The Cactus Domes place in History There is probably no better place to raise awareness of the plight of the orphans

of the 2011 Japanese earthquake than the Cactus Dome on Enewetak Atoll. Why the Cactus Dome, and what the heck is it most people will ask. And, most people will probably ask wheres Enewetak Atoll anyway? Bikini! Everyone has heard of Bikini, thats after all a small bathing suit! Well, yes and no, its a small bathing suit. The history of Enewetak, Japan and the United States are inextricably intertwined. Germany had political and economic control of the Marshall Islands prior to WWI. The League of Nations gave Japan political control after WWI. Enewetak during the Japanese administration became an important military base, in addition to Kwajalein. The Marshallese remember a very strict but very efficient governance. Beatings were not uncommon if ones work wasnt up to expectations. However, the educational and transportation systems were efficient. In February 1944 the fighting came to Enewetak and the several hundred Marshallese were caught in the cross fire between two warring nations. They recall hearing orders being given by an American Commander to throw a hand grenade in to a bunker where some Marshallese had sought shelter from the fighting. After the fighting ended in 4 days what had once been beautiful islands was now utter unimaginable devastation. Gone were their homes. Gone were the coconut and breadfruit trees upon which they depended for food. This devastation was total not unlike the tsunami that ravaged coastal Japan in 2011. Gone your home, your food, your family. Everything gone. Gone too were 11% of your family and friends killed in the fighting. Collateral damage. The Americans left for a very brief period of time. The war in the Pacific ended after the dropping of the second and third atomic bombs, ever exploded, on Japan. Peace treaties were signed between the former warring nations. Japan was rebuilt and eventually became an important economic powerhouse. But, peace was not to return to the Marshall Islands so soon. Rather it was decided to use remote Enewetak and another nearby atoll as testing grounds for nuclear and thermonuclear devices. The population of the Marshalls was small and the islands remote. What better place to test these devices? Before further testing could begin in the Marshalls people who had lived from time immemorial on two atolls had to be moved. It was inconsequential that these people needed to be moved to those who decided that they had to move. Testing of these devices is what mattered. Who cared that the places they were moved to were smaller and had fewer resources than the places they lived? Who cared the impact the moves had on their traditional lifestyle? About the time atomic testing began in the Marshalls in July 1946 two Frenchmen were designing new small and very revealing bathing suits for women. One bathing suit was called the atome since the atom was then the smallest known particle around. That name didnt stick since it didnt have the romantic appeal that the name Bikini the atoll where the 4th & 5th devices were David A Anderson
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The Cactus Domes place in History

exploded did. Thus, the name for small, tight fitting, bathing suits and undergarments came to be named. Multiple tests of devices were conducted, and hundreds of millions of dollars were spent , at both Enewetak and Bikini atolls. Small islands were vaporized in nano-seconds and became large craters. Instantly where a small island had been on a beautiful tropical coral reef would be a large bomb crater. These islands were inherited not bought and sold. To people who had inherited rights to these were islands they were important to your familys very existence. An environmental disaster was perpetrated on the islands that once had been home to some very proud people. It wasnt just everyone who knew how to make outrigger canoes and sail them between other islands without the aid of electronic technology! One such bomb crater created during the testing of a thermonuclear device code named Cactus was chosen as the storage site for some highly radioactive debris from Bikini and Rongelap atolls. The Cactus crater is at the location where two nations bitterly fought and involved the innocent third party, the people of Enewetak. To this site people, united in Peace, will go and decorate a symbol of an unnatural disaster so that all can see and remember the orphans of a natural disaster perpetrated against the people of one of those two warring nations.

References: McHenry, Donald F. 1975. Micronesia: Trust Betrayed. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. New York. The People of Enewetak living on Ujelang. 1975-77. Stories and recollections; memory of David A Anderson, Peace Corps Volunteer. White, Geoffrey M. and Lamont Lindstrom. 1989. The Pacific Theater. Island Representations of World War II. University of Hawaii Press. Honolulu.

David A Anderson

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