THE DESTRUCTION OF PARADISE
Alexander, William J.
The destruction of paradise America's legacy in Micronesia William J. Alexander At the end of World War II, the United States found itself in control of the islands of Micronesia, stretched...
...Whereas in the outer islands a single sect (United Church of Christ) serves to unify the people, on Ebeye multiple sects (United Church of Christ, Roman Catholic, Assembly of God, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Bahai) are engaged in fierce competition, which serves only to divide and disrupt...
...The medical care we introduced has been instrumental in a population surge from 10,000 in 1944 to 27,000 now — more than the traditional subsistence methods may be able to support...
...Trusteeship expires in 1981...
...Kwajalein Atoll is the site of the U.S...
...Uterik had similar results, although no leukemia has been reported there...
...Consider the Marshall Islands, the easternmost district of the Trust Territory...
...Under the United Nations Charter, the United States is required to "recognize the principle that the interests of the inhabitants...
...Alcoholism is a serious problem...
...A later study, done in 1973-74, raised certain doubts and reservations about the safety of the people, who were by this time bewildered, frustrated, and angry...
...the atoll has neither roads nor electricity...
...By the end of the 1960s, the United States had "rehabilitated" Bikini...
...by a Navy doctor, the Bikinians were removed to Kwajalein for medical treatment and recuperation...
...The move was made in August 1978...
...are paramount, and accept as a sacred trust the obligation to promote to the utmost...
...The year 1975 saw 709,144 cans of beer legally imported for consumption by a fraction of the 7,000 inhabitants...
...From 1961 to 1966, the people of Lib Island were removed to safety, as their island was located in the impact area and therefore in danger of debris falling from the sky...
...They, too, had been in danger from falling missile fragments...
...It has become customary for each singing group to have a highly developed "theme," complete with props...
...The Bikini people, Eniwetok people, and Kwajalein people each consider that their own members share things in common to the exclusion of other Marshallese...
...One Rongelapese has died of leukemia...
...Since 1965 the people from most of the inhabited islands within Kwajalein Atoll have been living on Ebeye, an islet adjacent to Missile Range Headquarters...
...Another third lives on crowded Ebeye, next to the Army Missile Range Headquarters...
...It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the United States has abused that trust...
...In the case of the Rongelapese, this displacement lasted three years, while Rongelap "cooled off...
...We have taught them to want more than they have ever had, but we have done little for them except what was in our strategic self-interest...
...Later that year, the people were moved again, this time to Kili, in the southern Marshalls...
...Young people have little interest in the old ways or the outer island life, but there is no future for them on Ebeye...
...The people continue to lose the traditional skills that have allowed them to survive over the centuries...
...On this day one group had, as a theme, "God destroys all evil...
...Ultimately more significant than the bombs and missiles have been the detrimental effects caused by the imposition of an alien economy...
...What will happen to the Marshallese if or when the Kwajalein Missile Range ceases to exist as employer and source of revenue...
...In July the Marshalls voted to secede from the new Micronesia which will exist after the U.S...
...Their prop, an imitation bomb, was suspended from the ceiling of the church...
...In 1969, the main island was declared free of excessive radioactivity, and some of the people were resettled from Kili...
...The American impact on the Marshallese culture was perhaps most tragically depicted in the Christmas pageants on Ebeye in 1975...
...In less than two years, the people on Rongerik were found to be on the verge of starvation, so hungry that they were knowingly consuming several kinds of fish which would make them ill...
...Attracted by the wages paid by the Army's contractor and the lure of what money can buy, the residents of Ebeye live crowded together in conditions which induce disease and cultural disintegration...
...The destruction of paradise America's legacy in Micronesia William J. Alexander At the end of World War II, the United States found itself in control of the islands of Micronesia, stretched across the northern Pacific...
...Of the eighty or more people on Rongelap, about thirty have since developed nodules on the thyroid gland, of which three have been cancerous...
...The secession vote was spearheaded by a small, educated elite affiliated with both the traditional leadership and the Kwajalein "faction...
...Meanwhile, money has lured the people to the cities, but the jobs there may not last, and few people have been taught a skill marketable elsewhere...
...The churches of Ebeye are of little help...
...The resulting cloud of fallout moved eastward, engulfing the unlucky Japanese fishing boat "Lucky Dragon" and the Marshallese atolls of Rongelap, Uterik, and Ailinginae...
...The United States has hardly provided a good role model...
...Whether this leadership will rise above factional self-interest remains to be seen...
...After confirmation of the situation William J. Alexander, an anthropologist at Upsala College in New Jersey, conducted research in the Marshall Islands in 1975- 76, investigating the impact of the Kwajalein Missile Range on Marshallese culture...
...sell-interest' dence and self-sufficiency...
...but we have done little for them except what was in our...
...Among the by-products of the American presence in the Marshalls is the fact that some of the Marshallese have developed sophistication faster than others...
...The people of both atolls — Ailinginae was uninhabited — were evacuated...
...At the time of the explosion, the winds were inaccurately predicted, and the ^ze or "yield" of the blast underestimated...
...Majuro, the district center, provides hundreds of jobs in government, and hundreds more in the banks, restaurants, and stores which depend on government employes...
...The evacuees, living in the district center and eventually provided with monetary compensation, lost their sense of indepen'We have taught them to want more...
...Looking for a place to test atomic bombs in 1946, we moved the 154 residents of Bikini Atoll from their land to Rongerik Atoll, 135 miles away...
...Army's Kwajalein Missile Range...
...In March 1954, American scientists miscalculated the effects of one of the bombs exploded on Bikini...
...Majuro now houses about one-third of the total Marshallese population...
...Since 1967, more than a dozen young men on Ebeye have committed suicide — an act unheard of in the outer islands...
...In 1977, the United States determined that Bikini was indeed unsafe, and plans were made to move the residents back to Kili again...
...As the group sang on Christmas Day, the bomb descended to the floor, bursting open and spewing forth God's power in the form of wads of dollar bills...
...Embarrassed by the possession of these islands but eager to keep them from foreign occupation, the United States created a unique mechanism: In 1947 it became the administering authority of the area, to be known as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands...
...The Eniwetok people have fared better than the Bikinians in many ways, but they, too, have lost their sense of independence...
...About 225 Marshallese were subjected to high levels of radiation...
...In 1947, the United States relocated the 142 residents of Eniwetok Atoll to Ujilang, so that we would have a second site in which to test our nuclear weapons...
...Youth gangs roam the streets...
...Other American military needs have affected the Marshallese people...
...Some of their compensation money was spent on cars and washing machines, which lie rusting on Rongelap...
...Marshallese women from pre-teens up sell their bodies to men from the Missile Range...
...the well-being of the inhabitants...
...Each group now consitutes a faction, represented by American legal talent, whose interests may conflict with that of the Marshallese as a unit...
...The lagoon within this atoll is the target area for intercontinental ballistic missiles launched in California...
Vol. 43 • February 1979 • No. 2
