Preparation
A series of three tests was recommended to study the effects of nuclear weapons on ships, equipment, and materiel. Test site requirements were specified:
- A protected anchorage at least 6 miles (9.7 km) wide
- A site which was uninhabited, or nearly so
- A location at least 300 miles (480 km) from the nearest city
- Weather patterns without severe cold and violent storms
- Predictable winds directionally uniform from sea level to 60,000 feet (18,000 m)
- Predictable water currents away from shipping lanes, fishing areas, and inhabited shores
- Controlled by the United States
Timing became critical because Navy manpower required to move the ships was being released from active duty, and civilian scientists knowledgeable about atomic weapons were leaving federal employment for college teaching positions.
On January 24, Admiral Blandy named the Bikini Lagoon as the site for the two 1946 detonations, Able and Baker. The deep underwater test, Charlie scheduled for early 1947, would take place in the ocean west of Bikini. Of the possible places given serious consideration, including Ecuador's Galápagos Islands, Bikini offered the most remote location with a large protected anchorage, suitable weather, and a small, easily moved population. It had come under exclusive United States control on January 15, when Truman declared the United States to be the sole trustee of all the Pacific islands captured from Japan during the war. On February 6, the survey ship Sumner began blasting channels through the Bikini reef into the lagoon. The local residents were not told why.
The 167 Bikini islanders first learned their fate four days later, on Sunday, February 10, when Navy Commodore Ben H. Wyatt, United States military governor of the Marshall Islands, arrived by seaplane from Kwajalein. Referring to Biblical stories which they had learned from Protestant missionaries, he compared them to "the children of Israel whom the Lord saved from their enemy and led into the Promised Land." He also claimed it was "for the good of mankind and to end all world wars." There was no signed agreement, but he reported by cable "their local chieftain, referred to as King Juda, arose and said that the natives of Bikini were very proud to be part of this wonderful undertaking." On March 6, Commodore Wyatt attempted to stage a filmed reenactment of the February 10 meeting in which the Bikinians had given away their atoll. Despite repeated promptings and at least seven retakes, Juda confined his on-camera remarks to, "We are willing to go. Everything is in God's hands." The next day, a Navy LST moved them and their belongings 128 miles (206 km) east to the uninhabited Rongerik Atoll, to begin a so-far permanent exile. Three Bikini families returned in 1974 but were evacuated again in 1978 because of radioactivity in their bodies from four years of eating contaminated food. As of 2011, the atoll remains unpopulated.
Read more about this topic: Operation Crossroads
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