The gentle, uncomplaining people of Bikini did not protest the decision to take their atoll away from them, perhaps forever. When American officials told of great atomic explosions that would devastate their paradisal speck of coral, sand and palms, Bikini's Magistrate Juda took counsel. "If the U.S. Government needs to use our houses for the goodness of mankind," Juda decided, "then by the kindness of God we are willing to go."
And so, in the spring of 1946, the 161 inhabitants of Bikini sailed away. They carried a few pandanus leaves for thatch and their Bibles and Congregational hymnals. Their...
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