Memo to Those Listed, Subject: Report to Evaluate the Radiological Hazards of Resettlement of the Bikini Atoll

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REPORT ‘OF THE AD HOC COMMITTEE TO EVALUATE THE RADIOLOGICAL HAZARDS OF RESETTLEMENT OF THE BIKINI ATOLL The meeting of expert consultants and survey team membersj referred to in my April 2, 1968, memorandum to the Commission, was held on ■ May 13-14, 1968, at the H Street office. S. Allan Lough, Assistant Director for Radiological Physics, Division of Biology and Medicine, served as chairman of the meeting. The consultants reviewed and considered a large amount of data which was the product of the survey of the Bikini Atoll conducted in AprilMay, 1967. The committee’s report as submitted to me is enclosed. The attendant documents examined are being held in this Division. I concur In the conclusion and recommendations that the committee sub mitted. I recommend that the Commission convey to the Secretary of the Interior that, if the committee’s recommendations are observed, there is no reason, from a radiological standpoint, why the Bikinian people should not reestablish residence on the Bikini Atoll. Department of Energy A draft letter to the Secretary of the Interior, transmitting this recommendation is enclosed for the consideration of the Commission. Also enclosed is a draft letter to the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy J;o inform them of the latest developments in this area. US DOE ARCHIVES 326 US ATOMIC ENERGY

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The letters to the Secretary of the Interior and the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy should be held without action-until such time as the Department of Defense makes a determination regarding its need for continuing requirement for Bikini. By agreement among representatives of Interior, State, Defense, AEC and the National Security Council, notification of our recommendation is being held up pending this DOD decision, or until Interior asks us to send them our formal recommen dation, which they may do if the Department of Defense recommendation is not forthcoming soon. The staff will work with the Departments of the Interior, Defense and State and the National Security Council on a joint public announcement to be issued at such time as a decision is made on return of the natives to Bikini. Division of Biology and Medicine 2. Draft Itr. to Secretary of 3. Draft Itr. to Chairman, JCAE Department of Energy

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REPORT OF THE AD HOC COMMITTEE TO EVALUATE THE RADIOLOGICAL HAZARDS OF RESETTLEMENT OF THE BIKINI ATOLL The Committee was convened to consider the question of whether the Bikini Atoll is safe for human habitation with respect to the radio logical hazard. The detailed history of the various relocations of the Bikini natives is described in the appended material provided by Mr. Tobin Ue have examined the documents listed in Appendix II. In addition, we spent one and one-half days in detailed discussions with members of the 1967 Bikini Survey Team and other experts as shown in Appendix III. On the basis of the information provided, we have reached the following conclusions and recommendations: 1. The exposures to radiation that would result from the repatriation of the Bikini people do not offer a significant threat to their health and safety. 2. Such exposure may and should be further reduced by‘ the following simple measures: , a. Restrict rehabilitation for the present to the islands of the Bikini-Eneu complex. b. Establish the first village and immediate food crops on Eneu. No radiological precautions will be needed on Eneu because of its very low

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involve the covering of the site with coral rock as is the local custom. d. Radioactive scrap metal should be removed from the islands adjacent to former shot sites. ■ e. The population of land crabs should be sharply reduced because of their high content of Sr. f. If pandanus trees which produce edible fruit are planted on Bikini Island, two inches of topsoil should be removed from the planting sites. The area of removal from each site should be equal to the area covered by the crown of mature trees. 3. Determinations should be made of body burdens of Cs and ^®Sr at the end of the first year of residence on the Atoll and as appropriate thereafter. Baseline surveys prior to relocation would be desirable. Resurveys of environmental radiation levels on the Bikini Atoll and estimates of radio nuclides in food should be made periodically. These surveys will provide a continual check of the radiation status of the people and environment and will help form a basis for decision as to the time of rehabitation of islands outside of the Bikini-Eneu complex

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4. Special efforts should be made to ensure a balanced and adequately nutritious diet. For example, a dietary 90supplement of powdered milk would materially reduce Sr uptake by relieving the calcium deficiency usually associated with their diet. ■

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The Bikini people had lived on their atoll for many generations. They and their fellow Marshallese came under the domination of foreigners less than one hundred years ago. The German regime was succeeded by that of the Japanese at the onset of World War I. The Japanese rule was terminated by the American forces during World War II. . . Contact with the Outside World The people of Bikini Atoll were not the Isolated twentieth century "stone Age p^imitlves,, as described by sensationalist news reporters and other.journalists. They were and are, how ever, less sophisticated than other more acculturated Marshallese, but they had been in contact with the rest of the Marshall Islands, and had been exposed to at least some of the Every two months a Japanese schooner visited Bikini to purchase copra and to sell food, clothing, and other goods. Every six months a Japanese official made a visit to the atoll. Some of the Bikini people visited other atolls, married out, and attended school elsewhere. Other Marshallese visited department of Energy

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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. There were only six Japanese soldiers at Bikini, however; wireless station operators also manned the ammunition stores. These men were all killed by American bombing and shelling. Little damage was done to Bikini, however, and the Bikini people were much better off than Marshallese in areas such as Jaluit, Enewetak and Kwajaleln, where heavy fighting occurred. The Bikini people suffered as did the other Marshallese, 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 captured the Marshall Islands early in 19^. The serious hardships of the Bikini people were yet to come however

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Earljr in 19^6 it was decided that Bikini Atoll was the most suitable location for the testing of atomic weapons. The Bikini people were asked to leave and, as might have been expected of a people of their historical conditioning to obedience, especially after more than a quarter of a century of autocratic Japanese rule, agreed to leave their ancestral home. The possibilities of resettlement in the Marshalls were very limited' because land is scarce (only about 7^ square miles) and very little of it is available for settlement. The Marshallese jealously guard their land rights and will not willingly part with them. Problems of Resettlement The 166 Bikinians were offered the choice of moving to either Ujae, Lae, or Rongerik, all atolls in the northwestern Marshalls. Ujae and Lae were already regularly inhabited, but Rongerik was only exploited by the people of neighboring Rongelap who had land rights on the atoll. These people visited Rongerik to make copra, to fish, and to gather other foods. For this reason, presumably, as well as the fact that it was the closest to Bikini, the Bikini people opted to go to Rongerik rather.than Ujae or Lae. A village was built on Rongerik by Navy Seabees and a group of Bikini men, and all of the Bikini people were moved to that 1 For a detailed report of the movements of the Bikini people from Bikini to Rongerik and to Kill, see Mason, Leonard 'The Bikinians A Transplanted Population," Human Organisation, Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 1950, pp. 5-15.

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atoll or, March 6, 19^6. Rongerik has a dry land area of 0.65 ' square miles, scattered over approximately 17 Islands. It ha's a lagoon area of 55.33 square miles. This is much smaller than the 2.32-square-mlle land area and 229.^O-square-mlle lagoon area of Bikini., with its 36 Islands The attempt to settle at Rongerik was a failure, allegedly due to the Insufficient natural resources. A Board of Investigation convened by the Navy on June 2, 1947* recommended that the displaced Bikinians be moved again. . The Bikinians through their leader "King" Juda, as he was erroneously christened by romantically minded.newsmen, accom panied by three leaders (alab) of Bikini, inspected Rongerik, Kill, UJilang, Wotto and Ujae to try to find a suitable place in which to relocate their people. The Bikini people were interested in getting back to their ancestral home as rapidly as possible and had allegedly regarded the past and future resettlements as only temporary. The period from June 2, 19^7* to September 1, 1947* was spent in inspecting these possible resettlement areas. On August 26, 1947 the council of the ex-Bikini people on Rongerik sent the following letter to the American authorities: , Gentlemen: We the council have held a meeting ■ to find the best place to go to. We have been so some other places to Inspect and have con . slderod tnem. In moving we find it quite a problem. The place we all agreed to stay on Department of Energy.

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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 t 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, who had "purchased11 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, an annoucement was made that the atoll of Enewetak, west of Bikini, and north of UJilang, 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 months earlier, but undoubtedly with Increased feelings of insecurity, frustration and general bewilderment. In January of 19^8 Anthropologist Leonard Mason of the University of Hawaii, made a field Investigation of the problem at the request 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 Department of Energy

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were not getting enough to eat. He recommended that the . Bikini people be moved to another location. Sojourn on Kwajaleln Upon the basis of Kason's investigation and recommendation, the ex-Bikinians were again moved to a temporary location on Kwajaleln Island in the middle In March, 19^-8. Here, In a "tent city" In the midst of Marshallese workers from far and wide, as well as thousands of American members of the armed forces, the wandering Bikinians awaited the next move. Once again a tour of Inspection was made of available and possible locations for resettlement. The possibilities finally narrowed down to Wotto Atoll, which was populated, and the single Island of Kill in the southern Marshalls. Kill was not populated and was U.S. The majority of the Bikini people allegedly voted for Kill as against Wotto, and in early November of 194-8 the 184Bikinians were transferred to Kill Island.^ The new home of the Bikini people Is a low single coral Island about one and one half miles long, on an axis of 063° true, and Is approximately three-fourths of a mile wide at its widest point. The extent of the area Is only O.36 square miles, with no lagoon area and a small fringing reef. This compares 2 The increase In population was caused by the addition of Bikinians who had married out, plus their spouses and Department of Energy

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very unfavorably, of course, with the 2.32 square miles of dry land area, the 229-40 square miles of lagoon area, and the large reef areas of Bikini Atoll. Kill was purchased by German traders from the local chiefs and was operated as a commercial copra plantation by the Germans. The title to the island was transferred to the Japanese Government when the Japanese seized the Marshalls in 1914. It was leased to a Japanese company and operated as a copra plantation until 1940. There were allegedly not more than about thirty Marshallese laborers working on the planta tion at a time. Food was brought in from Jaluit Atoll, about thirty miles to the southeast. Chickens and swine were raised to supplement the Imported foodstuffs. A small number of bread fruit trees were planted and used, but the Island was primarily a copra plantation. Kill passed into the hands of the United States Government following World War II, and the few remaining plantation workers were evacuated. \ Kill, lying as it does in the southern ^Marshall, enjoys a heavy rainfall and has rich and deep soil, for the Marshalls. Most of the Island, 198.04 acres have been planted to coconut palms (191.17 acres). A taro patch area occupies the center of the island to the extent of 4.25 acres. There are a number of bearing breadfruit trees,^ some edible pandanus, as well as banana, papaya and pumpkin plantings. 3 A ' serious breadfriut blight has destroyed many of the trees on Kill and remains uncnecked. A method of controlling this menace has not yet been found.

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Unfortunately, the lack of a lagoon or protected anchorage presents very serious problems to the inhabitants of Kill. The unfavorable axis of the Island (063-240®) in relation to the prevailing northeast trade winds and the shelving comparatively narrow reef, are factors which cause the island to be Isolated during many months of the year. Prom December through Karch the equatorial front lies to the south, and northeasterly winds prevail. Landing conditions are therefore generally …