34
RADIOLOGICAL CLEANUP OF ENEWETAK ATOLL
AMERICAN
Killed &
Missing
Enjebi Is.
Enewetak Is.
Medren Is.
ad
I sre
Other
Wounded
JAPANESE
Killed &
Burial Count
85
37
73
166
94
261
934
704
1027
195
521
2677
12
Prisoners
Total
16
23
25
1201
858
1386
64
3457
32
FIGURE 1-34, CASUALTIES IN THE CONQUEST OF ENEWETAK ATOLL.
Aomon, where a few houses and some coconut trees werestill standing.
The total number of people gathered on Aomon wasII7; [8 had been killed
during the battle.
After its capture, Enéwetak was used primarily as a support or staging
area. A 7,000-foot bomber strip was laid down on Enewetak Island. 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 ;
Years later, 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 homeislands.
Those whoreturned to Enewetak Atoll found that the U.S. military forces
had placed all people from Enjebi and Enewetak Islands on Aomoninthe
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.49:50 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
(ee
aos.