NO
The small Bikini community had developed a close in-group
feeling during the years of relative isolation prior to the
coming of the white man and found satisfaction and security in
their closely knit personal relationships and communal life.
World War II and the Bikini People
The Bikini people were directly affected by World War II
in that three of their young men who had been attending the
Japanese government school on Jaluit Atoll were drafted as
laborers and
sent to Enewetak Atoll.
They were later killed
there in the American bombing and bombardment of that huge and
important Japanese military base,
soldiers at Bikini,
however; wireless
manned the ammunition stores.
American bombing and
however,
shelling.
station operators also
These men were all killed by
Little damage was done to Bikini,
and the Bikini people were much better off than
Marshallese
in areas
such as Jaluit,
where heavy fighting occurred.
Gid
There were only six Japanese
the other Marshallese,
Enewetak and Kwajalein,
The Bikini
people
suffered as
from the cut-off of supply lines
from Japan with the resultant
cessation of imports of necessary
consumer goods and exportation of copra.
Communications were re-
stored and wartime hardships were alleviated when the American
armed forces
serious
captured the Marshall Islands
early in 1944.
The
hardships of the Bikini people were yet to come however.
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