‘THE New YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17,1975
fion of large sharks that”enter
_ BikiniNatives Sue for ReturnofAtoll
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laway by the 23 atomic andjis' to examine
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urine .speci-
i ‘By JONNORDHEIMER
hydrogen devices exploded ‘at/mens of those on the island,
t HONOLULU, Oct. 16—Twen-|the, atoll between 1946 andjaccording to lawyers wt the
evan
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* han aftertheywer
1958.
Micronesian
But last August, the Energy|Corporation,
Legal . Services
an
antipoverty
to clear the way for the peace-/Research and Development Ad-|agency representing theisland.
.
‘time testing of nuclear wea- ministration reversed earlier |ets
. pons, the exiled people of Bikini assessments and said that the Some of the new. settlers
‘are suing the United States island, its drinking water and have been drinking water from
‘Government to safeguard the plant life were still contaminat- the ground and consuming vegetables on the island for near-Yeturn to their island home. ed
Fearful that the long-awaited ly three years, it was noted.
> In a suit filed in Federal
“We had already started to
District Court here, the Biki- return was again being indefimians charged that agencies of nitely postponed, the islanders worry when the palm seedlings
“the Government had failed in most of whom live in poverty(we planted turned “orange,”
heir obligation to protect the on a small, remote island else- said one of the Bikini leaders
matives who had already re- where in the Marshall Islands in Honolulu to file the . suit.
chain—decided to go to court The bulk of the Bikinians
turned to the island.
'- The islanders contended that for the first time to protect and their dependents live on
.
the remote island of Kili, about
damadequate measurements of their interests.
the levels of radioactivity on
Their suit calls first for a 450 miles southeast of the atoll,
Bikini might have endangered complete scientific survey of|speniding most of the
island
of
Bikini
to of exile in isolation and despair.
bout 75. persons now living the
determine finally if it is fit]. Lore Kessibuki, the mragisthere. _
‘ Ie a larger sense, the suit for human life. So far, the trate at Kili, said that the 163
seeks to resolve. the entire re- suit maintained, the Govern- natives of Bikini had no option
gettiement issue, and reflects ment has approached the prob- but to comply when the Navy
a loss of confidence that the lem in an unever, slip shod ‘temporarily” relocatéd them
Government will ever allow all way, refusing to employ highly|in 1946 so that the atomic testthe islanders to return to the sophisticated technical equip-ling program called Operation
ment to measure radiation Crossroads could be conducted
nuclear-wasted atoll.
there.
at the atoll.
Promised Return jin 1968
“They had all the power,”
Radiation
Checks
Asked
Fhe Bikinians, 816 in number,
Mr. Kessibuki said in Marshalhad been promised a permanent The Bikinians also asked the lese, the language of the isreturn since 1968, when Pres- court to order the Government lands. “We were in fear.”
‘ident Johnson announced that to relocate temporarily the men
Until American forces fanded
radiation Jevels at Bikini had and women living at present in Bikini in 1944, the island
dropped beneath the danger on Bikini, and to use the best had been under Japanese conmethods available to check trol since 1914. Before that,
point for habitation.
-The first move toward reset- them for harmful effects of it had been run by -German
tlement began.in 1972 when radiation.
colonialists
who
marketed
‘three families and workers re- So far, despite the nuclear dried copra produced from rich
turned to Bikini to build homes agency ’s warning, all Govern- Bikini coconut palm groves. —
‘and replant vegetation blasted|ment ‘physicians have
done
be
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the center. The island of Bikini,
on the eastern side of thering,
is two miles long, but fas a
* Nuclear testing in aadeof
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EQUATOR
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7
The New York Times/Oct. 17, 1975
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The atoll ‘was a ring of 26
sall islands forming’ a@£ircie
ith a 24-mile-wide lagoon in
total area of only two-thirds
no Wa
of a square mile.-
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ENIWETOKE Oe an u. Pacific Ocean
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teeCAROLINE IS.”
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Many Bikini Islanders have lived on Kili for years
9. ,
change has been the mtroduc-
29 Years After U.S. Moved Them,
&
402792
war period sank thousands of
tons of World WarII warships
moored in the lagoon, and de-
from the new underwater.pasgageway opened in the reefs.
* Mr. Allen said that .~Government medical and scientific exrts were still divided on the
ue of safety for any imhabints of the island, and the
it asks the court to order
pxtensive_tests to resolve the
mBsue—steps that have not yet
been undertaken by the govern-
ment despite the. decision to
allow partial resettlement since
2972.
_
« There have been no reports
any radiation illness,
concern has been ex-
ed for the long-term ef-
ects of such exposure.
: Tie Bikinians docilely left the
fos in 1946 with the few
essions they could carry,
were transported by the
avy to Rongerik, an island
where American Seabees ‘had
stily assembled . makesiift
lweliings laid out in @ commuty resembling an American
Buburb instead of traditional
sland patterns that respected
divisions of family households
¥nd power.
‘
f Rongerik was not an ‘atoll
and had no lagoon for fishing,
and its coconut and breadfruit
ources were no sufficient
sustain the new population.
Sy early 1948 the transplanted
Sikinians were starving to
Meath.
.
%, The Navy rescued them, and
Bfter a stay of several months
en the island of Kwajalein,
ie wslanders were removed to
i. Kili was also without
& lagoon and had about one-
pth the land area of their
former home. Also, Kili had
more than five time the annual
fainfall, and the axis ef the
diamond-shaped island provided
po leeward, or sheltered, side
during the strong northeasterly
fade winds of the wwinter
pronths, so supplies could not
landed by boat for four
r five months of the year.
- Even during calmer periods
required four days by supply
t to reach the island from
€ nearest airstrip.
‘» The islanders were told in
fhe nineteen-fifties, Mr. Kessi‘buki said, that the Bikini atoll
stroyed several islands, of the
western ring, opening a new
Geep channel from the ocean
into the lagoon.
io!
. The twisted wreckage on the
Was so polluted with radicactivity that there was no likeliren‘that p pe aple could fever
nium pollution in the world,
Those were years of great
depression and despair, he said,
bottom of the ‘lagoon is the
largest single source iof plutoaccording to George M. All
and greater dependency on the
Mr. Alien, 32 years old, quit
@ lucrative Denver law practice
to do antipoverty work in Micronesia.
,
meager resources of Kili. Some
lega] counsel for theislanders.
| The nuclear
‘explosions © at
the atoll, stripped ill the
trees off Bikini, and the isiana
ls covered today by a scrub
Wegetation, in addition to the
edlings recently planted. T
toxic nature of sea life an
the © lagoon is not entirely
known, Mr. Allen said, but one
United States Government for
food supplies to augment the
Natives managed to Jeave the
island and find employment
Elsewhere in the Marshall
chain, ‘and today there are 378
Bikini - related
people _ livi-
away from the main contin
EST-GOPY-AVAILABLE