s,&,meteww
dane
Oni.
bas mn
.
FA sot
HOMING
sata
.
(unix?
is inaccurate, please accept my apologies.
inhabited.the Bikini atoll.
1
Our
——
The people of Kili originally
.
The United States government asked these
people to leave Bikini.so that an atomic bomb could be tested,
United States promised to find them another home.
The
The Bikini people
After subsequent
* accepted the offer and were removed from the atoll.
minor tries at finding a home, which failed because of land ownership
reasons and inability of the chosen atoll to sustain "extra" life,
pe
Killi was decided upon,
An agricultural and island improvement program
preparea the island for its new inhabitants,
That was twenty years ago.
Since then a typhoon and neglect have marked the lives of these:people,
KILI IS NOT SUITED TO THE MARSHALLESE WAY OF LIFE. The "staff of
zife" for the former Bikini people is a lazoon.
There is none at Kili.
It is an island surrounded by high waves that make their lives very exasperating, unstable, and perilous.
To get their outrigger canoes
Mery
cs
over the waves is a danger I see them face daily.
If they do "beat the
waves", they then face the problem of catching fish.
A lagoon provides
fish, turtles, clams, lobster; in the ocean they rely solely on fish.
The efforts at catching fish are tremendous; The returns are slin.
Many days no fish are caught at all!
We can sympathize with their
fishing hazards here on Kili and see the advantages of a lagoon,
‘ogee.
especially since we trained on Udot in the Truk lagoon.
Not onlyhaving to contend with the forces of nature, the Kili
‘people are at the whims of the captains of the supply ships.
trip ships come about once every three months.
Field
The ships are from
Majuro; they sell food, kerosene, and other supplies to the people of
the outor islands as well as pick us the island's copra.
‘e
i
i=
::i
are +00 biz at Kili, Kili is bypassed.
are unableto buy food and kerosene.
If the waves.
The copra rots and the people.
‘
A ship arrived at Kili, Wednesday, November 15, at 7:00 P.M. It
was too dark to do much work; it's hard cnough fighting the ocean in
‘the daytime.
At 5:00 A.M. on the 16th, I was awakened to the news that ~
‘ the ship would be leaving soon, but the saip's outboard would make one
last trip. On board the ship, I argued with the captain to stay, but
{
is only concern was maintaining his schedule and preventing his boat
from being damages on the reef, The people or their needs were not
oy
.
an
.
:
.
.