APPENDIX I
PRELIMINARY ANTHROPOLOGIST'S REPORT ~ BIKINI ATOLL SURVEY 1961
Jack A.
Tobin
Brief Historical Background
The Bikini people had lived on their atoll for many
generations.
They and their fellow Marshallese came under the
domination of foreigners less than one hundred years ago.
The
German regime was succeeded by that of the Japanese at the
onset
of World War I.
The Japanese rule was terminated by the
American forces during World War II.
Contact with the Outside World
The people of Bikini Atoll were not the isolated twentieth
century “Stone Age primitives’ as described by sensationalist
news reporters and
ever,
less
other journalists.
They were and are,
how-
sophisticated than other more acculturated
Marshallese,
but
they had been in contact with the rest
Marshall Islands,
and had
been exposed to at
least
of the
some of the
aspects of Western culture.
Every two months a Japanese schooner visited Bikini to
purchase copra and
to sell
food,
clothing,
and other goods.
Every six months a Japanese official made a visit to the atoll.
Some of the Bikini people
and
attended
Bikini.
school
visited other atolls,
elsewhere.
Other Marshallese
6
visited
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