(28 Aug. 86) The Marshallese people, like many other islanders in the region known as Micronesia, have had the “opportunity” over the last two centuries to learn new languages without ever leaving home.
The Marshallese, according to the best available information, migrated to their islands in the Central Pacific about 2,000 years ago. The islanders had things much to themselves until Europeans discovered them.
In the late 19th century Spain was the dominant power in part of Micronesia. This area consists of three island chains spread out over the Central Pacific, from the Marianas south to the Carolines and east to the Marshalls.
Germany took the Marshalls from Spain in 1885 and purchased the rest in 1899.
Japan seized the area during World War I and, in effect, ruled it as a colony under a League of Nations mandate.
The United States then drove the Japanese out in World War II after many costly battles in its island hopping campaign across the Pacific. In 1947 the U.S. began to administer Micronesia, now also known as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, under the United Nations Trusteeship system. Micronesia was designated the only strategic trust by the UN and has been governed since then by the U.S. with its priorities uppermost in mind, meaning defense concerns.
Toward this end the policy of the U.S. in the region has been one of “denial” to other powers. The economic, social and political development of its trust were largely ignored.
Interest by the American military in Micronesia was strong. In the Marshall Islands, Kwajalein Atoll, with its large lagoon and isolated location, became a staging area for atomic and hydrogen bomb testing in the 1940′s and 50s. Bikini and Enewetak Atolls to the northwest of Kwajalein bore the brunt of these tests and the Marshallese who lived on them were removed to “temporary” homes on other atolls like Kwajalein and on the tiny island of Kili. U.S. nuclear tests on Bikini and Enewetak ended in 1958. (Both spellings, Enewetak or Eniwetok, are acceptable.)
The next year Kwajalein Atoll was chosen as a site for the testing of offensive and defensive missile systems. Over the next few years islanders from Roi-Namur in the northeast corner of the atoll and the central two-thirds of the lagoon were evicted from their homes and resettled on Ennubirr Island near Roi and on already crowded Ebeye Island near Kwajalein Island.
Most of the lagoon is now an impact area for incoming intercontinental ballistic missile payloads. The displaced islanders received little or no compensation from the U.S. government and a vague promise to return their islands at some unspecified date when the testing is complete.
In the past two decades, however, American sponsored education and fledgling experiments in self-government led to an increase in political insight among the Marshallese. Lawsuits, protests and occupation of their home islands brought about significant increases in rent payments, improvement in health care and the construction of public work projects on Ebeye and Ennubirr Islands.
Marshallese refugees from the nuclear contaminated atolls of Bikini, Eniwetok, Rongelap and Utirik received a settlement from the U.S. government, along with promises to clean up the atolls so the people can return someday.
These limited successes were achieved after much effort on the part of the Marshallese. Disagreements still exists on these issues as well as on the question of the future political relationship between the Marshallese and their giant neighbor to the east.
On May 1, 1979, the Marshal Islands Constitution went into effect, providing for a president, a parliament, called the Nitijela and a Council of Iroij (chiefs), who serve mainly as a consultative branch.
At this time, after years of less than harmonious negotiations, the Marshall Islands appears ready to sign the Compact of Free Association with the United States. The main points of this association would allow the Marshall Islands to make decisions regarding its internal affairs but the U.S. would have veto power over decisions involving foreign affairs.
In addition, the U.S. will provide for the defense needs of the islanders and monetary support for a country without the resources to function on its own.
This new political relationship might take place within a few months if no new snags develop. ( I picked up some books at the island library and wrote this so anyone who reads it can have some idea how we got to this point.)
Filed under: Almost Paradise Volume 1
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