Two days later, the islanders were evacuated to a medical center for treatment. Soon the parents began to see the physical signs of exposure set in ( vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss). Unaware of the danger, Bikinian children began to play in the fallout. Soon the radioactive dust formed a layer more than two inches deep, turning the water it fell on yellow. Three or four hours later a snow white ash began to fall on the inhabitants of the numerous islands. Millions of tons of sand, coral, and plant life were sent high into the air by the blast. Naval ships which were stationed 40 miles away to monitor the radiation were alarmed at the extremely high radiation levels and all crew were sent below deck and the hatches were sealed. The hydrogen bomb was detonated in the northwest corner of the Bikini atoll, without informing any of the of the people who would be subjected to the radiation ahead of time. A date was selected, and testing commenced despite knowledge that the weather conditions present would irradiate the inhabitants of most of the Marshall islands. In 1954, under fear that the Soviets had already tested a hydrogen bomb, the US government decided to test its own device. None of the islands were able to provide enough food and the Bikinians remained near starvation, growing increasingly dependent on the military in order to remain fed. Afterwards, a Bikinian elder traveled to the atoll with a US delegation to view the results, noting that the island looked visibly unchanged.ĭuring the next several years, the islanders were relocated from island to island in an attempt to find surroundings which would provide them sustenance.
During this time, two atomic bombs were detonated near the atoll.
The islanders were left with a supply of food meant to last several weeks, although it quickly became apparent that it would not be sufficient, and they began to starve. The islanders were transported to another island 125 miles away, which in the past had been considered uninhabitable because of inadequate food sources. The Bikinians were asked if they would be willing to temporarily leave their island so that the US could begin testing atomic bombs, and they agreed. The US military decided that the remote location of the Bikini atoll would be an ideal testing ground for nuclear weapons, specifically their impact on navy warships. US forces took control of the island in 1944, at which point the remaining Japanese soldiers committed suicide before they were captured. In the 1900's Japan took control of the islands, and as World War II approached, they began a military buildup there due to the strategic location. The island provided a source of vegetable oils, however there was not significant contact between the islanders and the outside world because of its remote location. The islands were found by the civilized world in the 1600's, particularly the Spanish and Germans. The island is part of a group of atolls in the Pacific Ocean named the Marshall Islands which occupy a geographic area called Micronesia. Experienced scuba divers can explore several American and Japanese ships, including the USS Saratoga carrier and the Japanese flagship Nagato.
It's possible to scuba dive the reefs, and many old warships that were sunk during nuclear tests remain in the atoll. The test made the islands uninhabitable, and the Bikinians signed an agreement (with no legal representation present) for a mere $325,000 in reparations.Īlthough there have been great struggles to resettle the islands since 1967, it was only in the late 1990's that radiation lessened enough to support limited tourism and living conditions. A thousand times more powerful than the weapons used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and five times more powerful than most scientists' estimates, the blast scattered radiation for hundreds of miles, killing fisherman and soldiers. On March 1, 1954, the Bravo test ignited the first hydrogen bomb, with a 15 megaton blast. Operation Crossroads vaporized three of the islands (Bokonijien, Aerokojlol, and Nam) and displaced all of the civilian population. The United States bombed the hell out of the area in the 1940's and 1950's with nuclear bombs and hydrogen bombs. One of the atolls of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific.
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