Preparation
During World War II, Bikini Atoll was home to a small Japanese radar installation . In 1945, the last year of fighting, the U.S. landed a small force to secure the site. The battle was brief and had no strategic significance. As the war ended, the United States decided that Bikini Atoll would be suitable for nuclear detonation tests, and shortly before Christmas 1945 it was selected to be the site of the world's fourth and fifth atomic bomb detonations. (Note that the first atomic bomb was detonated at the Trinity Site in New Mexico, and the second and third bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.) But before the bombs could be tested the government first had to find a home for the displaced natives on Bikini. The U.S. government promised the natives that they would have their island back in a couple of months.The crew of the USS LST 861 temporarily evacuated many of the natives to the island of Rongerik.
To prepare the island and the atoll for testing the United States Naval Construction Battalion (better known as the Seabees) was flown in to help establish a credible base on the island. Several derelict tanks, bulldozers, and other military machinery were placed on the island to test the ability of such vehicles to withstand nuclear attack. The Air Force left 150 airplanes on the island's airstrip for testing purposes as well.
In addition to military equipment, the United States Navy moved 250 naval vessels to the atoll, including the Pennsylvania, New York, Arkansas, Nevada, Saratoga, Independence, Nagato (a Japanese battleship), and the Prinz Eugen (a German cruiser) to test the durability of ships to withstand a nuclear impact. Lab animals were also purchased and placed on several ships, and would later be tested for radiation poisoning.
Back in the United States, the general public grew worried over the planned testing. Some people worried that the bomb's power would be felt all the way back in the United States. Others believed the bomb would create a hole in the earth. To help ease these fears, the Navy created several information packets and began broadcasting over "Radio Bikini" in an effort to calm the public's fears and rally support for the tests.
During the final preparation, the displaced islanders began to protest their move; however, they were unsuccessful in preventing the "shot."
Read more about this topic: Bikini Atomic Experiments
Famous quotes containing the word preparation:
“It’s sad but true that if you focus your attention on housework and meal preparation and diapers, raising children does start to look like drudgery pretty quickly. On the other hand, if you see yourself as nothing less than your child’s nurturer, role model, teacher, spiritual guide, and mentor, your days take on a very different cast.”
—Joyce Maynard (20th century)
“With memory set smarting like a reopened wound, a man’s past is not simply a dead history, an outworn preparation of the present: it is not a repented error shaken loose from the life: it is a still quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter flavours and the tinglings of a merited shame.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Living each day as a preparation for the next is an exciting way to live. Looking forward to something is much more fun than looking back at something—and much more constructive. If we can prepare ourselves so that we never have to think, “Oh, if I had only known, if I had only been ready,” our lives can really be the great adventure we so passionately want them to be.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)