Islands Lost Again to Radiation
Continued from Third Page
man and his land overrides the concept of nabonality.
“To say. ‘I'm Marshallese,’ that is a
foreign concept,” Kiste sad. “Westerners named thoseislands the Marshatis. So ‘Marshallese’ has less
meaning than ‘I'm Bilunian' And
among themselves, they speak not of
berg Bikinians, but say, ‘I'm.a.person
of Uus parucular pece of land’ Land
is an expression of who | am—bf individual identity.”
Or, as fellow anthropologist Jack.
Tobin, another academe expert with
jong expenence in the Marshalla, expressed it
“In those islands, a man without
land is no man”
By 2 split vote of the atoil's teaders,
the Bikimians chose to go to Rongenk
Atoll, 123 miles east of thew home
atoll The Navy, which put out press
releases at the ume indicating that
“the nauves were delighted” by the
move, was only slighly more restrained 2 year later in its official hisory of Crossroads, “Bombs at Bikini.”
and churned out of the blue-green lagoon, the people gathered on the
main deck to sing Lraditional songs of
farewell The next morning they were
unloaded at Rongertk.
On the morning of July 1. a B-29
bomber calied Dave's Dream dropped
a “nominal yield” 20-kioton (the
equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT)
atomic bomb over the fleet of 70 obsolete U.S. and captured Japanese and
German warships moored just off Brkins Isiand. It expioded 500 feet above
the flect, sinking five ships, twisting
and crushing others like cheap toys
and initiauing the radiation poisoning
of Bikini.
Among the 42,000 observers of the
awesome bdlast was Chief Juda.
‘watching as a guest of the Navy from
the deck of the amphibious command
recesseas{ “arama
They thought they
could bear up under the.
hardships of Rongerik.
“The Bikumarss, convinced that the
(A-bomb) tests would be a contnbu-
BeLSoeSE ED
balonan wrote,
000 mstruments to record test data.
bon wo world peace, indicated their
willingness to evacuate,” the Navy
seemed to be little to Bikiny itself. The
trees were stl! standing, still bearing
coconuts. But the radiation, invisible,
was not something he could under-
Stand.
Severe food shortages developed
during the winter of 1946-47. In
spring of 1947, fire destroyed a third
of Rongenk’s coconut trees. The people pressed for a return to Bikini, but
2 radiciogical survey indicated that it
was too “hot” for permanent occupancy and would be for many years.
In October, the Navy announced
that the Bikinians would be relocated
on Ujelang. But two months later, the
Pentagon announced a new series of
nuclear tests would be held, this ume
at Eniwetok, another atoll in the
Marshalls. The Eniwetok peopic
would go to Ujclang instead of the Bikimans, The Bikinians had to wait.
Andrew Jakco remembered the
Rongenk period well. “I was a big
man then,” he said, “but I got skin-
+
Ship Mt. McKinley, several mules
away. The Navy used more than 10,-
hk wasn't quile that way, according
to Tobin, emeritus professor of anubropology at University of Hawan.
Chuef Juda’s reacuuon was not recorded. The next day he repined his
people at Rongerik.
“They did not go willingly.” Tobin
sad “They were forced to go... They agreed because they had Ww,just
as Uicy had agreed 10 do Lhings when
ibe Japanese had bayonets in the
Eroy nd
“Put yourself In their shoes: You've
been told what to do by the Japanese
for a quarter-century. . . and told by
tbe Japanese mulitary the Americans
were weak. So when the Amencans
wiped out the Japanese . . . ail those
Amencan ships appearing, the natural reaction . . . would be to go along
with what theyare told.”
On the afternoon of March 7, 1946,
the 166 men, women and children of
Bikini were toaded aboard Navy LST
1108. As the awkward landmg craft
backed off the beach at Bikini istand
Ronzerik was a disaster. Jt was too
small There was too litte food. And.
according to legend, it was haunted
by an evil wich named Liborka. who
poisoned the fish of the lagoon. In
fact! certain fish of the lagoon were
tsonious which was why Rongornk
fad been uninhabited for years.
But it was close to Bixint and the
peopie had chosen it for that reason,
They thought they could bear up under the hardships until they went
back to their homeatoll. That, they
were convinced, would be m a couple
of years at most
Chief Juda had returned from the
first bomb test (the second, an underwater shot, was held July 25, 1946) Lo
tell his peopie that while there had
bees great damage to the ships, there
naliy settled on Kili and began building a new and bigger village than
they had had on Bikini.
than al Brkin. Supply ships could
netther land food nor take away copra
dried coconut, Lhe only cash crop—
far months at a lime because of the
heavy surf. Sometimes six months
passed before a ship could untoad.
Kili was without question better
power whaleboat to the Bikimana It
«tent camp al Kwajalein. In September, the Bixinians voted to resettle on
Kili, and in November, they were fl-
than Rongerik. But it also was small
and, worse yet, it had no lagoon. The
island was constantly pounded by the
Pacific. Fishing was far more difficult
{n an attempt to relieve the isolalion. the Navy turned over a 40-foot
sank in high seas in 1961.
In the same year. the Navy turned
over admimstration of Micronesia~
ny.” He held up the little finger of his
jeft hand. "Skinny like this. One old
woman died from hunger... . Fora
year and a half, we did not havo
enough food, (sometunes} got our
food by cutting open the coconut tree
and eatung the heart of the tree. This
killed the tree.”
Jetadnk Jakeo, Andrew's 48-yearold brother, was a Loen-ager on Rongenk. “It was termbio,” he remembered, “We ate things that were not
good. gathered coccnurs that fioatca
in from the sca. Bad foad, we got sick.
Arms and Icgs swelled up, and we got
busters on the arms and we had diarrhea.”
Late in January, 1948, the Navy
Gispatched anthropolog:st Leonard
Mason, now of the University of HaWait, to invesugate. He found the exies at the point of starvation, living
on raw flour diluted with water.
In strong terms, Mason recommended that the people be removed
from Rongenk as soon as passibie. He
also recommended Kil Island. although he admitted it had many d:sadvantages, as the best available
place to relocate the Bikumians.
In March, 1948, they were moved to
and the problems of the Bilunians—to
the civilians. A high commissoner
was appointed by the Prendent to
work with and Unrough the U.S De-
partmentof the Intenar.
Matters did not improve fight
away. But under pressure from the
United Nations, the high commission er pushed a community developme:.t
plan to improve agriculture on Kil.
In addition, the Trust Terriory
turned over a copra trade bos! to proPlease Tura to Page 9. Cof. i