38
RADIOLOGICAL CLEANUP OF ENEWETAK ATOLL
u
November 1946, President Truman announced that the U.S. was prepareg
to place the islands under trust. The agreement establishing the TTPI as q
Strategic area trusteeship was approved by the U.N. Security Council on 2
April 1947 and by President Truman on 18 July 1947. Under the
agreement, most of Micronesia was placed under the administration,
legislation, and jurisdiction of the United States.62 The Department of the
taken by the AEC to establish a nuclear test site at Enewetak Atoll. The :
AEC had studied several possible locations including island sites in the
Indian Ocean, Alaska, and Kwajalein Atoll, as well as in the continental
U.S. Bikini Atoll islands were neither large enough nor properly oriented
for construction of a major airfield and support base. The AECselected
Enewetak Atoll and, upon approval of the proposal by President Truman,
requested that the Military Services prepare the Enewetak Proving
Ground and provide logistical support.
On 18 October 1947, JTF-7 was activated under the command of
Lieutenant General John E. Hull, USA, to prepare the proving ground and
to conduct the next series of nuclear tests, Operation Sandstone. The
selection of Enewetak as a proving ground necessitated the removal of the
people once again, this time to Ujelang Atoll to the southwest of
Enewetak.63 On 21 December 1947, 136 dri-Enewetak were transported to
Ujelang to begin their long residence on that Atoll.
Ujelang lies 124 miles southwest of Enewetak. It had been inhabited by
Marshallese, but a typhoonin the late 1800’s swept over the atoll and killed
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all but a few of the inhabitants. The survivors moved to the southern |
Marshalls, leaving the atoll deserted.
During the German and Japanese colonial eras, the atoll was developed
as a commercial copra plantation, with a small group of islanders from the
Eastern Carolines serving as paid laborers. In World WarII, it was again
abandoned. Whenthe U.S. obtained the TTPI, Ujelang becameavailable
for the relocation of the populations ofother atolls.64.65
Ujelang is much smaller than Enewetak, containing less land and less
lagoon areas. The lagoon is only 25.47 square miles in extent, compared
with Enewetak’s 387.99 square miles. The land area is 0.67 square miles or
428 acres, of which only 274 acres are usable. Enewetak has 2.75 total
square miles, or about 1,761 acres of land. From thesefigures, it is possible
to see that the potential for the production of food at Ujelang from the
reefs, lagoon, and land was considerably less than that at Enewetak. The
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Interior became the executive agency of the United States, relieving the
Navyof its interim control. The United States was to take all appropriate
measures to advance the interests of the people of the TTPI and,
additionally, the U.S. was authorized to establish military bases in the
TTPI.
Concurrently with the establishment of the TTPI, action was being . :