Wersgail military contro] in the Marshalls, American ships visited Bikini on a regular basis. bringing food, supplies. and medical officers who provided free treatment for the people. By the end of 1945 che Americans had built a store, an elementary school, and a medical dispensary on theatoll. Although they are geographically and culturally Marshallese, the Bikinians effectively have hecome wards of the United States. — The persuasive power of the Americans went beyond material largess. The Bikinians had been converted to Christianity a half century earlier by New Engiand missionaries: Wyatt's arrival on a Sunday after church services and his comparison of the Bikinians to the Children of Israel undoubtedly had considerable emotional impact. His description of the awesome capabilities of nuclear weapons. moreover, led the people to belicve they were powerless to resist the wishes of the United States. The option of staying on Bikini and telling the United States to look: elsewhere was simply not a realistic alterna- tive. Navy records do not disclose whether thz Bikinians were told when—and if—they could move back to their atoll. It seems that the topic was never directly confronted by either side: the people were simply promised the return of their atoll when tc was no longer needed for a testing site. As for the problems of displacement and relocation, Navy records show only that Wyatt, before flying to Bikini. “asked the Navy what commitments concerning reparations he could make to the people, and he was told that he could promise them no more than the opportunity to submit claims for damages.”’ The U.S. government offered the Bikiniansthe choice of moving to one of three other atolls tn the Marshall Islands. Two of them-—Ujae and Lae——were inhabited: the third, Rongerik, 140 miles east of Bikini, 78. was not. The people chose Rongerik. As they prepared to leave their atoll, the first of the 250 vessels, 150 aircraft, and 42.000 military and scientific personnel involved in Operation Crossroads began to arrive. Theislanders were overwhelmed by all the fanfare. Geologists, botanists. biologists. and Oceanographers categorized the flora and fauna of the atoll, and engineers biasted a deep-water channel through the reef to the beach on the main island of Bikini. Meanwhile, the Bikinians, who had never before seen motion pictures, were entertained with Mickey Mouse cartoons, Roy Rogers westerns. and Hollywood bedroom farccs. ~ The removal of the Bikinians became a major media event. The islanders had never received such attention, and they seemed to thrive on it. Cameramen photographing the last church service on the atoll were notsatished with their angles. so the Bikinians obliged by repeating the service three times. Publicity was so intense that the demands of news agencies and Navy photographersforced a one-day postponement of the Bikinians’ departure. Finally, on the morning of March 7. 1946, cameramen recorded are-enactmentof Wyatt's visit and negotiations with the Bikinians. The Bikinians then decorated the community cemetery with flowers and held a ceremony to bid farewell to their ancestors. The ceremony was restaged as the delighted islanders vied with one another for positions in front of the cameras. That afternoon the last of the Bikinians left their atoll aboard a Navy landing craft. A few of them lining the rails sang songs of farewell; some wept. Most were silent. The United States acted with extraordi- nary speed and admirable logistical planning in removing the Bikinians. In just one month it implementedits decision to use Bikini Atoll as an atomic weaponstesting ground. One U.S. military official, quoted in Time maga- zine, referred to the removal of the Bikinians as “‘one hell of a good sales job."’ The New York Times, in an article entitled ‘The 79.