Weisgall N IKINI RELEASE DATE: JUNE 10, 1980 -1970s, but they were moved off again in 1978 when tests showed that they had been exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation. U.S. scientists have now concluded that radiation levels on Bikini Island are so high by Jonathan M. Weisgall! On July 16, 1945, che Uniced States deto- nated the world’s first atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Three weeks later it detonated the second over Hiroshima, killing 60,175 people within 120 seconds. Three days later, on August 9, 40.000 people died that it will be uninhabitable for at least 60 to 80 years. The Bikinians’ bizarre odyssey has taken a new turn in light of President Carter's declaration that the United States intends to end its U.N. trusteeship administration of Micronesia in 1981. Although they are geo- in the explosion of the third bomb over Na- graphically and culturally Marshallese. the Bikinians effectively have become wards bomb, Japan announced its surrender to the lems they face are monumental. W! re can gaSaki. Horrified by the power of the atomic United States five days later. The atomic age had begun. The United States enjoyed a brief monop- oly on atomic weapons technology after World War II, bur it had little knowledge of the force and effect of these weapons. To ac- quire that knowledge, the United States con- ducted 66 nuclear tests over the next two decades on Bikini and Enewetak arolls. circular chains of islands located in the Marshall Islands region of Micronesia. 2.400 miles southwest of Hawaii. The U.S. military ad- ministration moved the Bikinians off cheir aroll in 1946, and the government promised to take care of them until they could return. One year later the United States signed the U.N. Trusteeship Agreement for Micronesia. under which it agreed to ‘‘protect the inhab- itants against the loss of their land and resources [and] protect the health of the inhabitants.” Thirty-three years later most of the Bikinians are still living temporarily on a tiny island 400 miles away. During these years American scientists have surveyed Bikini at least 16 times, and in 1968 President Johnson declared Bikini Island—the principal island in the atoll—safe for resettlement. SomeBikinians were moved back in the early the United States. and the long-rang? prob- they resettle until Bikini Island issatrisks were they exposed to while 1, Bikini from 1970 to 1978, anc wh of specialized health care will they « to need? Whar will happen to ther Marshall Islands become independe: ‘Mhat g on <inds sinue f the tration of Micronesia, and the Bikir fearful thar the United Stares wi away from its responsibility towar: 5 are valk nem Time is running out onthe U.S.: and its promise to return them to their cunis- me- land. They have presented the Carter a. xinistration with a proposal to resettle on i ra- diologically safe island in Bikini Aroll. and they have sought the help of Congress to insure that they are not forgotten. The island- ers’ fears are justified, for the history of their relations with the U.S. government is one of neglecc, thwarted hopes. and unkept promises. Bikini Was It At the close of World War II. the United Scates needed to assess the ful! potential of its new atomic weapon that so dramatically and spectacularly had ended the war with Japan. As the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) stated in its 1948 report to Congress: ��America’s pre-eminence in the field of atomic weapons is not static. Ir depends upon achievement fully proved through tests and upon the observation by scientists of nuclear JONATHAN M. WEISGALL. an arrorney with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Ginsburg. Feldman. Weil and Bress, is counsel to the people of Bikini, phenomena that can only adequately be 74, 75, = FOREIGN POLICY magazine #39 Summer 1980 _