r

It was obvious that the Bikini leaders refused to accept
the fact that they would not be allowed to return to Bikini
some day and

for that

reason preferred to

of neighboring Rongerik to a new move,

suffer the hardships

in hope of being able

to return to their ancestral home,
|

It

was decided however,

that

the best

interests

of the

Bikini people would be served by transferring them to Ujilang
Atoll,

the westernmost of the Marshalls.

the government,

Ujilang belonged to

as heir to the Imperial Japanese government

which had seized 1t from its former German owners, who had
“purchased” the tiny atoll from its former chief.
A group of Bikini men and Navy Seabees arrived at Ujilang
in late November to prepare a village for another resettlement
attempt.

Shortly after their arrival, an annoucement was made

that the atoll of Enewetak,
Ujllang,

would be

atomic weapons.

west of Bikini,

commandeered as another testing ground
It

was then decided that

tanta would be resettied on Ujilang.
people right where
undoubtedly with

and north of

they were

the Enewetak

for

inhabl-

This left the ex-Bikinti

six months earlier,

but

increased feelings of insecurity,

frustration

and general bewilderment.

In January of 1948 Anthropologist Leonard Mason of the
University of Hawaii, made a field
at

the request

of the Navy.

He

investigation of

the problem

found among other things that

the relocated Bikinians were suffering serious hardships on
Rongerik,

and,

despite a well-organized

BM 505555;

communal

organization

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