Cold Open

It’s 5:29 AM, on July 16th, 1945, aboard an American B-29 bomber circling a remote part of New Mexico.

Captain William Parsons kneels between the plane’s pilot and co-pilot as he looks out of the cockpit’s lower windows. Hazy clouds beneath the bomber obscure his view of the ground, but Captain Parsons knows that twenty miles away is White Sands, a military testing range. He and his crew have orders not to get any closer or drop any lower—otherwise they may unwittingly become victims of the world’s first atomic bomb.

Three years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the US military to begin developing a new type of weapon: a bomb that used a nuclear reaction to cause overwhelming destruction. Thanks to the vast resources thrown at the Manhattan Project, as the research program was known, a prototype atomic bomb was built. And today, the US Army is conducting its first test detonation—and Captain Parsons is tasked with recording the explosion from the air.

Parsons checks his watch. It’s been calibrated to the second with the mission clock, and it indicates that detonation is imminent. Captain Parsons orders the pilot and co-pilot to don their polarized goggles… and then the cockpit plunges into darkness as Captain Parsons pulls down his own protective mask. But despite the thick black glass, a few seconds later, a bright white flash forces Captain Parsons to squeeze his eyes shut. As the blinding light fades, he reopens his eyes to see that the entire sky around them has turned an intense orange and a huge red fireball is rising through the clouds over the test site.

Then the plane jolts as though flying through turbulence, and the pilot shouts out that the shockwave is affecting his controls. Captain Parsons doesn’t reply. All his attention is on the huge mushroom-shaped cloud blooming into the sky ahead of them. The test has been successful. And the United States has just ushered in a new era of warfare.

Less than a month later, Captain William Parsons will be back aboard a B-29 bomber—only this time he will be more than just an observer. Flying over Japan in the final weeks of World War Two, Captain Parsons will arm an atomic bomb moments before it’s dropped on the city of Hiroshima. After the war, Parsons will be promoted to Rear Admiral and appointed to command a new research project developing new and even more powerful nuclear weapons. And it will be under Parsons’ watch that one group of Pacific Islanders will lose their home and way of life when they’re evacuated from Bikini Atoll ahead of nuclear tests on March 7th, 1946.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is March 7th, 1946: The Evacuation of Bikini Atoll.

Act One

It’s March 7th, 1946, on Bikini Atoll, a remote island chain in the Western Pacific Ocean, eight months after the first nuclear weapon was detonated.

The island's leader, Chief Juda, clutches a handrail as he carefully steps from a jetty onto a US Navy landing craft. As sailors haul in the gangplank, Juda notices that most of the other passengers have taken seats that face back toward land. Juda sits with them and tries to memorize the view of the tropical island that he’s called home his entire life—because he has no idea when he’ll be allowed back.

After the first nuclear tests in New Mexico, atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing World War Two to an end. But the United States was wary that a former ally in that fight, the Soviet Union, would soon become an enemy in a new conflict. The U.S. military sought to stay ahead of its rival by developing even more powerful weapons. But as the bombs grew bigger, army chiefs decided they needed somewhere remote to test them, far away from the American mainland. They chose Bikini Atoll, a former Japanese possession that came under U.S. control in the postwar settlement.

So, a few weeks ago, a US Navy officer traveled to Bikini Atoll and addressed the islands’ 167 inhabitants. The officer asked whether the Bikinians would be willing to temporarily leave their home to allow the United States to test new weapons. He assured the islanders that the experimental bombs were vital to ensure the balance of power around the globe, and that they could return as soon as possible. With a heavy heart, Chief Juda told the Navy officer that his people were willing to go if it was for the greater good of the world. And now, the time for their departure has arrived. Every inhabitant of the Bikini Atoll has packed their most valued possessions and boarded this landing craft.

After a voyage lasting several hours, Chief Juda and his fellow Bikinians then disembark on uninhabited Rongerik Atoll, more than 125 miles away. Many are unhappy with their new home from the start. According to traditional folktales, Rongerik is inhabited by evil spirits, and although the Americans leave a supply of provisions, the Bikinians soon discover that their new home is inadequate for their needs. Rongerik Atoll is only one-sixth the size of their old home. Its trees produce less fruit, and the waters of the lagoon are home to fewer edible fish. Soon, the rations left by the U.S. Navy run out and the Bikinians begin to starve.

So, within only two months of their arrival, Chief Juda begs the American officials to move his people back to Bikini Atoll. But their home has already changed beyond recognition. U.S. military engineers have built quarters, workshops, science stations, and leisure facilities for up to 42,000 personnel who are all descending on the atoll now, to witness nuclear experiments.

The target for the first tests is a fleet of dozens of decommissioned warships. The U.S. military has seen how effective their new bombs are on land. Now they want to see how useful they might be at sea. On July 1st, 1946, the first detonation takes place. A bomb similar to the device dropped on Nagasaki is released over the Bikini Atoll lagoon. But it lands 700 yards off-target, and only five ships from the fleet sink in the explosion. So, twenty-four days later, a second bomb is tested. This device isn’t dropped from a plane though - instead it's detonated in the water directly underneath the test fleet.

The resulting explosion sinks eight ships, including one landing craft that’s instantly vaporized by the blast. But the second test also releases more radiation than expected, hampering cleanup efforts. As a result of the high levels of radioactive contamination, a third nuclear weapon test at Bikini Atoll is canceled, and Chief Juda is informed that his people’s return will be delayed indefinitely. As the U.S. engineers and scientists sail for home, their mission accomplished, the Bikinians are left to cope on the unsuitable Rongerik Atoll, which only grows more inhospitable when a forest fire destroys many of the islands’ coconut trees. But still they will not be allowed back to their home islands—because the Americans will one day return to this remote part of the Pacific for even more test detonations on Bikini Atoll. These newest explosions will dwarfed the previous, and the islands will be struck by a force bigger than any man has created before.

Act Two

It’s 6:45 AM, on March 1st, 1954, in a bunker on Bikini Atoll, eight years after the last nuclear weapons tests on the islands.

An American scientist waits at his instrument panel as an officer methodically goes down a checklist, ensuring every person in the bunker is ready. At the officer's call, the scientist indicates that his systems are good to go—and his finger hovers over the button that will begin another round of nuclear weapon tests.

In the eight years since the first detonations at Bikini Atoll, the global geopolitical situation has changed radically. As the United States once feared, a Cold War has begun with former allies, the Soviet Union. The Soviets responded to deteriorating relations by testing their first nuclear weapon and quickly progressed to a hydrogen bomb that was nearly thirty times larger than the American bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Now, the US military is determined to stay ahead in the arms race with a new generation of weapons—and today marks the first test of a new dry-fuel thermonuclear bomb.

The test is codenamed “Castle Bravo.” In the bunker on Bikini Atoll, the order is given, and the American scientist presses his button to detonate this new weapon. The bomb itself is nearly twenty miles away, so there’s no immediate indication of the blast to the personnel inside the bunker. But outside, it is a different matter. A nuclear fireball has lit up the morning sky and unleashed a violent wind laced with radioactive dust. Observers on the surface hurry for shelter, crowding into the scientists’ bunker.

There, the scientists examine the instruments and piece together what has happened: the explosion from this new style of nuclear weapon was far more powerful than predicted. Alarms sound as detectors outside the bunker show radiation levels continuing to rise. The personnel are told they must remain inside for their own safety. But even hours later, radiation level still haven’t lowered enough and eventually those in the bunker must abandon their equipment and venture out in radiation suits to be evacuated by helicopter.

But the personnel in the bunker are not the only ones affected by the radioactive fallout. Out at sea, a U.S. Navy tanker with a crippled engine limps away from the atoll, but not fast enough to avoid the dust. Elsewhere a Japanese fishing vessel is also caught in the open, and since its crew of twenty-three men have no warning of the danger they’re in, they take no precautions. They linger in the fallout zone, scooping up the radioactive dust with their bare hands as it falls on their boat. And once back on shore, every single crew member displays symptoms of radiation sickness, with one of the fishermen dying.

Meanwhile, the radioactive dust continues to spread, reaching islands that were originally predicted to be safe. Carried on the wind, this dust drifts down among coconut trees like flakes of snow. The danger zone soon even includes Rongerik Atoll, where a handful of Bikinians still reside after they were evacuated from their original homes eight years prior. Now, for the second time in less than a decade, they’re forced by American armed forces to relocate to other islands.

But it seems nowhere is entirely safe. The US government wants to keep the details of the nuclear test under wraps, but they’re forced to issue a global warning as high-altitude winds carry the radioactive dust from Bikini Atoll all around the world.

The enormous bomb is the largest ever detonated by the United States. Eventually, its traces are found on every continent. The widespread fallout prompts protests, but the U.S. military resists calls to ban atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. As the Cold War continues, the American government feels it cannot slow down the development of new tools for its armory. And it certainly can’t let the Soviets gain an edge.

So, over the next four years, the U.S. military detonates another twenty-one nuclear bombs at Bikini Atoll. Eventually, the tests will come to an end, and the American servicemen and scientists will at last depart the remote Pacific island. They will leave behind a land scarred by nuclear fire, unable to support human life. But that won’t deter some of the original inhabitants of Bikini Atoll, who will never forget the homes they lost or the promises that were made and will remain determined that one day they will return to the land of their ancestors.

Act Three

It’s early 1971, on Bikini Atoll, seventeen years after the Castle Bravo nuclear weapon test.

A middle-aged Bikinian steps off a boat and onto a narrow wooden jetty. He rushes along the walkway and drops to his knees on the beach, feeling the sand of his homeland for the first time in twenty-five years.

His journey home began three years ago, when U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that Bikini Atoll’s original inhabitants would finally be allowed to return to the islands. The process of dismantling U.S. equipment and cleaning up the island was a slow one, but that did not deter around 200 of the original Bikinian evacuees and their descendants from choosing to return home.

The middle-aged Bikinian sets up his family in a house built for him by the departing Americans. But despite his initial joy, it’s not long before several of the returning islanders fall ill with the symptoms of radiation sickness.

American scientists return to the island to check whether there are faults in the decontamination process. Their tests show, that the islands’ coconut crabs and breadfruits still contain high levels of radiation. Further analysis suggests that the top two feet of soil on the atoll remain dangerous, and the US government advises the islanders not to eat any food grown on the islands. The Bikinians comply but continue to fall ill despite eating only imported food. Numerous miscarriages, stillbirths and genetic abnormalities are recorded before the culprit is finally found - the islands’ drinking water, is radioactive too.

The levels of contamination mean there’s no way any human being can live on the islands. So, eight years after their return, the last few Bikinians are evacuated from the Atoll once again. After they go, the islands are declared officially uninhabitable.

Today, Bikini Atoll remains unoccupied apart from a handful of caretakers and scientists. The devastating weapons that were detonated there were never called upon in a real conflict. But that does not mean there were no victims of the bombs. The people of Bikini Atoll and their descendants had to either migrate to the United States or find homes elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean. They never returned permanently to their ancestral homeland after they were evacuated by the U.S. military to make way for nuclear tests on March 7th, 1946.

Outro

Next on History Daily. March 8th, 1917. Demonstrations in St. Petersburg mark the beginning of the February Revolution and the first stage of the Russian Revolution.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Edited by Dorian Merina.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.