TGA–Bikini Atoll

we are born without souls.  The world gives them to us.

Europa, a moon and an island

the empire that dreams

The Golden Archipelago opens with Meridian; and Meridian opens with The National Anthem of Bikini (Pikini) Atoll

I jab ber emol, aet, I jab ber ainmon

No longer can I stay; it’s true

It was written by 1947  by Lore Kessibuki, not on Bikini but on Rongerik Atoll, where the exiled Bikinians were starving to death.

Gone from the house

the hidden life

On March 7, 1946 the residents of Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands (in Micronesia) were evacuated to Rongerik Atoll (125 miles east and 1/6 the size of Bikini).  The purpose of the evacuation

the good of mankind and to end all world wars

was to allow the U. S. military to test nuclear bombs in the region.

we call back to our old familiar life

We will go believing that everything is in the hands of God.

I am life breathed in the radiant lie

Since perhaps 5000 years ago there have been people in Micronesia.   There is something about that sort of time and about a place and a being in that place. The people of Bikini belonged.  On Rongerik  the Bikinian exiles suffered starvation and malnutrition.  There was a reason Rongerik was uninhabited–the evil spirits and the lack of food. The coconut and breadfruit plants did not provide enough food, the fish poisoned the people.  The U.S. and the military was slow to react and then reacted 2 years after the original displacement by moving the Bikinians not once more but two more times.

Ultimately, 23 nuclear devices were detonated at Bikini. You can watch some on YouTube

As soon as the war ended, we located the one spot on earth that hadn’t been touched by the war and blew it to hell.

This was, of course, about dominoes; not about humans, nor anything else living.

There’s virtually no radiation left and we can find no discernible effect on either plant or animal life.

higher levels of radioactivity than originally thought

The Bikinians are still waiting to return–their Atoll is permeated by radiation.  A cleanup is underway, but is moving slowly because, while scraping the top layer of the Atoll and removing it would remove most of the contaminants, it would also render the Atoll a virtual wasteland.

Ao emotlok rounni im lo ijen ion/ijen ebin joe a eankin/ijen jikin ao emotlok im ber im mad ie

My spirit leaves drifting around and far away/Where it becomes caught in a current of immense power–/And only then do I find tranquility

all will be carried away

*@*@*

While the Bikinians were evacuated, those residents of Rongelap Atoll, 150 miles away, were not.

I was laid among the waves

I was lifted from the shoreline

The clouded eyes dilate

Castle Bravo, a thermonuclear hydrogen bomb, was detonated on March 1, 1954 on Bikini.  Bravo was/is the most powerful weapon ever exploded by the United States

And that means, I suppose, by anyone.

Both Bikinians on Rongelik and individuals of Rongelap were exposed to nuclear fallout.

Later, as the entire village gathered, they watched the radioactive gray ash fall on them, their houses and their children.

The effects of which were carefully monitored by military scientists–although the “test” subjects were never asked for consent.

John did not express any anger, only deep sorrow that his one-year-old daughter died from leukemia soon after Bravo.

conduct a scientific study of radiation injuries to human beings.

The heavens hang limp and the stars release

themselves from their bond with the moon and night

Here is a video of the Castle Bravo Explosion

this is the way the world ends, not with a bang

They had built the first device under the shadow of Hitler, and they dedicated it to him.

—

quotes from Shearwater, Commodore Ben H. Wyatt, King Juda, The Atomic Energy Commission, Robinson Jeffers, Bob Hope, Ingborg Bachman, John via Randall Bell, Defense Nuclear Agency Report, Lydia Millet, T. S. Eliot

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