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CABLE ADDRESS: MI CR OLEX ExECUTIVE DIRECTOR ANDREW FIG IRMAD EDWARD C. KING HEMOS A JACK DEPUTY OIRECTOR IoANizs KANICNY GIOEON DOONE ‘s1ONAG NACMEEKIN ASSISTANT DIRECTOR DENNIS F OLSEN OANIEL AQu INO TONY VI LLANUEVA Honorable Richard M. Nixon United States of America The White House PAUU OFFICE PONAPC OFF!CC FOST orncc eox 57 FQST OF FICC eo~ 129 MARSHALL ISLANDS 96960 TELEPHONE 6243 TRUK OFRCC YAP OFFICE POST Orrlcc Box o FQST OFFICE BOX 206 MOEH, TRUK COLON IA, YAP REPLY VIA AIR MAIL TO Marsfia~~s==_’) Dear President Nixon: I This letter is written on behalf of the displaced people of Years, anis—u3TEerings of the Bikini people, written with intention of placing the grievances of the Bikini people before the United States. This letter is most emphatically a petition for redress of the sufferings and exploitation of the Bikini people by the United States during the last 27 years . The suffering of the Bikini people began, as far as the United. States is concerned and responsible -- on January 24, 1946. On that date the Pentagon announced that the United States had selected Bikini Atoll in the Northern Marshall Islands as the site of a series of atomic tests. part of t’ne requirements of the test program were that the test site be quite distant from all hea’~ily populated areas, 500 miles frcm all air and sea routes, and uninhabitecl or containing only a few people who could be relocated. The “few people” in this case were the people of Bikini. ‘They 1 may have been “few” from the United States point of viewr but I f~om the Bikinians own poink of view, they were all the people, n.ct just a few. The decision of the .Joint Chief= Staff made no \provision for the feelings, aspirations, or wishes of the “few”r \ II that SO few could or WOUld defy t~,e wishes of so many. I BEST COPY AVAILABLE
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Thus on February 10, 1946, the Military Governor of the Marshall Islands came to Bikini in an amphibious airplane to tell the Bikini.ans about the decisions made in Washington, 5,000 miles away. The Governor explained that the United States had a new and powerful weapon to be tested, and that it would be tested at Bikini. The people of Bikini, understanding little, and, faced by awesome power of the United States, and having no other recourse, relented. Their iroij (chief) Juda told the Governor that the United States could use Bikini if it would result in kindness and benefit to all mankind. The difficult pioblem of what to do with the “few” was left unanswered for the time being. By February 23 the United States had decided to move the Bikini people to Rongerik Atoll, an uninhabited atoll also in the Northern Marshall Islands. Time proved the choice to he extremely unfortunate. Rongerik Atoll lies about 100 miles to the East of Bikini Atoll. In all measurements, it is a great deal smaller than Bikini. Bikini has 23 islands on the atoll; Rongerik, 10; the total land area of Bikini is 2.32 sq. miles; Rongerik consists while Rongerik’s lagoon is only 55 sq. miles. Events soon made evident that fact that the Pentagon never considered whether an atoll with one-fourth the lagoon size of Bikini and one-third the land area of Bikini could support 200 Bikini people. On March 7 and 8, 1946 -- less than a month after being told that they were to be moved, -- the Navy moved all 199 Bikini people to Rongerik atoll. The trouble began. The Bikinians had long con– sidered Rongerik to be associated with Libokra, an evil female spirit who dealt in poisons. Many of the fish on Rongerik were in fact poisorl, and many people became sick from eating them. Furthermore, the food resources of Rongerik were not sufficient to support the Bikinis.ns. A report by a medical officer in July, 1947 reported that the people were suffering from malnutrition. A disastrous fire had destroyed 30% of the food trees a month earlier. The United States investigated the situation, and dis– cussions were had about moving the people elsewhere. Nevertheless , nothing was done. Finally, in November, 1947, the United States and the Bikini people decided that the atoll of Ujelang would be a better place for them. With the help of ten Bikini men, construction was begun oil a village at Ujelang. On December 2, the United States decreed that t-he Enewetak atoll was also to be used for atomic testing, and that the inhabitants of that atoll would also have to relocate. The Enewetak people would be moved to Ujelang. Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, the Bikini people had the rug pulled from under them. They remained on Rongerik.
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Honorable Richard M. Nixon In early 1948 a United States anthropologist visited Rongerik. He reported that the people had been cutting down and eating the heart of young palm trees, because there was nothing else to eat. By early 1948, most of the edible young trees had been eaten. Fishing efforts were reduced because Rongerik’s coconuts were of such poor quality that they could not produce the sennit needed to lash the homemade canoes together and to serve as rigging. On January 31, 1948, the only food on the island was one bag of flour, which was mixed with a little water and doled out to 167 people. All ripe pandanus and coconut fruits had long since been eaten. In the Iext few days some unripe coconuts were eaten, along with the only fish that could be procured, a small, slightly poisonous butterfly fish. In zesponse to emergency messages, a doctor and emergency supplies were flown to Rongerik in February, 1948. The doctor examined the people and pronounced their condition to be that of a starving people. In March, 1948, the United States government confronted the situation and moved the people of Bikini again. Their stay on Rongerik had lasted almost two years to the day. This time the people were moyed to Kwajale~n_atoll, several hundred miles to the.. . .+------ south. Kwajaleln had been a ma]or Japanese military installation, and the Americans were in the process of transforming it into a Navy base. Many Marshallese workers had been recruited to work at the base on its construction. These workers were housed separately, across the long airfield in a Marshallese labor camp. The military put up 30 ten by ten tents for the Bikini people in the same general area, and the Bikini people thereafter received their meals in a large messhall with the other Marshallese workers. No subsistence or handicraft activities were possible on Kwajalein. There was nothing to do but watch the goings–on at the base and observe Ithe wcrk+ngs of telephones, movie theaters, refrigeration units, streets, and assorted indicia of military technology. The anthropologists tell us that the social fabric of the Bikini people has not been the same since their sojourn at Kwajalein. The stay at Kwajalein was never intended to be permanent. The people would stay only long enough to decide where to move them next. The military narrowed the choices to Wotho atoll or Kili island. After a very short visit tc] both sites by a few members of the ELkini communj.ty, the people decided that they should move prison, as they later cal=d--i-t”=––-fi””Novemberberof...l4848..-.-..-. Kili is an island in the southern Marshall Islands, 400 miles south of Bikini. In contrast to Bikini, it has a good deal of rain. Water is perhaps its only plentiful resource. It is 17ery small, comprising just less than 200 acres in size or .31 sq. miles, or about one-seventh of the area of Bikini. Kili is an island, not
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Honorable Richard M. Nixon an atolll and is fringed with heavy winds and tides isolate November until March or April a reef. There is no lagoon, and the island from all shipping from of each year. Kili Island is almost devoid of marine resources. The absence of a lagoon completely eliminates the type of fishing to which the Bikinians were accustomed. Surf and sea conditions at Kili prohibit the use of sailing, sea going canoes once used on Bikini, and these have fallen into disrepair. The fringing surf prevents any vessel of size from approaching closer than several. hundred yards from Kili. Off–loading of supplies is often impossible, and when possible, it is both dangerous and costly. The reef itself is dense and homogeneous and does not support lobsters, other mollusks, or varieties of reef fish. For a fishing PeoPle accustomed to an atoll, Kili is a prison; the reef and surf isolates them and prevents access to the even limited marine resources available beyond the fringing reef. Kili had been a copra plantation during Japanese and German times, and most of the arable land was planted in coconuts. When the Bikinians arrive in 1948, there were only a few pandanus and. breadfruit trees, and none of the hardwood trees found on Bikini for use in house and canoe construction. Kili has agricultural potential, but for a marine–orientated people, accustomed to fishing and unaccustomed to tilling soil and cutting brush on Kili, agriculture has never been either rewarding or successful. Life on Kili island has never been pleasant for the Bikini people. In the early years, and continuing to the present, the difficulties are too numerous to explain in detail. The heavy surf and sea conditions, plus frequent local ship shortages, usually prevented more than four visits a year by a field trip vessels. Failure of the field trips meant that the copra that the Bikini people had produced vas left to spoil or be eaten by rats. Failure to pick up copra was strong disincentive to make it. Food shortages were again common and the people became convinced that Kili was another Rongerik. In 1949 and 1950 and again in 1952 food shortages occurred, severe enough so that in 1952 a ton of food was air dropped to the people. Even then, parachutes were not used, and the food was broken and ruined. The efforts at agriculture did not work and produced little food. The Bikinians were given one large ship, a converted forty-foot whaleboat, which was wrecked on the Kili reef soon after it was procured. The community was in debt and copra production was minimal. Then and now the Bikini people have an expression for Kili: Kili enana, meaning Kili. is no good. In 1953 a Kili development project was begun, based upon United States government information th at Bikini atoll would be habitable at any time in the near future. The development
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project largely involved importation of agriculture experts to tell the Bikini people how to cultivate important food crops such as tare, pandanus, limes, and other seedlings imported from other islands. Much of this agriculture program met with some success. Efforts were also made to placate the Bikinians by giving them several acres of land on Jaluit atoll, about 30 miles from Kili. However, that Jaluit land program was largely a failure, for many different reasons. The lands on Jaluit were seldom used because they were barren and without food trees, because travel between Jaluit and Kili was uncertain and infrequent, and because the Bikini people were most unwelcome at Jaluit and the Jaluit people disputed the title to Jaluit lands given to the Bikinians. After complaints had been made to the United Nations Visiting Mission, another boat was obtained for the use of the Bikinians. The Libra was old 54 foot mission vessel that the Trust Territory outf= with a new engine and sails. The vessel, for the first time, alleviated the isolation of Kili and the failure of field trip ships to call more than once every six or eight months. In Novemberr 1957, typhoon Lola struck Kili, and devasted the new agricultural project and sank the Libra. All the taro was killed by salt intrusion, and 50% of the breadfruit trees were killed. In January 1958, another typhoon struck nearby Jaluit, wiping out most food trees there and creating widespread destruction. After the typhoon, most rehabilitation efforts went to Jaluit. The Bikinians were back where they were in 1948, except that by now there were more than 250 people living on Kili. Food shortages again ensued in 19!38 and 1960, alleviated for short periods by the arrival of C-rations and other emergency foodstuffs. Relocation was again discussed by the United States government, but rejected. The B’ikinians continued to complain about Kili and their prison. Kili enana. 1 Up through recent times, food shortages have occured on K$li...—.... food program has been extended to Kili. Field trip” service is slightly more reliable.” The fishing is still no-n=’existent, and the island is still an island and not the “home ‘atoll of Bikini. All that is said above is simply a prologue, an introduction to the statement of the grievances and inequities that beset the Bikini people today. In 1946, when the Bikini people were first moved from their home, the United S-hates made no settlement with the people concerning Bikini. The United States did not inform the people that they had leqal title to Bikini, and the Bikiniansr even if they had such a conc=pt firmly in mind, were too intimidated to state it. 1956, after some adverse world publicity, the United States to “settle” the Bikini problem. After several discussions,
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government simply presented the Bikinians with a completed, nonnegotiable document entitled “Agreement in Principle Regarding the Use of Bikini Atoll:. The agreement specified that the United States would give the Bikini people $325,000 and use rights on Kili and some islands in Jaluit, in return for use rights to Bikini atoll. It appears that the 25,000 one dollar bills taken to Kili with the b~~ment had the intended effect -- The Bikini people accepted the preferred agreement. $25,000 was given in cash, to be divided among the people, and $300,000 was to be set aside in a trust fund. The Trust Fund has been a miserable failure, and is one of the primary reasons for th continued grievance of the Bikini people. The Trust Fund was to be established with $300,000, according to be pla~ed in a trust fund to be established and administered by the High Commissioner . . .“ In contrast to what the agreement says, the facts appear to be that a good deal less then $300,000 was put into the Yxust Fund. About 1970, the sale of the government bond that constituted the Bikini Trust Fund yielded only $196,000. Had the bond be allowed to mature, it would have yielded $309,000 in 1983. But a statement of yield is a far cry from what the “Agreement in Principle” promises. The people of Bikini wantI to know what has happened to the balance of the money allegedly invested for them. If the money was invested, what sort of trustee have they who would allow a $104,00010ss over the years? If the money …
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