Marshall Islands

Two chains of atolls that were bombed sixty-seven times by the country now responsible for their defence. Marshallese navigators developed stick charts mapping ocean swell patterns, a wave-piloting technique unique in the world. Spain claimed the islands, Germany bought them in 1885, Japan took them in 1914 and fortified them, and the United States captured them in 1944 at Kwajalein and Enewetak. From 1946 to 1958 the Americans used them as a nuclear testing ground: sixty-seven detonations, including Castle Bravo at Bikini in 1954, which was two and a half times as powerful as predicted and blanketed inhabited Rongelap in fallout. Bikini and Enewetak populations were removed and have never permanently returned; the Runit Dome, a concrete cap over contaminated debris on Enewetak, is cracking as the sea rises around it. The islands became independent in 1986 under a Compact of Free Association giving the United States military rights, including the Kwajalein missile range, in exchange for funding and free entry to America. Marshallese have emigrated in such numbers that a large community lives in Arkansas. Compensation awarded by a claims tribunal has gone mostly unpaid. Majuro is the capital. The country registers one of the world's largest merchant shipping fleets. The country has twenty-nine atolls and five isolated islands. Its exclusive economic zone is roughly two million square kilometres. Bikini atoll is a World Heritage site listed for the tests. The bikini swimsuit was named after it days after the first detonation. Rongelap was resettled in 1957 and abandoned again in 1985 when residents concluded it was still unsafe.

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