Memo to Deputy High Commissioner, Subject: Field Trip to Eniwetok (Pages 5 & 6 Missing)

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c TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS O/lice of rhe Hirb Commistiorrr, Saipon FROM : Chief of Planning SUBJECT: Field Trip to Eniwetok The Headquarters team arrived at Kwajalein on Wednesday, May 17, 1972. The team included the following persons: Deputy High Commissioner - Peter T. Coleman; Special Consultant to the High Commissioner - Dwight Heine; Chief of the Land Cadaster Branch - Maynard Ness; Information Specialist - Jon Anderson; Supt. Controlled Maintenance - Joe Nakanishi; Community Development Engineer - Josef Rotholz; Chief of Planning - Philip Chamberlain. The District team arrived the same day and included the following people: District Administrator - Oscar DeBrum; Distrti Attorney - Russell Walker; District Agriculturist - George Nakanishi; Legislative Secretary - Bryant S. Zebedy; Congress of Micronesia Rep. - Ataji Balos; District Director of Public Affairs - Tony DeBrum and Ujelang Councilman - Ishmael John. Three representatives were present from Micronesia Legal Services Corporation. This contingent was headed by T. R. Mitchellof Saipan and included Chips Barry and Dennis Olsen both of Majuro. The combined teams left Kwajalein on May 18 and arrived on Entwetok via Saturn Airways on the same day. Representatives of the Ujelang Municipal Council had arrived at Eniwetok on the M/V Militobi on the same morning and included: Iroij Joannes; Iroij Lor Anzi; Magistrates Smith Gordon, John Abram and Ertas John. Deputy High CoaxnissionerPeter T. Coleman called a meeting of the group on the afternoon of May 18. Those in attendance included those listed above plus people from several U. S. government agencies and contracting John Stewart - AEC and Roger Ray - AEC.

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The meeting was opened by District Administrator Oscar DeBrum who stated that this i6 the long awaited opportunity for the people of Eniwetok to visit their home islands. The District Administrator appointed an interpreter and instructed him to translate the statements made during the meeting. The District Administrator then introduced the Deputy Mr. Coleman said that the purpose of the trip is for the benefit of the Ujelang representatives. "Weare here to see what now exists, to take a look.at what is here now." The Deputy High Commissioner requested that each person present be introduced. After the completion of the introduction, Mr. Coleman suggested that Mr. Roger Ray of AEC explain \ the work that he and his people have recently completed. as Bikini has. completing a preliminary survey of the islands." "As you know, Eniwetok has not been prepared for resettlement There is still much work to be done and we are just now "We do know that there are some locations where radioactivity remains from the atomic testing and we shall have to remove that before some of the islands will be suitable for long-term occupancy." here will be no danger to you ?.r3rna short inspection visit to the islands, but we do plan to provloL an escort who is familiar with those locations where we have found some radiation problems. We ask that you take his advice and stay clear of any areas which he will point "We are also going to ask you to wear at all times, while you are at Eniwetok, a green badge which will be given to you after this meeting. This badge is known as a film badge and is customarily worn by all of our workers wherever there is any possibility of even a slight exposure to radiation. We do not expect any of you to be exposed to any significant amount of radiation. In fact, we do not expect to find any evidence of radiation on these badges. But we require this procedure so that if there should be some unexpected exposure we will know about it and be able to inform you of it." "We will collect your badges when you leave Eniwetok and take them back to our laboratory in the United States for evaluation. Each badge is numbered and we have recorded that number along with your name on an

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ktom trdirtion on thir britf viait to Eniwetok. If thert wtrt, wt you t6 help tir tike your virit Absolutely rafe by following 8 few simple pttciutiona which will be ruggerted bp your tscort,” he bcputy High Conmissioner thanked Mr. Ray rnd requested that all @zopik making the trip adhere to the simple rulee outlined by The beputy High Commissioner noted that the M/V Militobi is Btanding by and we must establish the schedule today to be followed throughout the forthcoming trip. The following schedule was set: May 19 0730 All personnel, with luggage required for trip, be in front of the dormitory. 0800 Embark ~X~?ITIdock for ship, 0900 Ship leaves for the islands. 3. Runit Is lands 5. Bogon Is lands The ship will return to Eniwetok on Saturday. A representative from the Department of Public Works will check ,the facilities on Eniwetdk. The Chief of Planning will accompany the team during -the trip to observe facilities on other islands. The'Deputy High Commissioner was asked if maybe ‘the-Eniwetokpeople might h8ve specific places that they would like to visit. The Deputy High Commissioner said, "If they do, we shall-visit them at The meeting was adjourned.

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The H/V Militobi left Eniwetok at about 0900 and docked at Parry at 0930. Parry has a land area of .335 sq. miles and is code named Elmer. It was immediately apparent that the island had been intensively developed and It was equally apparent that it had been abandoned for sometime. (Eniwetok nuclear tests ended in 1958.) The survey team disembarked and began a tour of the island. The following remarks-:arebased upon my observations made when touring the island. Due to.the limited time that was available to stay on the island, I was unable to prepare an inventory of each building and as a result, will comment on only the major structures. The dock is "L" shaped with the main face about 300' in length. There is a catwalk extension at the end of the main portion of the dock. The dock is supported by 2 parallel rows of mately 10' from'the outer edge of the dock. The beams appear to be sound. There are wooden piles along with pier edge which are rotted completely through at the water surface level. It appears that the function of the . wooden piles was less structural than for the purpose of keeping boats from going under the dock. There is a steel waterline which is supported by the steel beams. The pier has partially collapsed for a distance of about twenty feet from the point of contact with the shore. A substantial amount of surface planking would have to be replaced before the dock could be considered a safe, operation facility. I wasinformed that the water depth at the dock face had been dredge to 30' and that the facility regularly had handled There are five fuel storage tanks located in the dock area. The estimated capacity of the tanks are three of two hundred thoucity and two of one hundred

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tiles on the walls and c,eiling. The building wa8 centrally air conditfoned but the equipment has been removed. As with the computer c&tcr building on Parry the building could be utilized for public uaeb If windwe are cut into the walls. The building is surrounded by a high chain-link fance. There are six metal and several 90’ wooden antenna on the Island. There is a dock at Japtan which will. require repair8 prior to being suitable for regular use. A concrete boat launching ramp I.8 located next to the dock. We departed Japtan at approximately 1400 hundred and anchored off Runit at about 1500. Runit has a land area of .120 sq. miles and is code named Yvonne. We did not tour the entire area of Runit. We were concerned primarily with the condition of the area in the immediate vicinity of Cactus and LsCross craters. There was a concrete bunker ,whose interior was constructed in the form of a maze near ground “0”. % bunker housed measuring and recording equipment during the blasts. There was evidence of only limited scrub vegetation in the area. The craters can be utilized for small boat harbors if a limited amount of channel Landing Craft blasting is undertaken. The central portion of the west side of the island looks like a ship graveyard when viewed from the ship. There are possibly 20 aCross Crater or mre derelict landing craft sunk and beached in the area. The survey party left Runit island at about 1640 hrs and‘proceeded to Mike Crater area where we anchored for the night. Mike Crater is approximately 6000 ’ in diameter and 168 ’ deep. Cn the following morning we took two small boats and proceeded around the rims of the craters. It was difficult to explain to the representatives. of Ujelang what had happened to 2 L/2 of -their islands. The islands of Elugelab, Teiteiripucchi and Bogererik were each ground zero for surface bursts. As a result Elugelab, Teiteiripucchi and a portion of Bogererik are no more. The areas of the islands had been as follows:

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ii fidir fbfCr&i to l b Bogclrik hacr Changed to ruch a degree that some of icib ti~%M!ntrt i’ve8 from Ujoling qudioned Whether or not it ~88 the iiib$&ij~ ljtowth oh the iniaad hid teturned as had the bird life. The &dj hoted that the icllrnds had previously been set aside as bird ir&nct$cidts a&i that irt Ciao pl6abed that oo many birds had returned. 0i1i 02 iht tepresentatioeb &Aught a bird which was duly killed and $Lg&keci iiti thh jreturn trip to the ship. The next isiand that we visited was Engebi. Engebi (Code named Arthur) has an txta of ,343 sq. miles and had been the location of an important Japanese fighter strip during W.W. II. The island had received extremely heavy naval and aerial bombardment during the Pacific offensive in 1944. We were requested not to cross into the area to the north of the airstrip since NASAhad launched a Beryllium (Glucinum) rocket from the launch site located there. We were told that Beryllium is a highly toxic metal and that the area had not yet been “cleaned” but would be before the island could again become Inhabited. There is no radioactivity in the area resulting from the rocket launch. There is a large three story structure located on the island which is referred to as the “apartment”. The building consists of several units which are contiguous to but not structurally connected to one another. Each section utilizes different structural designs and materials. For example, one section is built of reinforced concrete and faced with metal siding attached to furring strips while the adjacent unit is constructed on large steel columns. The purpose of the structure apparently was to test the effects of a nuclear air burst upon different types of structures. The unit which sustained the most obvious damage was the unit Reinforced having a concrete second and thiid Concrete E stories supported upon refnforced concrete columns. The columns failed and the unit .is now a two story structure which has a 12’ setback from the original building line.

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r There is evidence of much ordinance remaining from World War If bombardment of the island.- The next stop was at the PACE (Pacific Cratering Experiments Site). There is printed material available that describes the program in detail 80 I will discuss only those elements which appear to be of mediate importance. 1. There will be 23 “shots” to be undertaken . during the months of August, September, November and December. 2. The material detonated will be TNT and not nuclear in nature. 3. The size of the shots will vary from 1000 lbs to 100 tons of TNT. 4. The resulting craters will vary in size 5. The locations of the blasts will be confined to the three locat ions as shown on the accompanying drawing. est Area “B” 6. Area “A” which encompasses an area of 19.2 acres, is being cleared of overburden dowu to coral or about equal to high tide. The average 7. It is up to the people of Ujelang as to how the land is to be rehabilitated. One of the three following procedures was suggested. Return to normal state. Develop harbor in largest crater. The University of Hawaii and Guamwould like to develop fish farms in some craters. lhere is a thirteen hundred foot airstrip that is used by light ThereAare two large bunkers that can be utilized for typhoon shelters. One of the representatives from Ujelang stated that he would like to see the craters after the explosions before any decisions are made.

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It vats agreed that this should be done. We again embarked upon the Militobi and headed for.Igurin Island. Igurin (code named Glen) appeared to have been unaffected by the experiments. The vegetation, including coconut trees, was mature, The island.was alive with large coconut crabs of which about 25 were liberated and enjoyed at a feast on the following day. We returned to Eniwetok on the evening of Friday, May 19th. Deputy High Commissioner Coleman called a meeting for the afternoon of May 20. The minutes and a list of those in attendance is attached.