Islands Lost Again to Radiation
Coatinned from Third Page
man and his land overndes the concept of nationality.
“To say. ‘I'm Marshallese,’ thal isa
Torergn concept.” Kiste said. “Westermers named those islands the MarBhaiis. So ‘Marshallese’ has iess
meanmg than ‘Tm Bikunan’ And
among themsclves, they speak nat of
bemg Bikinans, but say, ‘I'm a-person
of Gus parucular piece of land’ Land
is an expression of who I am—aof individual denuty.”
Or. as fellow anthropologist Jack.
Tobin. another academic expert with
long expenence in the Marshalla, ex-
1
“In those islands, a man without
land is no man.”
By a split vote of the atoil's leaders,
the Bikinians chose to go to Rangenik
Atoll, 123 mules east of ther home
atolL The Navy, which put out press
releases at the ume indicaung that
“une natives were delighted” by the
move, was only slightly more restraned a year later in its official his-
and churncd outof the blue-green ja-
goon, the people gathered on the
main deck 10 Sing traditional songs of
farewell. The next morning they were
untoaded at Rongerk.
On the morning of July 1, a 0-29
bomber called Dave's Dream dropped
a “nominal yieid” 20-kitoton (the
equivalent of 20.000 tons of TNT)
atomic bomb over the ficet of 70 obsolete U.S. and captured Jar
and
German warships moored just off Bikini Istand. [t exploded 500 feet above
the fleet, sinking five ships, twisung
and crushing others iike cheap tloys—
and iniuaung the radiation poisoning
of Bikim.
Among the 42,000 observers of the
awesome biast was Chief Juda,
‘watching as a guest of the Navy from
the deck of the amphibious command
|
BOs2rsh cae
tory of Crossroads, “Bombs at Bikini.”
They
thought
lrces were still standing, still basring
coconuts, But the radiation, invisiole,
was not something he could understand.
Severe food shortages developed
dumng the winter of 1946-47. in
spring of 1947, fire destroyed a third
of Rongenk’s coconut trees. The people pressed for a return to Bikim, but
a radiological survey indicated that it
was too “hot” for permanent occupancy and wouid be for many years.
they
could bear up under the
hardships of Rongerik.
“The Bikimans, convinced that the
ee aotene a
on to world peace, indicated their
willingness to evacuate,” the Navy
hstonan wrote.
ship Mt. MeKiniey. several miles
away. The Navy used more than 10,-
(A-bomb) tests would be a contmbu-
scemced to be little to Bikini itself. The
1 wasn't quile that way. according
lo Tobin. emeritus professor of anUbropology at University of Hawan.
“They did not go willingly.” Ton
sod “They were forced to go... .
Thcy agreed because they had to, just
as tncy had agreed to do things when
ibe Japanese had bayonets in the
beckgroynd
“Put yourself in ther shoes: You've
been told what to do by the Japanese
for a quarter-century. . . and told by
Ube Japanese mulitary the Americans
were weak. So when the Amerncans
wiped out the Japanese . . . all those
Amencan shups appearing, the naturaj reaction . . . would be to go along
with what they are told.”
On the afternoon of March 7, 1946,
the 166 men. women and children of
Bikini were loaded sboard Navy LST
1108. As the awkward landing craft
backed off the beach at Bikini island
uw sent camp at Kwajalein. In September, Lhe Bikinians voted to resettie an
Kil, and in November, they were finally setuied on Kili and began building a New and digger village than
they had had on Bikini
000 mstruments to record test data.
Chief Juda’s reaction was not re-
corded. The next day he cewined his
people at Rongerik.
Rongerik was a disaster. {1 was too
small There was (oo Lttle food. And,
accoruing to legend, iL was haunted
by an evil witch named Liborka. who
isoned the fish of the lagoon. In
fact, certain fish of the lagoon were
porsonous which was why Rongenk
id been unmhabited for years.
But il was close to Bixim and the
peopie had chosen it for that reason.
They thought Urey could bear up under the hardships until they went
back lo their home atoll, That, they
were convinced, would be m a coupie
of years al Most
Chief Juda had returned from the
first bomb test (the second, an underwater shot, was held July 25, 1946) to
tell his people that while there had
been great damageto Lhe ships, there
than at Bikint Supply ships could
neither land food nor take away copra
--dried coconut, the only cash crop=
for months at a time because of the
heavy surf. Sometimes sx months
passed before a ship Could unicad.
Kili was without question better
In an attempt Lo relieve the wotauon. the Navy turned over a 40-foot
power whaleboat to the Bikiniana. It
gank in high seas in 195).
Pacahe. Fishing was far more difficult
ever administration of Micronesia—
than Rongenk. Butit also was smail
and, worse yet, it had no lagoon. The
island was constantly pounded by the
In the same year, the Navy turned
In October, the Navy announced
that the Bikinians would be relocated
on Ujelang. But two months later, the
Pentagon announced a new series of
nuclear tests would be held, this ume
at Enwetok, another atoil in the
Marshalls. The Eniwetok peopte
would go to Ujclang instead of Lhe Bikimans. The Bikimians had to wait
Andrew Jakco remembered the
Rongenk period well. “I was a big
man then,” he said, “but I got skinny.” He held up the sittle finger of his
left hand. “Skinny like this. One old
woman died from hunger... . Fora
year and a half, we did not hava
enough food, (somctunes}) got our
food by cutting open the coconut tree
and eating the heart of the tree. This
killed the tree.”
Jeladmk Jakeo, Andrew's 48-ycaroid brother, was a teen-ager on Rengenk. “It was termbdle," he remembered. “We ate things that were nol
good, gathered coconuts that floatca
in from (he sca. Bad food, we gat sick.
Armsandlegs sweiled up, and we got
bisters on the arms and we had charrhea,”
Late in January, 1948, the Navy
dispatched anthropolomst Leonard
Mason. now of the Uraversity of Ha‘Wail, to investigate, He found the exUes at ihe point of starvation, living
on raw flour diluted with water.
In strong terms, Mason recommended that the people be removed
from Rangemk as soon as possibie. He
also recommended [itt Island. although he admitted it had many disadvantages, as the best availaole
place to relocate the Bikumans.
Jn March, 1948, they were moved lo
and the problems of the Bilunsans—to
the avilians, A high commissioner
waa appointed by the President to
work with and through the U.S. De-
partmentof the Intenor.
Matters did not improve right
away. Bul under pressure from the
United Nations, the high commusmer e¢ pushed a community developme:.t
plan to improve agriculture on Kuit
In addition, the Trust Territory
turtied over a copra trade bast to pro-
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