AO 218
APPENDIX I
PRELIMINARY ANTHROPOLOGIST'S REPORT - BIKINI ATOLL SURVEY 1987
vack A.
Tobin
Brief Historical Background
The Bikini people nad lived on their atoll for many
generations.
They and
their fellow Marshallese
came under the
domination of foreigners less than one hundred years ago.
The
German 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
The
people
of Bikini
Atoll
were not
the
isolated
twentieth
century “Stone Age primitives’ as described by sensationalist
news reporters and
ever,
less
other
sophisticated
journalists.
They
were and are,
how-
than-other more acculturated
Marshallese, but they had been in contact with the rest of the
Marshall
aspects
Islands,
and
had
been exposed
least
some
of the
of Western culture.
Every two months a Japanese
Purchase
to at
copra and
to sell
schooner
food,
clothing,
visited Bikini
and
to
other goods.
Every six months a Japanese official made a visit to the atoll.
Some of the Bikini
and
attended
school
people
visited
elsewhere.
other atolls,
married
out,
Other Marshallese visited
Bikini.
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