It was obvious that the Bikini leaders refused to accept
the fact that they would not be allowed to return to Bikini
some day and for that reason preferred to suffer the hardships
of neighboring Rongerik to a new move,

in hope of being able

to return to their ancestral home.
It was decided however,

that

the best

interests of the

Bikini people would be served by transferring them to Ujilang
Atoll,

the westernmost of the Marshalls.

Ujilang belonged to

the government, as heir to the Imperial Japanese government
Which had

seized it from its former German owners,

“purchased “ the tiny atoll

who had

from its former chief.

A group of Bikini men and Navy Seabees arrived at Ujilang
in late November to prepare a village for another resettlement
attempt.
that

Shortly after their arrival,

the atoll

Ujllang,

of Enewetak,

would be

atomic weapons.

west

of Bikini,

and north of
for

It was then decided that the Enewetak inhabi-

where they were

This left the ex-Bikint

six months earlier,

but

undoubtedly with increased feelings of insecurity,
and general

was made

commandeered as another testing ground

tants would be resettled on Ujilang.
people right

an annoucement

frustration

bewilderment.

In January of 1948 Anthropologist Leonard Mason of the
University of Hawaii,
at the request

made a field investigation of the problem

of the Navy.

He found among other things that

the relocated Bikinians were suffering serious hardships on
Rongerik,

and,

despite a well-organized communal organization

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