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 3 : : . © : 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 ae eee ee 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 . :