Pre-Test History

Bikini Atoll is one of the 29 atolls and five islands that compose the Marshall Islands. These atolls of the Marshalls are scattered over 357,000 square miles of an isolated part of the world located north of the equator in the Pacific Ocean. They help define a geographic area referred to as Micronesia. This isolation of the Bikinians created a tightly integrated society bound together by close extended family association and tradition.

The first outsiders' visitors to the Marshalls were the Spanish in the 1600's, followed by Germans. The Marshalls were used as a source for producing copra oil from coconuts. In the early 1900's the Japanese took control of the Marshall Islands. In the anticipation of war with the United States, the Japanese realized the strategic position the Marshall Island offered. The peaceful low lying coral atolls became a site of military buildup. In February of 1944, American forces won a gruesome and bloody battle for Marshall Islands.

In February of 1946 the Bikinians were asked to leave their atoll so that the United States could test atomic bombs there. The United States chose the area because of its distance from regular air and sea routes. The Bikinians were told the move would be temporary and the tests were for "the good of all mankind and to end all wars." After confused and sorrow deliberation, the Bikinian people agreed to go, believing "that everything is in the hands of God."

Displacement

Before the tests began 181 Bikinians were removed from their islands and sent 125 miles east to Rongerik Atoll. The islands of Rongerik Atoll had been inhabited because of its size (about 1/6 of Bikini Atoll), an inadequate amount of water and food as well as a deep-rooted traditional belief that the atoll was inhabited by evil spirits. When they were transported to Rongerik, the Bikinians were left with inadequate amounts of food. The crops of the island produced much smaller yields than on Bikini and lagoon was populated with inedible fish. Within two months the Bikinians were suffering from starvation and were begging to be allowed to return to Bikini.

As the food shortages worsened in December 1946 and January of 1947 the area of Micronesia was designated as a United Nations Strategic Trust Territory to be administered by the United States. This was the only Strategic Trust the United Nations ever created. According to the agreement the United Stattes would "promote the economic advancement and self-sufficiency of the inhabitants, and to this end shall...protect the inhabitants against the loss of their lands and resources..."

In July of 1947, a medical officer from the U.S. visited the island and reported that the Bikinian people were suffering severely from malnutrition. When the United States determined that the island had inadequate supplies of food and water it moved the Bikini people from Rongerik without delay.

After living on Rongerik for two years, the Bikinians were transported to Kwajalein Atoll. They lived in tents on a strip of grass beside a military airstrip. Six months later, in November 1948, the 184 Bikinians began their third community relocation when they set sail for Kili Island.

The rough seas, small amount land that is able to yield crops and lack of a lagoon present the more problems for the Bikinians living on Kili. The inhabitants were dependent on imported rice and canned goods. The people began to refer to it as a "prison" island.

Eventually the Bikinians signed an agreement with the U.S. government turning over full use rights to Bikini Atoll. The agreement stated that any future claims by the Bikinians based on the use of Bikini or their displacement would have to be made against the Bikinian leaders and not against the U.S government. In return for this agreement, the Bikinians were given full use rights to Kili and several islands as well as $25,000 in cash and an additional $300,000 trust fund that yielded a semi-annual interest payment of approximately $5,000 (about $15 per person per year). This agreement was made by the Bikinians without the benefit of legal representation.

By 1967, U.S. government considered the possibility of returning the Bikinian people to their homelands. Their data on radiation levels on Bikini Atoll suggested that Well water could be used safely by the natives upon their return to Bikini. It appears that radioactivity in the drinking water may be ignored from a radiological safety standpoint...The exposures of radiation that would result from the repatriation of the Bikini people do not offer a significant threat to their health and safety."

In August of 1969 an eight-year plan was prepared for the resettlement of Bikini Atoll in order to give the crops planted on the islands a chance to mature. The first phase of the plan was to clean up radioactive debris on Bikini Island. By late 1969 the Atomic Energy Commission issued a statement that said: "There's virtually no radiation left and we can find no discernible effect on either plant or animal life."

The second phase, construction and agricultural rehabilitation of the atoll, moved slower than expected. By 1972 the planting of coconut trees was completed, it was also discovered that the coconut crabs shells were higher in levels of radioactivity. Since the crabs ate their own sloughed off shells, it was determined that they could only be eaten in limited numbers. The conflicting information in regards to radiation levels lead to the Bikinians voting not to return. The decided that if individuals wanted to go they could. Beginning with three extended families, the population of islanders on Bikini slowly increased over the years.

In 1975 radioactive testes discovered higher levels of radioactivity than originally thought. Some water wells on Bikini Island were also too contaminated for drinking. A few months later the AEC determined that the locally grown foods of Bikini were too radioactive for human consumption. Low levels of plutonium 239 and 240 were found in urine samples from 100 people living on Bikini.

Terrified and confused by these reports, the Bikinians filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court demanding a complete radiological survey of Bikini and the northern Marshalls. The Bikinians argued that the U.S. had surveyed the Enewetak Atoll with sophisticated and technical radiation detection equipment, but did not use it at Bikini. The lawsuit convinced the U.S. to agree to conduct an aerial radiological survey of the northern Marshalls in December of 1975. It took three years of back and forth arguing between the U.S. Departments of State, Interior and Energy as to who would conduct and pay for the survey. During this time the Bikinians remained on th island, unaware of the severity of the radiological danger.

Before the radiological survey was conducted, other tests were done with freighting results. In May of 1977 the level of strontium-90 in the well water was found to be above the maximum allowed limits. A DOE study then found that "All living patterns involving Bikini Island exceed Federal Radiation guidelines for thirty year population doses." Later in the year more than 100 people living on the island were found to have a 11-fold increase in cesium-137. The Bikinians were told to only eat one coconut a day. Food had to be shipped in. 4,560,902. When U.S. medical examiners found a 75% increase in cesium-137 over a month it was announced that the Interior Department was going to move the Bikinans once again. Ironically, it was only after the people had been relocated, did the Marshall radiological survey that the Bikinians had won in a court battle begin.

In 1981, the Bikinians filed a lawsuit against the United States. Although that suit was dismissed in 1987, the Bikinians did receive compensation from the United States in the form of two trust funds. In 1994, the Bikians used the Nuclear Claims Tribunal to bring a lawsuit against United States for damages done to their islands and people. In 2001, the Nuclear Claims Tribunal awarded them a total of $563,315,500 for loss of value, restoration costs and suffering and hardships. Unfortunately the tribunal does not have the money to pay this. It is up to the people of Bikini to petition the United States Congress, a process was expected to take years with no certainty of success. In 2006, the people of Bikini filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims seeking compensation award to it from the Nuclear Claims Tribunal. The lawsuit will seek compensation and/or damages of the original amount awarded them by the tribunal, less the previous payments plus interest. This amount at the date of filing was approximately $72.

The Tests

Operation Crossroads

Conducted in the summer of 1946, Operation Crossroads was intended to study the effects of nuclear weapons on warships, equipment and material. It was a large scale operation involving over 42,000 military and civilian personnel. Also arriving at Bikini were 242 naval ships, 156 aircraft, 25,000 radiation recording devices and 5,400 rats, goats and pigs.

The operations consisted of two detonations, a low altitude test and a shallow water test. The devices, each with a yield of 21 kilotons, were named Abke and Baker. Unlike previous and later nuclear tests, there was a large media presence for the Crossroads detonations. Over 130 reporters from U.S., Australia, Canada, France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, and Britain were allowed to cover the explosion

The Baker test created a major unforeseen radiation problem. The test caused a radioactive mist that deposited active products on the target ships. The contaminate ships became (in the word of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) "radioactive stoves, and would have burned all living things aboard them with invisible and painless but deadly radiation." Over a period of several weeks' personal exposure rose significantly. It was concluded that there was great risks of harm to personnel engaged in decontamination and survey work. These operations ceased and a planned third test, a detonation at the bottom of the lagoon, was cancelled. The Able and Baker tests were the final weapon tests conducted by the Manhattan Project.In 1948 the Atomic Energy Commission would begin testing again, but this time using Enewetak Atoll as a test site. In 1954, Bikini Atoll was once again used as a testing site. The United States continued to use it for atomic bomb tests until 1958 when it terminated nuclear-weapon testing in the Marshall Islands. The United States conducted sixteen nuclear weapon tests over the twelve year period. These surface and atmospheric tests were conducted in or over the Atoll lagoon which dispersed the explosions' effects over all the islands of the atoll.

Operation Castle

Bravo Test

On the morning of March 1, 1954, a hydrogen bomb, code named Bravo, was detonated in the northwestern corner of Bikini Atoll. There was a flash of blinding light and a fireball moved to the sky at a rate of 300 miles an hour. In minutes a nuclear debris filled cloud went up more than 20 miles. The Bravo explosion was a thousand more times powerful that the atomic weapons that the U.S. had dropped on Japan. The yield was also two and a half times what had been expected due to a calculation error.

Shortly before the Bravo test the US Department of Interior changed the official "danger zone" and placed Ronelap, Rongerik, and Alinginae immediately outside the area that would necessitate evacuation, despite the fact that the planned detonation was designed to produce heavy fallout and in fact involve the largest nuclear device ever tested by the US government. The weather had been monitored for several days prior to the test and indicated the high likelihood that wind would blow radioactive fallout to the inhabited atolls of Rongelap, Rongerik and Ailinginae.

The previous tests in the Marshall Islands and the United States led to development of safety precautions for the minimizing of exposure to fallout. The military personal were given radiation information and installations built near the test site were made to mineralize exposure. The people of Rongelap did not have access to protective shelters or safety information and had not been notified there was going to be a test that day.

When high levels of fallout were detected the military personal that were monitoring weather were instructed to cease operations immediately and enter metal-lined concert bunkers. They were evacuated on March 2, 1954. The Marshallese were not evacuated until March 04, 1954.

The blast sent millions of tons of sand, coral, plant and sea life into the air. Three to four hours after the blast, atomic ash began to rain down on the people on the Rongelap Atoll and the Ailinginae Atoll which were about 125 miles east of Bikini. A two inch layer of ash formed around the island and turned the water into a blackish yellow. The people residing on these atolls were exposed to an estimated 200 roentgens of whole body-radiation with substantially greater amounts taken up by the thyroid. Between the time of the Bravo test and their evacuation the Rongelapsese ate food and drank water that was contaminated from fallout. Tests performed after the evacuation show that the water was radioactive at two to twenty five times the AEC's operational tolerances. Hours after the Bravo test, the Rongelapsese began to show flu-like symptoms including nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. By evening, blisters began to form on areas of skin that had been touched by fallout ash and people began lose clumps of their hair.With no warning or explanation the people began to panic. Two days later the United States government took the people of the island to Kwajalein for medical treatment.

The Marshallese were not the only victims of the explosion. Over an hour after the explosion gritty white ash began to fall on the Lucky Dragon, a Japanese fishing boat that was near the blast. The 23 fishermen on board were unaware that the ash was the fallout from a hydrogen bomb test. Soon after being exposed to this fallout, their skin began to experience itchy skin, nausea and vomiting. One member of the crew died.

References

Barker, Holly. Consequential Dmamges of Nuclear War (p95-100)

http://www.bikiniatoll.com/history.html

http://www.history.navy.mil/ac/bikini/bikini1.htm

http://www-ns.iaea.org/appraisals/bikini-atoll.htm