DOE ARCHIVES Evacuation of Bikini l Early in 1946 it was decided that Bikini Atoll was the most suitable location for the testing of atomic weapons. The Bikini people were asked to leave and, as might have been expected of a people of their historical conditioning to obedience, especially after more tnan a quarter of a century of autocratic Japanese rule, agreed to leave their ancestral home. The possibilities of resettlement in the Marshalls were very limited because land is scarce (only about 74 square miles) and very little of it is available for settlement. The Marshallese jealously guard their jand rights and will not willingiy part with them. r ProblemsofResettlement The 166 Bikinians were offered the chotce of moving to elther Ujae, Marshalls. Lae, or Rongerix, all atolls in the northwestern Ujae and Lae were already regularly inhabited, but Rongerik was only exploited by the people of neighboring Rongelap, who had land rights on the atoll. to make copra, reason, to fish, presumably, to Bikini, as These people visited Rongerik and to gather other foods. well as the fact that it was For this the closest the Bixini people opted to go to Rongerik rather than Ujae or Lae. A village was built on Rongerik by Navy Seabees and a group tes or Bikini men, and ail of the Bikini people were moved to that For a Getailed report of the movements of the Bikini people from Bikini to Rongerik and to Kili, see Mason, Leonard ‘The Bikinians A Transplanted Population, Human Organization, Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 1950, pp. 5-15.