5
DOE ARCHIVES
It was obvious that the Bikini leaders refused to accept
the fact that they would not be allowed to return to Bikint
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 decide@ however,
that
the best
interests
of the
Bikini people would be served by transferring them to Ujilang
Atoll,
the westernmost of the Marshalls.
Ujllang belonged to
the government, as heir to the Imperial Japanese government
wnich had seized it from its former German owners,
who had
“purchased” the tiny atoll 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.
Shortly after their arrival,
tnat the atoll of Enewetak,
Ujilang,
an annoucement was made
west of Bikini,
and north of
would be commandeered as another testing ground for
atomic weapons.
It was then decided that the Enewetak inhabi-
tants would be resettled on Ujilang.
This left the ex-Bikini
people right where they were six montns earlier, but
undoubtedly with increased feelings of insecurity,
frustration
and general bewilderment.
In January of 194% Anthropologist Leonard Mason ot the
University or Hawaii, made a field investigation of the problen
at the request of the Navy.
He found among other things that
tne relocated Bikinians were suffering serious hardships on
Rongerik,
and,
despite a well-organized
communal
organizatic..