Honorable Richard M. Nixon
Page 4
May 4,
1973
an atoll,
and is fringed with a reef.
There is no lagoon,
and
all shipping from
heavy winds and tides isolate the island from
November until March or April of each year.
Kili Island is almost devoid of marine resoureces.
The
absence of a lagoon completely eliminates the type of fishing to
which the Bikinians were accustomed.
Surf and
sea conditions at
Kili prohibit the use of sailing, sea going canoes once used on
Bikini, and these have fallen into disrepair.
The fringing surf
prevents any vessel of size from approaching closer than several
hundred yards from Kili.
Off-loading of supplies
is often impasSible, and when possible, it is both dangerous and costly.
The
reef itself is dense and homegeneous and does not support lobsters,
other mollusks, or varieties of reef fish. For a fishing people
accumstomed to an atoll, Kili is a prison; the reef and surf
isolates them and prevents access to the even limited marine
resources available beyond the fringing reef.
Kili had been a copra plantation during Japanese and
times,
and most of the
arable
land was planted in coconuts.
German
When
the Bikinians arrive in 1948, there were only a few pandanus and
breadfruit trees, and none of the hardwood trees found on Bikini
for use in house and canoe construction.
Kili has agricultural
potential, but for a marine-orientated people, accustomed to fishing
and unaccustomed to tilling soil and cutting brush on Kili,
culture has never been either rewarding or successful.
agri-
Life on Kili island has never been pleasant for the Bikini
people.
In the early years,
and continuing to the present,
difficulties are too numerous to explain in detail.
surf and sea conditions,
the
The heavy
plus frequent local ship shortages,
usually prevented more than four visits a year by a field trip
vessels.
Failure of the field trips meant that the copra that the
Bikini people had produced was left to spoil or be eaten by rats.
Failure to pick up copra was strong disincentive to make it.
Food
shortages were again common and the people became convinced that
Kili was another Rongerik.
food shortages occurred,
In 1949 and 1950 and again in 1952
severe enough so that in 1952 a ton of
food was air dropped to the people.
Even then, parachutes were not
used, and the food was broken and ruined.
The efforts at agriculture did not work and produced little food.
The Bikinians were
Given one large ship, a converted forty-foot whaleboat, which was
wrecked on the Kili reef soon after it was procured.
The community
was in debt and
copra production was minimal.
Then and now the
Bikini people have an expression for Kili:
Kili enana, meaning
Kili is no good.
In 1953 a Kili development project was begun, based upon the
United States government information th at Bikini atoll would not
be habitable at any time in the near future.
The development