Evacuation of Bikini } Early in 1946 it was decided that Bikini Atoll was the most suitable location for the testing of atomic weapons. The Bikini people were asked to leave and, as might have been expected of a people of their historical conditioning to obedience, especially after more than a quarter of a century of autocratic Japanese rule, agreed to leave their ancestral home. The possibilities of resettlement in the Marshalls were very limited because land is scarce (only about 74 square miles) and very little of it is available for settlement. The Marshallese jealously guard their land rights and will not willingly part with them.’ r Problems of Resettlement The 166 Bikinians were offered the choice of moving to either Ujae, Marshalls. Lae, or Rongerik, all atolis in the northwestern Ujae and Lee were already regularly inhabited, but Rongerik was only exploited by the people of neighboring Rongelap, who had land rights on the atoll. to make copra, reason, presumably, to Bikini, Ujae to fish, and These people visited Rongerik to gather other foods. as well as the fact that For this it was the closest the Bikini people opted to go to Rongerik rather than or Iae, A village was built on Rongerik by Navy Seabees and a group fe of Bikini men, and all of the Bikini people were moved to that For a detailed report of the movements of tne Bikini people from Bikini to Rongerik and to Kili, see Mason, Leonard ‘The Bikinians A Transplanted Population,” Human Organization, Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 1950, pp. 5-15. [013943