FACT FILE
Number of Islets: 17. Population: n/a. Land Area: 0.65 square miles. Lagoon Area: 56 square miles. Yacht permit fee: You need to buy a permit for both Rongelap Atoll and Rongerik Atoll. Each are $25. Mayor: James Matayoshi (Office Phone: 625-7177).
Mike and Jennifer Gough of the yacht Mahili spent a few days in Rongerik in late 2014. Their photos are above and here’s what they had to say about the remote atoll:
“I have attached a few pics of Rongerik. Unfortunately one is of some rubbish left behind by tourists. (I gave much of it a deep sea burial). We enjoyed the Ratik Chain and recommend December/January for anyone who likes the wildlife and isolation and does not mind a bit of breeze. Those months coincide with roosting season for albatross, frigate birds, and terns to name just a few of the species we saw. Because we often found ourselves in the close proximity to Minke whales going a similar way to us I suspect those months also correspond to their migratory patterns.”
Rongerik’s claim to fame is that it was the temporary location from March 7, 1946 through March 14, 1948 of the people of Bikini. The following is an excerpt from Jack Niedenthal’s book For the Good of Mankind:
In May of 1947, to make the Bikinians situation on Rongerik even more serious, a huge fire damaged many of the coconut trees. By July, when a medical officer from the U.S. visited the island, the Bikinian people were found to be suffering severely from malnutrition. A team of U.S. investigators determined in the fall, after a visit to Rongerik, that the island had inadequate supplies of food and water and that the Bikini people should be moved from Rongerik without delay. The U.S. Navy was harshly criticized in the world press for neglecting the Bikini people on Rongerik. Harold Ickes, a reporter, stated in his 1947 syndicated column “Man to Man” that, “The natives are actually and literally starving to death.”
Immediate preparations began for the transfer of the Bikinians to Ujelang Atoll in the western Marshalls. In November a handful of young Bikinian men traveled to Ujelang, and with the help of Navy Seabees, they began to arrange a community area and to construct housing. At the end of the year, however, the U.S. selected Enewetak Atoll as a second nuclear weapons test site. The Navy then decided that it would be easier to move the Enewetak people to Ujelang despite the fact that the Bikinians had built all the housing and held high hopes that they would be relocated there.
In January of 1948, University of Hawaii anthropologist, Dr. Leonard Mason, traveled to Rongerik at the request of the Trust Territory High Commissioner to report on the status of the Bikinians living there. Horrified at the sight of the withering islanders, Mason immediately requested a medical officer along with food supplies to be flown into Rongerik.
In March of 1948, after two unpleasant years on Rongerik, the Bikinians were transported to Kwajalein Atoll where they were housed in tents on a strip of grass beside the massive cement airstrip used by the U.S. military. The Bikinians fell into yet another debate among themselves about alternative locations soon after they settled on Kwajalein [photo, right].
It was in June of 1948 that the Bikinians chose Kili Island in the southern Marshalls because the island was not ruled by a paramount king, or iroij, and was uninhabited. This choice ultimately doomed their traditional diet and lifestyle, which were both based on lagoon fishing.
To read more of the book or to buy the book, click below to go to the Bikini site: Welcome to Bikini Atoll
