Letter to R M Nixon, Subject: Displaced People of Bikini Atoll, Now Residing on Kili Island

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DANIEL MACM EEKIN OLIVER G RI CKETSON HANS ‘.v IL IA NUER PALAV OFFICE POtJAFL OFF, CE POST OFFICE Box 0 FQS7 OFFICE 39X 206 Honorable Richard M. Nixon United States of Americd The White House Dear President Nixon: This letter is written rears and s’u~~erings of the Bikini pecple ~ Iwritten v~ikh intention of p.Lacing the grie-waIlces of the Bikini people before the Unitecl States . ‘X’hisletter is most emphatically BEST COPY AVAILABLE &

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Thus on February 10, 1946, the Military Governor of the Marshall lSlaIld.S came to Bikini in an amphibious airplane to tell the Bikinians about the decisions made in Washington, 5,000 miles ak7ay. 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 problem of what to do with the “few” was left unanswered for the -time being. B>, Februarv 23 the United States had decided to move the Bikini people to P.oncjecik Atoll, an ljninhabited atoll also in t’ne Northern Marshall Islands. T im.e proved the choice to ke extremely unfortunate. Rongerik Atoll lies aboct 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; tile total land area c)f Bikini is 2.32 sq. miles; Rongerik consists of only .63 sq. miles. Bikinils lagoon consists of 243 sq. miles jwhi].e P.ongerikls lagoon is only 55 sq. miles. Events soan made

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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 17as 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 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 sir.ce beer. eat-on. In only fish that could be procured, a small, sl.igktly poisonous butterily fish. In ~esponse to emergency messages, a doctor and emergency supplies were flown to Rongerik in Februaryr 1948. The doctor examined the people and pronounced their condition to be thak of a starving people. I In March, 1948, the United States g~vernment confronted the situation and moved the people of Bikini again. Their stay on Rong-erik had lasted almost two years to the day. This time the people were moy~d to Kwqjal.e_.iq.._a_toll.,sever~a.1 hundred miles to the a~~d the Americans were in the process of trar.s.fermi.ng it into a Navy base. Many Ma-cshallese workers had been recruited to work at. the base on its const.ruct~.o~~. These workers were housed. sepz:zately, across the long airfield, in a Tflarshallesc? labor camp. The Z-.il.itaq’ put up 30 ten by ten tents for tl~e Bikini peopl.c in the same general area, and the Bikini people thereafter recsi~~ed th,eir meals in a large messhal.1 with the other Marshal].ese workers. NO slubsis– tence o: handicraft activities we3re possible on Xwaj 2.lc’~n. There was nothing to do but watch the goings--on at the base and obsex~:e the workings of telephones, movie thezters, refrigeration unit-s, polc)g:l-bL““~Lc. tell US that thei social fabric of the Bik~n.i peep].e Ilas I xlot beer, the same sj.n-ce their sojourn a’k Kwa<j{ale.in.

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Honorable Richard It. Nixori an atoll, and is fringed with a reef. There is no lagoon, and heavy winds and tides isolate the island from all shipping from November until. March or April of each year. Kili Island is almost devoid of marine resources. The which the 13ikinians were accustow.ecl. Surf ~~nd sea conditions at Kili. prohibit the use of sailingr sea going canoes once used on Bikini , and t-nese have fallen into disrepai:c. The fringing suzf prevenscs anj~ vessel of size from a.pproaciling closer than several reef itself is dense and hic)meqc.neolus and does not support lobstersr other mollusksf or varieties of red f;.sh. For a fish~.ng peGp7~e accumstorned to an atoll, Ki.li is a prison; the reef an; surf isolates tb.einand prevents access to the even limited marine Kili had been a copra plantation during Japanese and German times, and most of the

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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 prograin met with some success. Efforts were also made to placate the Bikinians by giving them several acres of land on Jaluit atoll, about 3’0 miles from Kili- ‘llowever, that Jaluit. land program was Iarg-ely a failurez for many different r<?asons . The lands on Jaluit ~,~ere seldom used because they were barren and without food trees, because travel between Ja.luit and Kili. was uncertain and infrequent, and because the Bikini people were most unwelcome at Jaluit and the Jalu~. L After complaints hacl.been made to the Unit.:d Nations Visiting Mission, another boat was obtained for the usc of the BikiniansI’he Li.b~a was old 54 foot mission vessel that the Trust Territory time, alleviat~d. the isolation of Kil;. 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 ne-w agricultural project and sank the Libra. A1l the taro was killed by salt intrusion, and 50% of —— the breadfruit trees were killed. In January 1958, ano-&her typhoon st.rl]ck nearby Jaluit, wiping out most food trees there and creating widespread destirucReloccqtion was again d,iscuss~:d ky the lJnit.ed Sta-Les government, but ~-e-ject.cd. The B’ikinians continued to co~iplain about Kili and their

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gov-ernment simply presented the Bikinians with a completed, nonnegotiable document entitled ‘lAgreernent in Principle Regarding the Use of Bikini Atoll:. The agreement specified that the United St.at.eswould 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 ibc~ment had the intended effect -- The Bikini people accepted the preferred agreement. $25,000 v?as 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, ancl 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 placed in a i:.rust fund to be ~:;ta’blished. and administered by the High Commissioner . . .“ In contrast to what the agreement says, the facts appear to be that a good deal less t’ne:n$300,000 Y;:La~ put into the ?rust Fund. llbout 1970, the sale of the govern– n1–Sn t boild 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 whab the “A:~reement in PrirLciple” pzomises. The people of Eikini want to knOW what has, happened to the bala.nc: of the money allegedly invested for them. If the money was il ‘::sted, what sort o.f trl{!SLQ(? sh.oold be added to the Trust Fund no~v, with in~:e.r::~k. mal. Until an arner-dmeri”tto the original agreement was mad= in income is only 9,035.28 per year, and amounts to no more thau a pittance when divided among the Bikini people twice a year -– lrl fat:, it comes to about $12.00 for each person. The jo]7s Of having such a Trust Fund are obviously qui’tc small.

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My. Richard M. Nixon contractor had been selected less than one week before the visit, and had not yet started work on the project. Nevertheless, the Trust Territory did nothing about their request. The contractor was apparently selected for political reasons. The Trust Territory has persisted in doing nothing, and the contractor has done the sort of job that the 13ikinians were afraid he would do. ‘I’he work is sloppy, subject to rapid deterioration, and above all, characterized by continuous unexplained delays. It is al~!ost three years since the contractor ‘was engaged, but the houses are skill not ready for the Bikini people. ‘~]~epeep].e have continued to complain about the buildings, but nothing has been done to correct the problems. In addition to problems with the contractor, the rehab~.litation project has been mismanaged fr~}:il.the beginning. The most notable ch~ra~teristic of the program has been its constan~: se~-ie.s of delays, most of which are apparently tb.e result of incompetence in the v-arious offices in Saipan. From the beginning tliere ha\7e been delays in material; lack of qualified supe.rviso.rs, poor relations between the Trust Territory supervisor and the conproject is typified by the series of events following the PI=371 1972 inspection visit to Bikini- The Bikinians Pad various complaints to make about the housing. Through thei~ 0110 attorney, they reqcezted changes be made, in a letter sent to the Director a-f!~-{e-red and the changes were by and large agreed to..4:, Howe’Jer, in a November visit, the ?3ikinians discovered thai~ none of ‘Lhe cb.z.r.geshad been made, a~.d that the ezchange of letkers ‘hacl been wlholly irrelevant to what th~e cor.tractor was doing. The in:;pecti.on tzip was pointless, except that it p~-o-~-edth~at thir.cj:~had changed occurred over and over again.

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Honorable Richard M. Nixon the Bikini rehabilitation project is reported to be 2. 88 million dollars, including r,~”adiological clean up. In spite of the size of the rehabilitation project, and in spite of the appare~l<c source of the funding, it appears that the Trust Terr;.tory governmer.t has submerged al: the Bikini rehabilitation money in the Trust Territory General Fund. Under these circumstances, it is necessary for the Bikini project to undergc) periodic reviev~ to determine if it 1~wj.11 be continued during the next fiscal period~ .anclto cletermine changing Trust Territory list of Capital Improvement Projects. The point is that the funds for the Eikini project shou].(1 have lo~~g ago been set aside, to be used only for the reha.bi.l.itp.t.ion OE Bikini atoll, instead of beinq pu’c in the ‘Tr’GGtTerritory coffers where the funds are subject to m~suse and the ploject SLITbj<!CL‘LO uilnecessary cutbacks and unauthorized review by the Trust ‘lerritory Secondly, the 2.88 n.iSlion dollars apvarentl.y programed for lack of judgment shown by the maladministration of the 13ikini

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Honorable Richard M. Nixon United States. government, and to detail. the Ior f~shlng on an atoll; U. S. D.A4, food and an isolated and miserable island far from their