Evacuation of Bikini 1
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
jand rights and will not willingly part with them.
Problems of Resettlement
The 166 Bikinians were offered the choice of moving to
either Ujae,
Marshalls.
Lae, or Rongerik, all atolls in the northwestern
Ujae and Lae 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,
These people visited Rongerik
to fish, and to gather other foods.
For this
presumably, as well as the fact that it was the closest
to Bikini,
the Bikini people opted to go to Rongerik rather than
Ujae or Lae.
A village was built on Rongerik by Navy Seabees and a group
of Bikini men,
1
and all of the Bikini people were moved to that
For a detailed report of the movements of the 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.