Coincidence06: Amazing Incident at Bikini Atoll

In February of 1946, Commodore Ben H. Wyatt, the military governor of the Marshall Islands, travels to Bikini Atoll.  Arriving on a Sunday after church services, he assembled the Bikinians to ask if they would be willing to leave their atoll temporarily so that the United States could begin testing atomic bombs.

About the first testing of atomic bombs at Bikini:

§     Liptrot.com2007:  “In February of 1946, Commodore Ben H. Wyatt, the military governor of the Marshalls, traveled to Bikini.  On a Sunday after church, he assembled the Bikinians to ask if they would be willing to leave their atoll temporarily so that the United States could begin testing atomic bombs for ‘the good of mankind and to end all world wars.’  King Juda, then the leader of the Bikinian people, stood up after much confused and sorrowful deliveration among his people, and announed, ‘We will go believing that everything is in the hands of God.’”

§     Outside Magazine, March 1997, Lost at Sea by Tad Friend:  “Commodore Ben Wyatt chose to come ashore and address the wonder-struck islanders immediately following services at the United Church of Christ.  The Bikinians had been converted by New England missionaries in the nineteenth century.  God and the bomb were often yoked in those days, so Wyatt adopted biblical language.  He compared the Bikinians to the ‘Children of Israel whom the Lord had saved from their enemy and led into the Promised Land.’  According to the official navy account, Wyatt told King Juda Kessibuki that a ‘power higher than anything on earth’ would bless their move and finally inquired whether they would be ‘willing to sacrifice their island’-temporarily-‘for the good of manking and to end all world wars.’”

§     Nucnews.net2007:  “The Bikini islanders did not wish to leave but believed they were powerless to resist the U.S. decision, the suit said.  The people were moved by the Navy three times.  After nearly starving to death on the first island they were sent to, the population ended up on Kili Island in 1948, where they have lived since.  In the late 1960s, based on the findings of an Atomic Energy Commission’s scientific panel, President Lyndon Johnson announced that Bikini was safe and the people could return home.  About 100 people were resettled on Bikini only to be re-evacuated in 1978 when it was discovered they were absorbing a huge amount of radioactive cesium from contaminated foods grown on the atoll.  Later investigations showed the tests relied on by Johnson in 1968 contained an error which assumed people living on Bikini would consume just one spoonful of liquid a day.  Following the second evacuation in 1978, numerous surveys of Bikini have concluded that the atoll is ‘still is not safe for human habitation’, the suit said.”

§     Relocation of the Bikini Marshallese: A Study in Group Migration by L. Mason, New Haven, Yale University, 1954, Dissertation:  “King Juday…announced, ‘If the United States government and the scientists of the world want to use our island and atoll for furthering development, which with God’s blessing will result in kindness and benefit to all mankind, my people will be pleased to go elsewhere.’”

§     Rit.edu2007 from Case Study: US Nuclear Testing on the Marshall Islands: 1946 to 1958 by Kim Skoog:  “One month prior to speaking to the Marshallese about using their island for atomic bomb testing, the US Senate passed Joint Resolution 307 authorizing the testing of atomic weapons in the Marshall Islands which was immediately signed by President Truman.  Subsequently, Navy Commodore Ben H. Wyatt arrived on Bikini Atoll just after Sunday church services had ended, and counced the test request in biblical terms, comparing the Bikinians to the children of Israel whom the Lord saved from their enemy and led into the Promised Land.  In like manner, the Marshallese had a role to play in ending all war for the betterment of humanity, as the atomic bomb to be tested would serve to silence the evil forces that threaten the world now and in the future.  Given their suffering under the Japanese (who had just been defeated) and their new prosperity and freedom provided by the United States, it is not surprising that they replied in the affirmative…it should be noted that no effort was made by Commodore Wyatt or those who immediately followed him to warn the people of Bikini Atoll of potential dangers to their health or long-term danger to their island-even though such concerns had been a significant part of the discussion back in Washington, DC.  No one knew with certainty what to expect in terms of environmental damage from radiation poisoning.  Rear Admiral Draper L. Kaufman, one of Operation Crossroad’s planners, is quoted to have said, ‘Our scientific friends went from one extreme to another.  One extreme even thought the island would disappear and that it would be weeks before we could go back into the lagood.  Another extreme said that we could go back in right away, that there would be very little radiation.’

§     Time.com:  “…softspoken, sensitive Commodore Ben Wyatt might well have wondered why progress had to sacrifice this lovely coral atoll…tall, tawny Paramount Chief Juda, manor lord of 160 Christian islanders, took comfort in the will of Heaven.  Ben Wyatt talked.  In simple words, with eloquent gestures, he told Juda and his people of the Bomb.  Its power to kill all living things within many miles was beyond belief.  But ‘the US wants to turn this great destructive power into something good for mankind.’ The Bomb would be dropped on Bikini.  For their protection, and for progress, would the islanders help by leaving their home, perhaps forever?  Juda took counsel with the alaps (family heads).  At length he gave his decision: ‘If the US Government needs to use our houses for the goodness of mankind, then by the kindness of God we are willing to go.’  Thus began the first move in Operation Crossroads…a US officer called the transfer of the Bikinians ‘one hell of a good sales job’…LSTs bore them to Rongerik, an atoll 140 miles to southeast…they brought with them only a few possessions:…their vernacular Bibles, Congregational Hymnals…most puzzling for the Americans were Marshall Island politics.  Juda and other Paramount Chiefs hold power through heredity on the maternal side.  They alone own the land.  They alone judge crimes (a little adultery, an occasional assault and battery).  They are entitled to almost half their domain’s annual crop of coconuts….” 

§     Unknown:  “Phillip Rooney was secretary to Commodore Ben H. Wyatt, military governor of the Marshall Islands during World War II.  His job included handling correspondence for the commodore….”

§     The Journal of Pacific History, June 1997 by Hal L. Friedman:  “…the team unwittingly interrupted a Sunday morning, American-style, congregational church service.  After the service, Wyatt successfully used a biblical analogy to help convince the islanders to leave, comparing them to the ‘Children of Israel’ whom the United States was going to lead to the ‘land of salvation’ much as God had done for the Jews! (The Americanization of Micronesia by Roger Gale; Interview of Commodore Benjamin Wyatt, USN by Commander Dorothy Richard, USNR, May 2, 1952, US Administration of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, 1957-63).”

Unknown:  “Students:  There’s mixed perceptions of Commander Ben Wyatt did he mislead the Bikinians?  How was he viewed at the time?  How is he viewed now?  Senator:  To the Bikinians Commodore Wyatt was the ruler of the world, he really gave that impression to us.  He appeared very powerful and we felt that he had to be listened to…today the Bikinians feel like this man misled them into thinking they would be able to go back…we are mostly Protestants…we still believe that God is in control of our destiny and that he will watch over us as we struggle away from our islands….”