Back to Bikini to Commemorate Bravo Blast
On March 2, 2004, the people of Bikini Atoll commemorated Bikini Day by flying 50 people to Bikini Atoll for a ceremony in their ancestral burial ground. Accompanying over 30 Bikinian elders who were originally moved from Bikini in 1946 was RMI President Kessai Note and his wife, Speaker of the Nitijela Litokwa Tomeing and his wife, Minister of Foreign Affairs Gerald Zackios and his wife, Minister John Silk and his wife, U.S. Ambassador Greta Morris, Republic of China Ambassador Lien-gene Chen, Charge d'Affaires for Japan Akira Ikeda, and RMI Ambassador to the US Banny Debrum.
The Bikinians were represented by Senator Tomaki Juda, Mayor Eldon Note and several Council members.
After a short lunch, the delegation gathered in the burial ground where remarks were made by President Kessai Note, U.S. Ambassador Greta Morris, Senator Tomaki Juda, Mayor Eldon Note Speaker Litokwa Tomeing and Trust Liaison for the people of Bikini, Jack Niedenthal. Most of the remarks surrounded the 50th anniversary of the Bravo shot of March 1, 1954, and also the 58th anniversary of the people of Bikini leaving their homeland in 1946. It was a very emotional event for many of the elders, some of which had not been back to Bikini since 1946.
On behalf of the United States, U.S. Ambassador Greta Morris expressed regret about what had happened to the people of Bikini and the people of the Marshall Islands as a result of the U.S. Nuclear testing that occurred from 1946 to 1958 on Bikini and Enewetak atolls. She also pledged that the U.S. would continue to support the people of Bikini in their quest to return to their homeland.
After the short ceremony, the delegation was taken on a tour of Bikini Island, where they were able to see the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories experimental gardens, the tourist resort and other facilities.
--News and photos by Jack Niedenthal, Liaison for
Bikini Atoll.
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View the photos of the historic visit to Bikini Atoll by clicking
HERE.
(All photos copyrighted and cannot be used without permission of Jack Niedenthal)
