Bikini Atoll ( or ; , ), known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 19th century and 1946, is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. The atoll is at the northern end of the Ralik Chain, approximately northwest of the capital Majuro.

After the Second World War, the atoll was chosen by the United States as a nuclear weapon testing site. The 167 people who lived on Bikini were forcefully relocated by the U.S. military in preparation for testing. In 1946, the Bikini population moved to Rongerik, a small island east of Bikini Atoll, but it did not have adequate resources to support them. The islanders began experiencing starvation by early 1948, and were moved to Kwajalein Atoll. However, scientists found dangerously high levels of strontium-90 in well water in May 1978, and the residents' bodies were carrying abnormally high concentrations of caesium-137. They were evacuated again in September 1978. The atoll is occasionally visited today by divers and a few scientists, and it is occupied by a handful of caretakers. The people of the atoll, which now number in the thousands, have spread out to other Marshallese islands and the United States. A multi-million dollar trust fund, which had been supporting services for many Bikini inhabitants since the 1980s, was drained in the late 2010s.

In the 21st century, the atoll is a World Heritage Site, remembered for its role in the Cold War and the post-nuclear age. It is noted as an enclave of nature, and the radiation has decreased enough that tourism is possible. However, the lingering radioactive contamination makes it unfit to return from what was expected to be short-term evacuation, especially as it is not recommended to eat plants or wildlife.

Etymology

The island's English name is derived from the German colonial name Bikini given to the atoll when it was part of German New Guinea. The German name is transliterated from the Marshallese name for the island, , () "Pik" meaning "plane surface" and "Ni" meaning "coconut tree", or surface of coconuts.

Clothing and dress

thumb|upright|A woman named Liijabor from Likiep Island, [[Likiep Atoll in the Marshall Islands, wears a traditional nieded or clothing mat, 1918]]

Men traditionally wore a fringed skirt about long. Women Children were usually naked.

It is customary to remove one's shoes or sandals when taking a seat at someone's home. Marshallese women traditionally cover their thighs as well.

Marshallese women swim in muumuus made of a fine polyester that quickly dries. In the capital of Majuro, revealing cocktail dresses are not considered appropriate for both islanders and guests. With the increasing influence of Western media, the younger generation wears shorts, though the older generation equates shorts with loose morals. T-shirts, jeans, skirts, and makeup are making their way to the islands via the media.

Land-based wealth

thumb|Island of the Bikini Atoll

The Bikini islanders continue to maintain land rights as the primary measure of wealth.

Each family is part of a clan (Bwij), which owns all land. The clan owes allegiance to a chief (Iroij). The chiefs oversee the clan heads (Alap), who are supported by laborers (Dri-jerbal). The Iroij control land tenure, resource use and distribution, and settle disputes. The Alap supervise land maintenance and daily activities. The Dri-jerbal work the land including farming, cleaning, and construction.

Payments made in the 20th century as reparations for damage to the Bikini Atoll and the islanders' way of life have elevated their income relative to other Marshall Island residents. It has caused some Bikini islanders to become economically dependent on the payments from the trust fund. This dependency has eroded individuals' interest in traditional economic pursuits like taro and copra production. The move also altered traditional patterns of social alliance and political organization. On Bikini, rights to land and land ownership were the major factor in social and political organization and leadership. After relocation and settlement on Kili, a dual system of land tenure evolved. Disbursements from the trust fund were based in part to land ownership on Bikini and based on current land tenure on Kili. Then with funds depleted, the power and deliveries to Kili were stopped, and salaries were not paid, this led to declaration of emergency, and the Marshallese government had to step in to try to help. The testing began with the Operation Crossroads series in July 1946. The residents initially accepted resettlement voluntarily to Rongerik Atoll, believing that they would be able to return home within a short time. However, Rongerik could not produce enough food, and the islanders starved. They could not return home, so they were relocated to Kwajalein Atoll for six months before choosing to live on Kili Island, a small island one-sixth the size of their home island. Some were able to return to Bikini Island in 1972; however, further testing revealed dangerous levels of strontium-90. They eventually moved to other atolls in the Marshall Islands and the United States, due to problems with this plan.

In 1954, the Castle Bravo nuclear test took place on Bikini Atoll, with a yield of 15 Mt. This nuclear test was only one out of 67 total nuclear tests launched on the surrounding Marshall Islands and reefs. The nuclear radiation and fallout that followed the Castle Bravo test alone was substantial enough to discourage future habitation of the islands. Consequently, Bikini Atoll was subject to initial radioactive testing of soil composition and well water. Nuclear fallout deposits were tested in order to estimate how much area of the island was impacted by radionuclides and caesium-137 specifically. The technology used to measure the estimated amount of nuclear fallout deposit was known as HYSPLIT. This technology used meteorological sciences to model and map out nuclear fallout depositions of caesium-137 on the Marshall Islands. Initial fallout cloud debris, radionuclide particles, and actual caesium-137 particles were all estimated during nuclear testing. This data was then compared with past radiological testing results collected by HYSPLIT to predict total nuclear fallout deposition of caesium-137 on island soil.

The United States government established several trust funds which covered medical treatment and other costs and paid about $550 annually to each individual. The islands are composed of low coral limestone and sand. The average elevation is only about above low tide level. The total lagoon area is . The primary home of the islanders was the most northeast and largest islet, Bikini Island, totaling and long.

Flora and fauna

The islanders cultivated native foods including coconut, pandanus, papaya, banana, arrowroot, taro, limes, breadfruit, and pumpkin. A wide variety of other trees and plants are also present on the islands.

The islanders were skilled fishermen. They used fishing line made from coconut husk and hooks from sharpened sea shells. They used more than 25 methods of fishing.

The radioactive contamination has prevented humans from fishing these grounds, and for that reason, there is an abundance of marine wildlife in the waters around the atoll, much larger than in other parts of the ocean. Coconut crabs are particularly abundant on the island.

Climate

The islands are hot and humid. The temperature on Bikini Atoll is year-round. The water temperature is also all year. The islands border the Pacific typhoon belt. The wet season is from May to December while the trade winds from January through May produce higher wave action. who lived on the atoll, moved to Rongerik Atoll. The islands were able to produce much less food than they had on Bikini, and there were far fewer fish in the waters. By early 1948, the people were close to starvation. U.S. investigators concluded they must be moved, and they were relocated to Kwajalein Atoll.

They were moved once again in November 1948 to Kili Island, when the population numbered 184. They were later given public lands on Ejit and a few families initially moved there to grow copra. In 1972, about 100 Bikini islanders returned to live on the atoll after they were reassured that it was safe. They remained for about 6 years until scientists found an 11-fold increase in the caesium-137 body burdens and determined that the island was not safe after all. The 178 residents were evacuated in September 1978 once again. In 2001, the population of the dispersed islanders was 2,800. By 2013, there were about 4,880 Bikini islanders descended from the original Bikinis, with 1,250 living on Kili Island, 2,150 on Majuro (and 280 on Ejit, an island in Majuro Atoll), 350 on the other Marshall Islands, and 850 in the United States. The resident population of the atoll is currently 4–6 caretakers, He helped the U.S. Department of Energy with soil monitoring, testing cleanup methods, mapping the wrecks in the lagoon, and accompanying visitors on dives. He was also the divemaster of Bikini Atoll Divers.

History

Humans have inhabited Bikini Atoll for about 3,600 years. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers archaeologist Charles F. Streck Jr., found bits of charcoal, fish bones, shells and other artifacts under of sand. Carbon-dating placed the age of the artifacts at between 1960 and 1650 BC. Other discoveries on Bikini and Eneu island were carbon-dated to between 1000 BC and 1 BC, and others between AD 400 and 1400 though samples may not have been collected from secure stratigraphic contexts and older driftwood samples may have affected results.

thumb|Map of Bikini Atoll, taken from the 1893 map Schutzgebiet der Marshall Inseln, published in 1897

On October 1, 1529, the Spanish ship La Florida, under the command of Álvaro de Saavedra, stopped at a lush atoll, which Saavedra called Los Jardines (). The atoll may have been Bikini or Enewetak Atoll. The Spaniards went ashore and ate with the islanders. According to an account of the voyage, the feast ended abruptly when the island's chief inquired about the purpose of Saavedra's musket. When Saavedra fired it into the air, the islanders fled.

German-Russian explorer Otto von Kotzebue was the first westerner to have undisputedly seen the atoll during his 1816 and 1817 voyages. He named it Eschscholtz Atoll after Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, the ship's naturalist.

In 1834, the captain of a trading schooner and two of his crew members were killed at Bikini Atoll. Three vessels were sent to search for the captain, and when the Hawaiian brig Waverly discovered evidence of his death, the crew killed 30 Marshallese hostages in retaliation. Bikini and the other northern Marshall Islands had less European contact and settlement than the southern islands, but in the 1870s, several blackbirding ships kidnapped women from the northern islands to sell into sexual slavery in Fiji.

The German Empire annexed the Marshall Islands in 1885. The Germans used the atoll to produce copra oil from coconuts, although contact with the native population was infrequent. The atoll's climate is drier than the more fertile southern Marshall Islands which produced more copra. Bikini islanders were recruited into developing the copra trade during the German colonial period.

Japanese occupation

Bikini was captured along with the rest of the Marshall Islands by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1914 during World War I and mandated to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations in 1920. The Japanese administered the island under the South Seas Mandate, but mostly left local affairs in the hands of traditional local leaders until the start of World War II. At the outset of the war, the Marshall Islands suddenly became a strategic outpost for the Japanese. They built and manned a watchtower on the island, an outpost for the Japanese headquarters on Kwajalein Atoll, to guard against an American invasion of the islands.]]

After World War II, the United States was engaged in a Cold War nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union to build bigger and more destructive bombs.

The nuclear weapons testing at Bikini Atoll program was a series of 23 nuclear devices detonated by the United States between 1946 and 1958 at seven test sites. The test weapons were detonated on the reef itself, on the sea, in the air and underwater

Bikini was distant from both regular sea and air traffic, making it an ideal location. In February 1946, Navy Commodore Ben H. Wyatt, the military governor of the Marshall Islands, asked the 167 Micronesian inhabitants of the atoll to voluntarily and temporarily relocate so the United States government could begin testing atomic bombs for "the good of mankind and to end all world wars." After "confused and sorrowful deliberation" among the Bikinians, their leader, King Juda, agreed to the U.S. relocation request, announcing , which translates as "Everything is in God's hands."

In February, Navy Seabees helped them to disassemble their church and community house and prepare to relocate them to their new home. On 7 March 1946, the residents gathered their personal belongings and saved building supplies. They were transported eastward on U.S. Navy landing ship 1108 to the uninhabited Rongerik Atoll, which was one-sixth the size of Bikini Atoll. This was followed by a series of later tests that left the islands of the atoll contaminated with enough radioactivity, particularly caesium-137, to contaminate food grown in the soil.

A third nuclear test called Charlie was called off after the first two. These were the last tests in Bikini Atoll until 1954, when it was chosen as the location for Operation Castle series. The first shot Bravo, had a higher yield then expected to due an unexpected Lithium-7 reaction. This along with freak weather occurrences caused the fallout to spread much further than anticipated, affecting neighbouring atolls and the Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukuryū Maru.

thumb|Fallout from Bravo nuclear test. The bomb yield was 15 megatons, with an expected yield of 4–8 megatons, marking it as the largest bomb detonated by the US.

Four more detonations occurred as part of the Castle series, with a combined yield of 46.5 megatons.

In 1956, Operation Redwing was conducted at the Atoll, with six total detonations and a combined yield of 18.2 megatons.

The final round of tests occurred in 1958 as part of the larger Operation Hardtack I. Eleven detonations occurred with a combined yield of 21 megatons.

Strategic Trust Territory

In 1947, the United States convinced the United Nations to designate the islands of Micronesia a United Nations Strategic Trust Territory. This was the only trust ever granted by the U.N. The United States Navy controlled the Trust from a headquarters in Guam until 1951, when the United States Department of the Interior took over control, administering the territory from a base in Saipan. The directive stated that the United States should "promote the economic advancement and self-sufficiency of the inhabitants, and to this end shall... protect the inhabitants against the loss of their lands and resources..." In June, the Department of Energy stated that "All living patterns involving Bikini Island exceed Federal [radiation] guidelines for thirty-year population doses." Later that year scientists discovered an 11-fold increase in the caesium-137 body burdens in all of the people living on the atoll. Researchers learned that the coral soil behaved differently from mainland soil because it contains very little potassium. Plants and trees readily absorb potassium as part of the normal biological process, but since caesium is part of the same group on the periodic table, it is absorbed by plants in a very similar chemical process. The islanders who unknowingly consumed contaminated coconut milk were found to have abnormally high concentrations of caesium in their bodies. The Trust Territory decided that the islanders had to be evacuated from the atoll a second time.

The islanders received US$75 million in damages in 1986 as part of a new Compact of Free Association with the U.S. and in 1988, another $90 million to be used specifically for radiological cleanup. In 1987, a few Bikini elders traveled to Eneu Island to reestablish old property lines. Construction crews began building a hotel, docks, and roads on Bikini, and installed generators, desalinators, and power lines. A packed coral and sand runway still exists on Eneu Island. The Bikini Atoll Divers was established to provide income. But in 1995, the council learned that the US Environmental Protection Agency standard required reducing radiation levels to 15 millirems, substantially less than the US Department of Energy standard of 100 millirems. This discovery significantly increased the potential cost of cleanup and stalled the effort. In September 1978, Trust Territory officials finally arrived to relocate the residents. The radiological survey of the northern Marshalls, compelled by the 1975 lawsuit, began only after the residents were removed

The Trust fund had been fairly stable, but after 2017 increased withdrawals drained it down and in the 2020s a crisis erupted to provide services on Kili.

In 1975, the United States set up The Hawaiian Trust Fund for the People of Bikini, totaling $3 million. When the islanders were removed from the island in 1978, the U.S. added $3 million to the fund. The U.S. created a second trust fund, The Resettlement Trust Fund for the People of Bikini, containing $20 million in 1982. The U.S. added another $90 million to that fund to pay to clean up, reconstruct homes and facilities, and resettle the islanders on Bikini and Eneu islands.

In 1983, the U.S. and the Marshall islanders signed the Compact of Free Association, which gave the Marshall Islands independence. The Compact became effective in 1986 and was subsequently modified by the Amended Compact that became effective in 2004. It also established the Nuclear Claims Tribunal, which was given the task of adjudicating compensation for victims and families affected by the nuclear testing program. Section 177 of the compact provided for reparations to the Bikini islanders and other northern atolls for damages. It included $75 million to be paid over 15 years.

On 5 March 2001 after years of deliberations, the Nuclear Claims Tribunal ruled against the United States for damages done to the islands and its people. The NCT awarded Bikini $278 million for loss of land use, finding the actions of the U.S. amounted to a "temporary taking" and made its award based on fair rental value for the period of denied use. The NCT made a further award of $251,500,000 for atoll rehabilitation to restore Bikini "to a safe and productive state."

However, the U.S. Congress has failed to fund the settlement. The only recourse is for the Bikini people to petition the U.S. Congress to fund the payment and fulfill this award. The United States Supreme Court turned down the islanders' appeal of the United States Court of Appeals decision that refused to compel the government to fund their claim. By 2001, of the original 167 residents who were relocated, 70 were still alive, and the entire population has grown to 2,800.

By 2023, a state of emergency on Kili was declared, and the Marshallese government had to step in try to remedy the situation. Aid helped restore electricity to the island, which had been shut off after the funds were depleted.

World Heritage Site

Because the site bears direct tangible evidence of the nuclear tests conducted there amid the paradoxical tropical location, UNESCO determined that the atoll symbolizes the dawn of the nuclear age and named it a World Heritage Site on 3 August 2010.

Visitor access

Bikini Atoll is open to visitors aboard vessels that are completely self-sufficient if they obtain prior approval. They must also pay for a diver and two local government council representatives to accompany them. The local representation is required to verify that visitors don't remove artifacts from the wrecks in the lagoon. Extensive research has been conducted to ensure the safety of visitors to the area and to demonstrate the now low levels of radiation in and around Bikini Atoll.

Bikini Lagoon diving

In June 1996, the Bikini Council authorized diving operations as a means to generate income for Bikini islanders currently and upon their eventual return. The Bikini Council hired dive guide Edward Maddison who had lived on Bikini Island since 1985 and Fabio Amaral, a Brazilian citizen at the time, as head divemaster and resort manager. The tours are limited to fewer than a dozen experienced divers a week, cost more than US$5,000, and include detailed histories of the nuclear tests. The operation brought in more than $500,000 during the season from May to October 2001.

On-shore facilities

To accommodate the dive program and anglers, the Bikini Council built new air-conditioned rooms with private bathrooms and showers. They included verandas overlooking the lagoon. There was a dining facility that served American-style meals and Marshallese dishes featuring fresh seafood. Only 12 visitors were hosted at one time.

Liveaboard diving program

thumb|[[IJN Nagato resting at the bottom of Bikini Atoll]]

In October 2010, a live-aboard, self-contained vessel successfully conducted dive operations. In 2011, the local government licensed the liveaboard operator as a provider of dive expeditions on the nuclear ghost fleet on Bikini Atoll. The dive season runs from May through October. Visitors are still able to land on the island for brief stays. In May 2021, as a result of ongoing business evaluation and pent up demand created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Master Liveaboards announced they would be adding an additional vessel alongside Truk Master to operate at Bikini Atoll from 2022 onwards.

Because the lagoon has remained undisturbed for so long, it contains a larger amount of sea life than usual, including sharks, which increases divers' interest in the area.

Sportfishing

Bikini Island authorities opened sport fishing to visitors along with diving. Although the atomic blasts obliterated three islands and contaminated much of the atoll, after 50 years the coral reefs have largely recovered. The reefs attract reef fish and their predators: dogtooth tuna, barracuda, and giant trevally as big as . Given the long-term absence of humans, the Bikini lagoon offers sportsmen one of the most pristine fishing environments in the world.

  • – aircraft carrier
  • – battleship
  • – attack transport
  • – attack transport
  • – destroyer
  • – destroyer
  • – submarine
  • – submarine
  • – battleship
  • – light cruiser

21st century habitable condition

Due to the nuclear weapon testing, the island was subjected to environmental testing in 1998 by the International Atomic Energy Agency. To validate previous surveys data collected, the agency tested air absorption rates and soil and food radionuclide concentrations.

In 1998, an IAEA advisory group, formed in response to a request by the Government of the Marshall Islands for an independent international review of the radiological conditions on Bikini Atoll, recommended that Bikini Island should not be permanently resettled considering its radiological conditions.

The potential to make the island habitable has substantially improved since then. A 2012 assessment from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found that cesium-137 levels were dropping considerably faster than expected. Terry Hamilton, scientific director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Marshall Islands Dose Assessment and Radioecology Program, reported that "Conditions have really changed on Bikini. They are improving at an accelerated rate. By using the combined option of removing soil and adding potassium, we can get very close to the 15 millirem standard. That has been true for roughly the past 10 years. So now is the time when the Bikinians, if they desired, could go back."

The islanders want the topsoil removed, but lack the necessary funding. The opportunity for some Bikini islanders to potentially relocate back to their home island creates a dilemma. While the island may be habitable in the near term, virtually none of the islanders alive have ever lived there. , unemployment in the Marshall Islands was at about 40 percent. The population is growing at a four-percent growth rate, so increasing numbers are taking advantage of terms in the Marshall Islands' Compact of Free Association that allow them to live in and work in the United States.

  • The 1962 Italian mondo documentary film Mondo Cane shows the effects of long-term low-level radiation on the wildlife.
  • The nuclear tests at Bikini, along with the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombings, inspired the 1954 Japanese movie Godzilla.

Television shows

The Nickelodeon animated series SpongeBob SquarePants primarily takes place in Bikini Bottom, which was named after Bikini Atoll and is supposedly situated underneath it.

During a 2015 interview with Tom Kenny, the voice actor for SpongeBob, he was asked about the popular theory that SpongeBob is the result of nuclear testing. He replied,

In 2024, Rodger Bumpass (voice actor for Squidward) said he also believed the theory was false, but Mr. Lawrence (voice actor for Plankton) said the theory was "absolutely true":

Swimsuit design

thumb|[[Marshall Islands woman wears a traditional nieded or clothing mat. The Marshallese women were socially comfortable exhibiting bare breasts, in contrast to many Western countries where the bikini's covering of nipples was a key to modesty.]]

On 5 July 1946, four days after the first nuclear device (nicknamed Able) was detonated over Bikini Atoll during Operation Crossroads, Louis Réard introduced a new swimsuit design named the bikini after the atoll. Réard was a French mechanical engineer by training and manager of his mother's lingerie shop in Paris. He introduced the new garment to the media and public on 5 July 1946 at Piscine Molitor, a public pool in Paris.

He hired Micheline Bernardini, an 18-year-old nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, to demonstrate his design. It featured string briefs of of cloth with newspaper-type print and was an immediate sensation. Bernardini received 50,000 fan letters, many of them from men. Réard hoped that his swimsuit's revealing style would create an "explosive commercial and cultural reaction" similar in intensity to the social reaction to 1946 nuclear explosion on Bikini Atoll. Fashion writer Diana Vreeland described the bikini as the "atom bomb of fashion".

Because the bikini exposes a woman's thighs, it violates the Marshall Islanders' modern customs of modesty, whereas cultural taboos regarding women's breasts are less strict on the islands.

<gallery>

File:Bikini Atoll Nuclear Test Site-115009.jpg|American bunker located in the island

File:Bikini Atoll Nuclear Test Site-115011.jpg|Rear of bunker

File:Bikini Atoll Nuclear Test Site-115013.jpg|The island seen from above

File:Bikini Atoll Nuclear Test Site-115015.jpg|Entrance sign to the island

File:Bikini Atoll Nuclear Test Site-115017.jpg|View of the coast from above

</gallery>

See also

  • Operation Castle
  • Operation Ivy
  • Radio Bikini
  • Wōdejebato

Notes

References

Bibliography

  • A Short History of the People of Bikini Atoll
  • What About Radiation on Bikini Atoll?
  • Department of Energy Marshall Islands Program: Chronology of nuclear testing, relocation of islanders and results of radiation tests
  • Annotated bibliography for Bikini Atoll from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
  • Islanders Want The Truth About Bikini Nuclear Test
  • Marshall Islands site
  • Everything Marshall Islands
  • Lauren R. Donaldson Collection, served as a radiation monitor for Operation Crossroads; the codename for the first atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. – University of Washington Digital Collection
  • The Archeology of the Atomic Bomb A Submerged Cultural Resources Assessment of the Sunken Fleet of Operation Crossroads at Bikini and Kwajalein Atoll Lagoons U.S. National Park Service
  • $59 Million, Gone: How Bikini Atoll Leaders Blew Through U.S. Trust Fund