(2) Bikini Islanders Lose Again to Rad STERILE ' ‘You'd have to: say the removal was the ‘right of the conqueror.’ here. They will have to carry me away.” He sad he also believed some of the others would do the same as he, feel the same as he. ~ And how, after all that had happened to hum and his people since 1946, did he feel now about the Amencans? The ald man laughed, perhaps embarrassed by the question and by the fact that the qucsuoner was an Amencan. Then he leaned clos staring through thick green-linted glasses that made hus dark eyes seem enormous. ” “The Amencan is a liar-man,” he tard. “His promise is not kept.” + The first Amencan promise to the Bilani people was made by the U.S. Navy after President Harry S$ Truman had, on Jan. 10, 1946. ai the reeommendauon of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, given the go-ahead for Operation Crossroads, the first past -World War If test of nucicar weapons, In suempiest terms, the pramise went something like this: We have deeded fo use your atoll to test a powerful Rew weapon. for your own safety, ea ‘ou will be moved to anotherplace. 'e will take care of you there. When ‘we're through usng your atoll, we wall bring you back. Few now question that the Navy had the legal mzht to appropriate BikimAtoll for military purposes. Bikint is part of the Sfurshall Islands which is part of Micronena, whieh on tura was cslubuched as a UN, Trust Terstory aneler ILS ad Munisirauon hy Lerma of the U.N. Specifically. it was designated a “strategie dust.” which permitted the United States to set aside certain areas of une former Japanese mandate termiory for military sccurity pures. Bikim seemed a logical cheice geographically, too. The wea of Operation Crossroads was lo see what the atomic bomb would do lo a naval TNleet. The-three A-bombs of World War 1] had been expleded in the New Mexico desert and over (ne Jaoanese cques of Hirashima and Nagusaku Other sites were considered. But according lo Crossroads historian Weal Iines, “B:kirs fulfilicd all the condiuions of climate and isolation. It was... 2.500 miles west southwest of Honolulu. . . but it also was accesmble. ... Tts inhabitants, who then numbered 162, could be moved to anocheratoll.” (Most other sources say the papuJavon then was 166. Since then there has Leen a population expiosion, Today 860 pe sons claim jand rights in Bikini Avoll— 140 now living on Bikint Island, 450 on Kuti, and the others Scattered throughout Lhe Marshalls.) There was concern on the part of the U.S. fishing industry that the tese biasts might hurt the neh commernai fishing grounds. There aiso were so many compiants from animal lovers that plans Lo use dogs as Lest anumals were canceled. But there is no reeorded protest against removing the Bikinuans from their ancestral homeand. “In retrospect... you'd have to Say the removal was the ‘right of the conqueror,’ ”said Jim Wian. a transplanted Kansan who Is distnct altorney of the Pacific Trust Territory's Marshall Islands Distnet. “Qur attitude must have been that we, at the cost of several thousand - . Ec . 2 . Ameréan lives, took the Marshails . took this wnote area of the Pacifie from the Japanese. And. . . part of 1. was the attitude, “Well, they (the Biksnians} are sust initle brown people anyway. They don’t need their aloiL well just move ‘cm off someplace else.’ " Certanly the Bikinians were m no position to semously oppose the Navy when, on Feb. 10, 1946, Commodore Ben Wyatt, then the military governor, arnved by seaplane and announced that Lhey mustgo cisewhere. In effect, the uianders then and (here adopted the United States as thew i701) alap—their paramount chicf, the power over and beyond cheir local island chief, Juda. And, sf Marshallese tradition, this meant usat henecforward the Uniled States was responsible for the proieetion and well-being of the Bikint peopie. Although to American eyes the atolls of the Marshalls took much the same, the removal was deeply painful and culturally destructive to the Bikintans. For, as many anthropolomsts have observed, there is among Micronesian peopics a profound, mystical aitachment to the particular, uny plots of land owned by their famiiics or clans. Anthropologist, Robert Kiste, author of “The Bikimians: A Study to Parent Migration,” said in an interwiew Thal the retition tip belween 2 Please Ture to Page 8, Col 1 ww ¥ a > wt we r eo ‘ : . ~ a* : . wr | s . . qv “ ew: x wo 4 hee ~ wh ‘i - a ~ Lo we ae wl: 7 : ~ ~. wad pe . + a . ' and - 3 * eg ame . Sse i a) . t ~<¢ . - : -. . . av sfe i “Maybe there were some times when I was not unhappy,” he admitted “But... every dav | remembered Bikin. And every day [ wanted to come back because it is my hometand, because Bikini is 2 beautiful place” He was quiet, deferentially polite. But al last, in reply to the stranger's question, Andrew dropped the emojuonal veti slightly. How, the stranger asked. will he react when he leaves Biksm once again and forever? “T will weep,” he said. “I will feel anger... . [ wil not go. J will sit Charter of 1945. . Andrew finally came back about exght years ago. He was among the first w return. lt was 24 ycars after the Navy had taken him away, two years aftcr President Johnson's anfouncementthat Bikint was safe. From the front porch of his conerete block house overtooking Bikini lagoon, the old man recailed the iong years between departure and return. There was near starvation, much pnvation. There was shuttling from one alien island to another and another and yet another. There was scattenng of family and fnends, dislocauon, nearly total disruption of a hitherto _ quiet, uniroubied way of Life. Le Continued from First Page . 5 eae) set i capeabeA wt!ah wate eed, wnt “4 ‘HOT BREW" —Jeladrick Jakeo checks sap from coconut palm. He lets at ferment into jokauru, a midly aiconolic drink, White coconuts are forbidden, Jokeo says no one hos ever banned jakouru.