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