accepted by the JCS, generally as proposed, on 28 December 1945 and approved by President Truman on 10 January 1946. The organization for conducting the program was identified as Joint Task Force One (JTF-1).5! An important objective of the program was to obtain and prepare an appropriate test site. Locations in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Caribbean had been considered even before the Task Force came into existence. The basic site requirements were that: a. It be under the control of the United States. b. The area be uninbabited or subject to evacuation without imposition of unnecessary hardship on a large number of inhabitants. c. It be within 1,000 miles of the nearest B-29 aircraft base, as it was expected that one test nuclear device was to be delivered by air. d._ It be free from storms and extreme cold. e. It have a protected harbor at least 6 miles in diameter thereby being large enough to accommodate both target and support vessels. f. It be away from cities or other population concentrations. The local winds be predictably uniform from sea level to 60,000 feet. The water currents also be predictable and not adjacent to inhabited shorelines, shipping lanes, and fishing areas so as to avoid =0 34 contaminating populaces and their food supplies.52-53 Several atolls in the Marshall Islands met all of these requirements to a satisfactory extent. The Marshalls had been captured from the Japanese and, by Presidential authority, were under the control of the U.S. Navy military government. ws