irreversibly changed by the U.S. nuclear bomb tests. GIFFE JOHNSON Micronesia: America’s ‘strategic’ trust ett ik aetae tel ee ak all Lattin nial, tim a The lives of the people of the Marshall Isiands have been On August 6. 1945. the B-29 Enola bombs that would kill over 200.000 the Marshalls went to Bikini in February. he told the people that American scientists were experimenting Within months the United States of mankind and to end all world Gav dropped the first of two atomic neople in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. with nuclear weapons “for the good ODegan searching for sites far from wars. He promised that ther atoll American population centers for would be returned after the tests further development and testing of were finished, and asked that they nuclear weapons. The Detense Depurtment looked to Micronesia in the “western Pacific. whose 2.000 remote isiands have only one-half the land area of the state of Rhode Island. Easternmost in Micronesia lie the Murshail Islands. about 2.200 miles southwest of Hawai. Up to the 1940s the Marshall islanders, like most other Micronesians. were selfsulficient. living off the ocean and land. Though covering a great expunse of ocean. the Marshalls’ 28 muliti-islet atolls and five single isiands comprise only about 70 square mies. The atolls are rings of 15 to as consent to be moved to another island, With more than 42.000 mili- tary, scientific and technical personnel. 250 naval ships and more than 150 observation aircraft potsed to enter Bikimi Atoll for Operation Crossroads, the 166 Bikinians had little choice but to leave their island. Less than two years later, in De- cember 1947, the Navy decided to use another atoll, Enewetak. for a second series of atomic tests. The Enewetakese, like the Bikinians, were relocated by the United States quickly and with little planning to smail, uninhabited atoils. many as 97 tslets connected bv a Even while the United States was coral reef that encircles a clear blue removing the Marshallese from their lazoon. Out of necessity. the Mar- islands. in July 1947 it was signing shallese are traditionally expert the United Nations Trusteeship fishermen, deriving most of their Agreement for the U.S. Trust Terriprotein from the rich lagoons. while tory of the Pacific [Islands ‘Micthe land provides coconuts, bread- rcnesia). This agreement stated: fruit, pandanus andtaro. The most tsolated and least wes- ‘In discharging its obligations. the ternized of the Marshallese lived on administering authority [U.S.] shall: the northern atolls of Bikint and promote the economic advanceEnewetak. Having little contact with foreigners (not even with the Japanese during their 25-year occunation), they relied on the outside world for almost nothing. Ironically, this very isolation thrust the Bikini and Enewetak people into the nuclear age. ment and seif-sufficiency of the in- habitants, and to this end shail... encourage the development of fisheries. agriculture and industnes; and protect the inhabitants against the loss of their land and resources.”" In addition, this agreement bound In January 1946, Navy officials in the United States to “promote the Washington, D.C.. announced that social advancement of the inhabtBokini Atoll fitted all requirements tants. and to this end ... protect for Operation Crossroads. designed the nghts and fundamental freedoms to test the destructive power of nu- ot all elements of the population clear weapons on naval vessels. without discrimination; and protect When the U.S. military governor of the health of the inhabitants... ." 10 After the relocation of the Mar- Shallese. however, what happened during the next [2 vears was that about 70 atomic and hydrogen bomb blasts devastated the istands and trreversibly changed the lives of the people. The Bikinians first moved about 100 miles east to Rongenk. an un- inhabited atoll consisting of bareiv one-half square mile of land. Within two months. they expressed anxiety over the atoll’s meager resources and made thefirst of many requests to return home. Within a year. the people taced starvation: a visiting American medical officer reported that the Bikinians were ‘‘visibdly sutfering from malnutntion.”” in 1948 the Bikinians were evacuated to 2 temporary tent city at the Navvbase on Kwajalein. Kili Island in the southem Marshalls was selected for their next home. Kili, a single island. has no lagoon or protected anchorage: heavy surf from November until late spring halts fishing and isolates tue island. On the other hand. ail: had once supported a Japanese copra plantation. and U.S. authorities hoped that. while the Bikinians were not a farming people. the island's agricultural pessibdilities would overcomeits drawbacks. Thus, the Bikinians were forced to adapt to a completely alien environment. In early December 1947. Washine- ton officials announced without rreliminaries, that Enewetak was to be used for the next series of bomb tests. In less than three weeks. the people of Enewetak were relocated to Ujelang, the westermmost atoil in the Marsnalis. Like Rongerik and Kiil if was also uninhabited. and for good reason. Ujeiang has only a quarter of the iand area ct Enewetax and its 25-square-mile lagoon is less