r The small Bikini community had developed a close in-group feeling during the years of relative isolation prior to the coming of the white man and found satisfaction and security in their closely knit personal relationships and communal life. World War II and tne Bikini People The Bikini people were directly affected by World War IT in that three of their young men who had been attending the Japanese government school on Jaluit Atoll were drafted as laborers and sent there American bombing and bombardment in the to Enewetak Atoll. important Japanese military base. soldiers manned at Bikini, American bombing and however, and Marshallese stores. in areas consumer goods and stored armed and such as Jaluit, serious The Bikini MM 550550, to Bikini, people suffered as from the cut-off of supply lines resultant cessation of exportation of copra. captured the Marshall Islands hardships done by Enewetak and Kwajalein, imports of the Bikini of necessary Communications were re- wartime hardships were alleviated when forces also people were much better off than did the other Marshallese, the station operators Little damage was where heavy fighting occurred. from Japan with of that huge and These men were all killed shelling. tne Bikini later killed There were only six Japanese however; wireless the ammunition They were early people were yet the in American 31944. The to come however. '