ANGELES
July 23, 1978
U.S. ERRED
Bikini Island:
Lost Again
fo Radiation
When the atom bomb dropped, [
thought Bikini would disappear completely. [¢ would have been better,
mayde, if tt had... . Then we wouldn't have all these troubles.
==Nathan Note, scribe
of the Bikinl people, 1978
BY JERRY BELCHER
Thos let writer
BIKINI, Marshall Lsiands—When
the Americans made him Icave Bikint
for the first ume, tn 1946, Andrew
Jakeo was 4 years old.
When,after using the fragile Pacific atoll for 23 nuclear test biasts. the
Americans in the person of President
Lyndon B. Johnson assured him, his
fellow islanders and the rest of the
world that Bikini once again was safe
for human iife, Andrew Jakeo was 56.
Now Andrew Jakeo is 66 and,
above all else, he wants to live out
the days that remain to him on this
tiny curve of coral. sand and coconut
paims with his family and fnends.
Then, when his time comes, he
wants to be bumed here among his
ancestors.
But the old man wil! nat be permitted to end his days where he wishes.
For one day next month—federal
officais say about Aug. 22, although
official plans dealing with this place
and these people seem to go awry
more often than not—the Americans
will remove Andrew Jakco and the
140 others hving on 449-acre Sikim
Island, largest of the 26 islets that
make up Bikint Atoll.
They will be Lransported to “temporary” quarters in Kili, a single 1sland with a land arca one-sixth that
of their 2.2-square-mite home atoll.
Kili, without a lagoon, lies nearly 500
miles southeast. It ts an island some
Biumans habitually refer to as “the
prison”
Ae poy §
Nea
Ena
The Rikinians must leave ther ancestral home and tts beautiful. fishteeming lagoon because the Amencans, as they themselves now admit,
made a regrettabie error !0 ycars 220:
Despite what the screntisis and the
President satd-—despiie an inveslment of $3.25 milhon for cleanup ane
rebuilding —- Bikini is nol sate after ali.
Andrew Jakco and the others hving
on Bikint Istand are being subjected to
unacceplably high doses of radiation
left behind by atorme and hydrogen
bomb blasts that seared the atoll during 12 years of testing.
Some younger Bikimans may hive
to see their hometand again, bul Andrew Jakco will not. {t may be 50
years before Bikini is fit for human
habitation.
Andrew Jakeo is bilter and angry.
although hke mast Marshailese he
veils his emotions from outsiders.
“The Americans told us in {946
that they had come to test a bomb.”
he said not long ago. “They told us
they did not know how much the
bomb would hurt Bikint. They told us
that after they tcsted the bomb, and
Bikia 1s good again, they will bring
us back. They did not say how long it
would de.”
But Andrew--Marshaliese address
one another by first names and expect
outsiders lo do the same—helicved.
along with the 165 others the US.
Navy removed in 1916, that they
wouid be back within a year or so.
Meantime, he was convineeif, the
American. woul Ppravnte for hum at
the other poop irak can
Please Turn to Page 3, Col. t