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Bikini Atoll

	Marshall Islands (Asia and the Pacific)
Date of Submission:	24/10/2005
Category:	Mixed
Submitted by:	Alele Museum Clary Makroro, Director PO Box 629 Majuro 96960 Republic of the Marshall Is
Coordinates:	N 11º20’ - 11º42’ E 165º10’ - 165º40’
Ref.:	2065

Description

Nuclear bomb tests at Bikini Atoll shaped the history of the people of Bikini, the history of the Marshall Islands and the history of the entire world. Bikini Atoll was the site of extensive post-WWII US atomic bomb testing - a demonstration of might that served to cement the unprecedented power held by the US at the end of the war. After the dramatic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the stage was set for the Cold War and a technologically-driven arms race that continues to this day. In the period from 1946 to 1958 sixty-seven tests were carried out at Bikini and the neighboring Enewetak Atoll, including the U.S.’s first hydrogen bombs. Bikini is a symbol of nuclear colonialism in the Pacific; a time when weapons of poison and mass destruction were tested far from the home shores of the nations testing them, in the Pacific Islands and the deserts of Australia. The people of Bikini and Enewetak lost their homelands- their source of food, life and cultural identity. Traditional customs and practices, inextricably linked with day-to-day life on those islands, were irrevocably changed. Fallout from the Bravo test on March 1, 1954 poisoned the people of Rongelap and Utirik Atolls resulting in evacuation of these people and extensive radiation-caused illness. Many other people on other atolls were also affected by radiation. The resulting physical dislocation and financial compensation has had a profound effect on the society and economy of the Marshall Islands. The lagoon of Bikini Atoll remains home to sixteen ships sunk during Operation Crossroads in 1946- a remarkable assemblage of war technology; ten of these are accessible to divers, forming the basis of small-scale tourism operations. The atoll itself has subsequently been largely uninhabited over the last approximately 60 years resulting in remarkable richness of biodiversity. Unspoiled white beaches and multi-colored reefs provide habitats for shark, turtles and other endangered species and serve to demonstrate the remarkable capacity of nature to recover from such devastating damage. Kabin Meto, the region in which Bikini is found, is listed as one of the key biodiversity areas in the Conservation International Polynesia-Micronesia Hotspot, but no biodiversity information is provided.