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PRELIMINARY ANTHROPOLOGIST'S REPORT - BIKINI ATOLL SURGE
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Bricf Historical Background
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Tne Bikini people had lived on their atoll for many generations.
TYhey and their fellow Marshallese came under the
domination of foreigners less tnan one hundred years ago.
The
Gérmnan regime was succeeded by that of the Japanese at the
onset of World War I.
The Japanese rule was terminated by the
American forces during World War II.
Contact
with
the
Outside World
fhe people of Bikini Atoll were not the isolated twentieth
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century “Stone Age primitives" as described by sensationalist
news reporters and other journalists.
ever,
They were and are,
how-
less sophisticated than otner more acculturated
Marshallese, but they had been in contact with the rest of the
Marshall Isiands, and had been exposed to at least some of the
aspects of Western culture.
Every two months a Japanese schooner visited Bixini to
purchase copra and to sell food, clothing, and other goods.
Every six months a Japanese official made a visit to the atoll.
Some of tne Bikini people visited other atolls, married out,
and attenced scnool
elsewhere.
Other Marshallese visited
Bikini.
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