Атолл Бикини: От тихоокеанского рая до ядерного полигона

Bikini Atoll is an island chain composed of twenty-three islands surrounding a central lagoon located in the South Pacific Ocean, approximately 2,650 miles (4,264 kilometers) southeast of Hawai‘i. The atoll is part of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. The islands experience a tropical climate, with year-round daily temperatures averaging 80 to 85° Fahrenheit (27 to 29° Celsius) combined with high humidity. A rainy season occurs between the months of May and December, and the islands also experience tropical cyclones (typhoons). As part of the Marshall Islands, Bikini islanders have been self- governing since 1986, operating in a free association with the United States.

Archaeological investigations of Bikini utilizing radiocarbon dating of material found in ancient midden sites suggest habitation of the atoll began during the first millennium BCE. The inhabitants named the area Pikinni in Marshallese—commonly translated as “coconut place.” Permanent habitation was limited to the islands of Bikini and Eneu. Here, the inhabitants sustained themselves through a wide variety of fishing practices, as well as through the cultivation of coconuts, arrowroot, taro, papaya, and other indigenous fruits.

Second nuclear weapon test (codenamed Baker) of Operation Crossroads, at Bikini Atoll, on July 25, 1946 (National Archives)

Alvaro de Saavedra recorded the first European sighting of the atoll in September 1529 while attempting to return to New Spain (Latin America) from the Philippines. British navigators undertook further exploration and charting of the island chain in the late eighteenth century. The German explorer Otto von Kotzebue made three separate journeys to Bikini in the early nineteenth century naming it Eschscholtz Atoll. Christian missionaries soon followed, and Germany began to utilize the islands to produce copra oil from coconuts. Germany officially purchased the islands from Spain in 1899. During the First World War, the chain was seized by the Japanese empire, and the League of Nations ceded control of the islands to Japan in 1920. Japan maintained control until the Second World War when the United States took the chain in February 1944 as part of its islandhopping campaign.

Following the conclusion of the war, the United States selected Bikini for a series of nuclear weapons tests whose purpose was to better understand how nuclear weapons could affect naval vessels. Bikini was chosen because of its deep lagoon and its isolation from centers of population and traditional trade routes. In March 1946, the 167 inhabitants of Bikini agreed to temporary removal and resettlement on nearby Rongerik Atoll by the United States with promises to return home upon completion of the tests. During the second test, the underwater detonation of the nuclear device sank much of the test fleet, pulverized the coral bed underneath the test, and destroyed the material throughout the atoll. This radioactive fallout contaminated Bikini with cesium-137, making the island uninhabitable. Because of the unsuitability of the Rongerik Atoll and the inability to return to their home, the Bikini Islanders chose Kili Island in the Kwajalein Atoll as a long-term home in 1948.

Nuclear testing resumed in 1954. On March 1, 1956, the United States conducted the Castle Bravo test with an anticipated yield of 4 to 8 megatons; however, the test far exceeded scientific expectations with a resulting 15-megaton blast. Fallout irradiated several inhabited atolls, as well as the Japanese fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryu Maru. Both the islander populations and the Japanese crew exhibited signs of radiation poisoning. The test left a large blast crater clearly visible in aerial and satellite photography of the atoll. In all, twenty-three nuclear devices would be detonated at Bikini.

In 1968, scientists from the US Atomic Energy Commission determined the radiation levels at the atoll were safe enough for Bikini Islanders to return to their home. In 1972, however, testing of coconut crabs showed high levels of contamination that made them unfit for human consumption. Despite this risk, a group of approximately 100 islanders chose to return home. Shortly after, women began reporting large numbers of miscarriages, stillbirths, and children born with abnormalities. Further testing determined that cesium-137 was being absorbed into the vegetation that islanders were consuming, the water surrounding Bikini showed alarmingly high levels of strontium-90, and samples given by islanders showed plutonium-239 and -240 in their systems. In 1977, the inhabitants were removed back to Kili.

In 1975, the islanders took legal action against the United States, resulting in the awarding of a trust for all Bikini Islanders. Under the agreements of the Free Association Compact of 1986, the United States agreed to cover all costs associated with the environmental cleanup of the atoll, as well as continued scientific monitoring of the island. Testing in 2016 demonstrated that radiation levels at Bikini were still ten times higher than the accepted safe levels. Bikini Atoll was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site on August 3, 2010. Christopher MacMahon.

FURTHER READING:Dibblin, Jane. 1998. Day of Two Suns: U.S. Nuclear Testing and the Pacific Islanders. New York: New Amsterdam Books.

Radio Bikini. 1988. Directed by Robert Stone. New York: Distributed by New Video Group.