In order for the United States to use the tiny Enewetak Atoll for its bomb testing, it had to relocate the native inhabitants. Their own memory of their people is rooted at Enewetak, the island was their home, their heart, their culture, their family. Their small society lived in peaceful isolation, each family group with its own piece of land that was passed down from generation to generation. The Enewetakese were the island and the island was them.
Chief Johannes will never forget the day in 1947 when the American Navy ship came to take them away: A man told us: "You cannot protest or fight. You are like the rabbit fish wriggling on the end of a spear. You can struggle all you want, but there's nothing you can do to change this."
From their exile on the island of Ujelang, the Enewetakans witnessed the detonation of Ivy Mike: Chief Johannes remembers the day vividly. "We were told to look in the direction of Enewetak. Those of us who did will never forget what they saw. First, a bright flash rising up from the water; then it appeared as though the sea had caught fire. A great, huge fire rose up into the sky and a noise was heard that was louder than any thunder.. . .What we saw caused us to worry about what was happening on our atoll, but we were told that we could not go there to see. Instead, we continued to wait."
They would wait thirty years to go home.
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