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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