Bikini

 

(bēkē'nē) , atoll, c.2 sq mi (5.2 sq km), W central Pacific, one of the Ralik Chain, Marshall Islands. It comprises 36 islets on a reef 25 mi (40 km) long. After its inhabitants were removed (1946) to Rongerik, Bikini was the scene of 23 U.S. atomic and hydrogen bomb tests (1946–58). The natives were transferred from Rongerik to Ujelang in 1947 and in 1949 were resettled on Kili. Bikini was declared safe for habitation in 1969. In 1974, 100 natives returned, but they were evacuated in 1978 when new data showed high levels of residual radioactivity. A cleanup began in 1988. By the late 1990s, Bikini had become a popular destination for scuba divers, though it remained uninhabited pending completion of the cleanup. Bikini was formerly called Escholtz Island.

Bikini Atoll (also known as Pikinni Atoll) is an uninhabited 6.0-square-kilometer atoll in one of the Micronesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands. It consists of 36 islands surrounding a 594.2-square-kilometer lagoon. As part of the Pacific Proving Grounds it was the site of more than 20 nuclear weapons tests between 1946 and 1958, including the first test of a practical dry fuel hydrogen bomb in 1952.

The navigator and explorer Otto von Kotzebue named Bikini Atoll Eschscholtz Atoll after the scientist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz.

Preceding the nuclear tests, the indigenous population was relocated to Rongerik Atoll. The United States government enrolled some of the Marshallese into a secret medical experiment called Project 4.1. The intent of the project was to study the effects of radiation on human beings. They later resettled unwilling participants on an island highly contaminated with radiation to learn how humans ingested and absorbed radiation in their environments.^[1] Government and mainstream historical sources point to the study being organized on March 6 or March 7, 1954, six days after the Bravo shot. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, some of the original islanders returned from Kili Island but were later removed because of the high radioactivity.

For examination of the fallout, several rockets of the types Loki and Asp were launched at 11°35′N, 165°20′E.

Bikini Island

Bikini Island is the northeasternmost and largest island of Bikini Atoll. It is the most well-known and important island of the atoll, and measures about four kilometres. About twelve kilometres to the northwest is Aomen, the first island in that direction, and to the south of Bikini is Bukonfuaaku.

Bikini Island is well-known for being the subject of nuclear bomb tests, and because the bikini swimsuit was named after the island in 1946— The two piece swimsuit was introduced within days of the nuclear test, and the name of the island was in the news.^[2]

Between 1946 and 1958, twenty-three nuclear devices were detonated at Bikini Atoll. The March 1st, 1954 detonation codenamed Castle Bravo, was the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb. The largest nuclear explosion ever set off by the United States, it was much more powerful than predicted, and created widespread radioactive contamination.^[3]

The Micronesian inhabitants, who numbered about 200 before the United States relocated them after World War II, ate fish, shellfish, bananas, and coconuts. A large majority of the Bikinians were moved to a single island named Kili as part of their temporary homestead, but remain until today and receive compensation from the United States for their survival.^[4]

In 1968 the United States declared Bikini habitable and started bringing a small group of Bikinians back to their homes in the early 1970s as a test. In 1978, however, the islanders were removed again when strontium-90 in their bodies reached dangerous levels after a French team of scientists did additional tests on the island.^[5]. It was not uncommon for women to experience faulty pregnancies, miscarriages, stillbirths and damage to their offspring as a result of the nuclear testing on Bikini.^[6] The United States provided $150 million as a settlement for damages caused by the nuclear testing program.^[7]

The clean-up operation scraped off the top 16 inches of soil from the main island of Bikini, generating a million cubic feet of radioactive soil that could not be disposed of, at a cost that far exceeds this compensation award.

Bikini Lagoon

Prior to the explosion of the first atomic bomb on the island, the lagoon at Bikini was designated as a ship graveyard during World War II by the US. Today the Bikini Lagoon is still home to a large number of vessels from the United States and other countries. The dangers of the radioactivity and limited services in the area led to divers staying away from one of the most remarkable potential diving sites in the Pacific for many years. Today a limited number of divers head for the lagoon at Bikini every year for an extensive tour of World War II naval vessels. The dive spot has become popular among divers in the last 10 years. The lagoon contains a larger amount of sealife than usual due to the lack of fishing, including sharks, increasing the fascination with the spot as a diver's adventure spot.

References in popular culture

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The author Theodore Taylor wrote a children's novel titled The Bomb, which told the story of a teenager's fight to prevent the first atom bomb from being dropped onto the atoll.

• SpongeBob SquarePants, a cartoon on Nickelodeon, takes place in a town known as Bikini Bottom. In the episode "Dying for Pie", a bomb disguised as a pie violently explodes on impact with the Spongebob character's lower intestine. Brief footage of the oft-used Crossroads Baker explosion at Bikini is shown.

• In composer Steve Reich's video-opera Three Tales, the second act, "Bikini," recalls the nuclear tests at the island.

• Ground Zero, an X-Files themed novel by Kevin J. Anderson, revolves around violent ghosts that were created during the nuclear tests at the Bikini Atoll when several members of the Micronesian tribe were not removed from the island by the U.S. authorities and were subsequently incinerated.

• Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll is a plot device of the first Godzilla movie, leading to Godzilla's awakening. In later films, however, this is retconned to Godzilla to being a dinosaur (known as Godzillasaurus) that is mutated by the nuclear tests conducted by the American government.

• An American political punk band named Anti-Flag wrote and composed a song on their fourth album Underground Network named "Vieques, Puerto Rico: Bikini Revisited".

• Machines of Loving Grace wrote a song for their second album Concentration named "Perfect Tan (Bikini Atoll)".

• In Metal Gear Solid 3, Bikini Atoll is the location where the Boss meets Naked Snake for the first time.

• British post-punk band Gang of Four reference the bomb tests in their song "I Found that Essence Rare," writing "See the girl on the TV dressed in a bikini / She doesn't think so, but she's dressed for the H-bomb."

See also

• Bikini (a type of swimsuit named after the island)
• Flag of Bikini Atoll
• Operation Crossroads
• Operation Ivy
• Operation Castle
• Operation Castle Bravo
• Daigo Fukuryu Maru

References

External links

• 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.
• Radio Bikini : Oscar-nominated 1987 documentary on the 1946 atomic bomb tests on Bikini Atoll and the effects on the Bikinians as well as the US sailors who witnessed the tests.
• Het Einde van de Wereld The End of the World (1995/VPRO-tv/Theo Uittenbogaard) a Dutch documentary on the history of the people of the island Rongelap, who were evacuated due to fallout from the Bikini nuclear tests and their hearing by a Senate Committee in Washington DC
• Annotated bibliography for Bikini Atoll from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Marshall Islands

Ailinginae | Ailinglaplap | Ailuk | Arno | Aur | Bikar | Bikini | Ebon | Enewetak | Erikub | Jabat | Jaluit | Jemo | Kili | Kwajalein | Lae | Lib | Likiep | Majuro | Maloelap | Mejit | Mili | Nadikdik | Namorik | Namu | Pokaakku | Rongelap | Rongerik | Toke | Ujae | Ujelang | Utirik | Wotho | Wotje Coordinates: 11°35′N, 165°23′E

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