century ghost town

Islanders return to a 21st century ghost town

By Jim Hall of Micronesian Hews Service

When the MS Militobi arrived at Japtan Island on the morning of March 15, 1977, with 56 Marshallese from Ujelang Atoll, it marked the beginning of the end of the American era on Enewetak Atoll.

Enewetak, known to most Americans as a symbol of the hot war in the Pacific in the 40s, and the cold war and atomic testing of the 50s, is being turned back to the peo ple who left here on December 20, 1947, in a naval LST (Landing Ship Troops) for Ujelang Atoll, 124 miles to the southwest.

On December 2, 1947, the US Government had notified the Security Council of the United Na tions that Enewetak Atoll was to be closed to the world for security reasons in order that “necessary ex periments relating to nuclear fis sion” could be conducted at the 30-

square-mile atoll.

The people of Enewetak moved to Ujelang on the basis of an agreement which was to give them full land rights to the uninhabited atoll. But the 136 Enewetakese became 450 by 1976, and Ujelang was no longer adequate. The US had ended its atomic testing programme in 1958, and its other scientific and technical programmes were slowly being phased out. There was a growing sentiment among the Enewetak peo ple to return to their ancestral home.

On September 16, 1976, the Ac ting High Commissioner of the Trust Territory, Mr Peter T. Cole man, signed a series of agreements which would begin the return pro cess and allow for a SUS2O million clean-up programme to get under way.

What will the Enewetak people find upon their return 9 The main is land of Enewetak is dominated by a mighty 8100-foot concrete runway built for use by bombers in World War 11. The other half of the island is crowded with anodised aluminium Butler buildings of every shape and size warehouses, living quarters, mess halls and clubs. Fuel tanks, water towers, a huge hangar, salt

water conversion units and concrete bunkers also dot the two-and-a-half mile strip which lies between the deep blue Pacific and the aqua-blue lagoon.

The island of Japtan, where the first returnees will live, has numerous Butler buildings, bunkers, communications sites, animal pens and other reminders of the nuclear testing programme. It underwent an intensive clean-up and rehabilitation for the first ar rivals. A Hawaiian luau was held for the arrival of the Militobi.

Those returning for the first time probably felt like space voyagers who had passed through a time warp. Their old world seemed to have aged several hundred years during their 29-year absence.

They were well aware of some other changes. Traditionally, the northern islands of the atoll were occupied by the Enjebi people, and the southern islands by the En ewetak people. Only the southern is lands are now considered habitable.

Two northern islands were vapourised during the tests, one during the explosion of the world’s first hydrogen bomb in 1952 and the second six years later. Enjebi, the main northern island, was inun dated by a 100-foot wall of water generated by the hydrogen bomb blast, and is not considered habita ble for another 30 years. The island of Runit, near the line dividing the north and south, is contaminated by radio-active plutonium and is off limits for the indefinite future.

This poses a serious political

question. Despite frequent inter

marriages, will the Enjebi people wish to live on the islands which tra ditionally belong to the Enewetak people, or will they choose to re main on Ujelang 9 Another question: what will become of the massive scientific and technological complex on Enewetak Island, which once housed over 5000 technicians, but is now a 21st century ghost town situated amidst a timeless environment where lazy trade winds swirl coral dust around the coconut palms 9