410423
LOS ANGELES TIMES
July 23, 1978
U.S. ERRED
Bikini Island:
Lost Again
fo Radiation
When the atomic bomb dropped, [
thought Buani would disappear comPletely {t would Agve bcen better,
maybe, if 2 had... . Then we wouldw't have all Uuese troubles.
~—Nathas Note, scribe
of the Bikial people, 1978
» BY JERRY BELCHER
‘Then Steet writer
BIKINI, Marshall Islands~When
the Americans made him leave Bikini
for the first lime. in 1946, Andrew
dakeo was 34 years old.
When,after using the fragite Pacific atol! for 23 nuclear test blasts. tne
Americans in the person of President
Lyndon B. Johnsen assured him, hi
fellow islanders and the rest of the
world that Bikint once again was safe
for human Ife, Andrew Jakeo was 56.
Now Andrew Jakeo is 66 and,
above all else, he wants to live out
the days thal remain to him on this
ny curve of coral. sand and coconul
palms with his lamily and frends
Then, when his ume comes, he
wants to be buried here among his
ancestors.
But the old man wil not be permitded to end his days whcre he wishes.
For one day next month—{cderai
officals say about Aug. 22, although
official plans dealing with this place
and these people seem to go awry
Ai pry §
pe Enrth
oo
The Rikinans must leave their ancestral home and its beautiful fish\ceming lagoon because the Amcn-
cans, as they themselves now aomid,
made a regrettable error 10 years sco
Despite what the screntisis and the
President said—despiie an inveslment of $325 million for cleanup and
rebuilding — Bikini is nol safe after ali.
Andrew Jakco and the others fiving
on Bikint Istand are bemg subjected 10
unacceptably high doses of radiation
left behind by atomie and hydrogen
bomb biasts that scared the atall during 12 years of testing.
Some younger Bikimans may live
to see their homctand again. Dul An-
drew Jakeo will not. [t may de 50
years before Bikini ts ht for human
habrlation.
Andrew Jakeo is bitter and angry.
although like most Marshallese he
veils his emotions from outsiders.
“The Amenmcans told us in 1916
that they had come to test a bomb.”
he sad not long ago. “They told us
they did not know how much ihe
bomb wauid hurt Bikini. They toid us
that after they tested the bomb, and
Biksmis good again, they will bring
us back. They did not say how Jong it
would be.”
But Andrew—Marshallese address
one anather byfirst names and expeet
outsiders to do the same—believed.
along with the 165 others the US.
Navy removed in 1916, that they
would be back wilhin a y rar or so.
Meantime, he was convineed, ihe
American. woul t pres? for berm ae!
the other pepe olb
ova
Fiease Turn te Page 3, Col |
more often than noi—the Ameicans
will remove Andrew Jakeo and the
140 others fiving on 449-acre Bikini
Island, largest of the 26 islets that
make up B:kini Atoll
They will be transported to “temporary” quarters in Kili, a singtc island with a land area one-sixth that
of their 22-square-mite home atoll.
Kili, without a lagoon, hes nearly 500
miles southeast {tis an tsiand some
Bilumans habitually refer to as “ihe
prison.”
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