Bikini Atoll is one of 29 atolls in the Marshall Islands of Micronesia. In March of 1946 the islanders gave up their home "for the good of mankind and to end all wars" to allow nuclear testing by the U.S. government on their land. They were subsequently relocated to areas with inadequate water and food supply. After three relocations in two years the islanders finally settled on Kili Island where starvation still continued to plaque them.In June of 1968, after 22 years, the U.S. government deemed it safe for the Bikinian people to return to their homelands. The population of islanders slowly increased over the years until in June of 1975 during regular monitoring, radiological tests discovered "higher levels of radioactivity than originally thought. In September of 1978 Trust Territory officials arrived on Bikini to once again evacuate the people who were living on the atoll.
In the 1980's after filing a lawsuit in the U.S. Federal Claims Court, the people of Bikini received two trust funds from the United States government as compensation for giving up their islands for nuclear testing. You can find more info here: Bikini Atoll
1 comment:
That is so amazing, and it would give you chicken skin looking at something like that.
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