Welcome to the official website of BIKINI ATOLL

the most notorious island chain on the planet

11º 35'N 165º 23'E

BIKINI ATOLL

There are very few places left in the world that are as mysterious and forbidden as Bikini Atoll. In 1946, this remote chain of islands was subjected to the planet’s 4th, 5th, and 7th nuclear detonations, with explosions large enough to completely vaporize three of its islands. By the time the tests ended in 1958, the United States had detonated 23 nuclear devices in, on, and around the island paradise, with the fallout devastating the land, water, and soil. To this day, these beautiful islands remain unliveable and its people subsist on multiple islands and in the United States, waiting for their chance to return home.

"MORIBA"

Bikinian Flag

The 23 white stars of the Bikinian flag represent the islands of Bikini Atoll.

The 3 black stars in the upper right corner represent the three islands vaporized by the Castle Bravo detonation on March 1, 1954.

The two black stars in the lower right hand corner represent the islands of Ejit and Kili, where the majority of Bikinians in the Marshall Islands reside today.

MEN OTEMJEJ REJ ILO BEIN ANIJ (MORIBA) translates to “Everything is in God’s hands”, which was the response of Bikinian leader, Juda, to U.S. Commodore Ben Wyatt in 1946 when the Americans asked the Bikinians to give up their islands for the “good of mankind”.

Bikinian Anthem

Written in 1946 • Lore Kessibuki (1914-1994)

Play Video

No longer can I stay; it’s true.

No longer can I live in peace and harmony.
No longer can I rest on my sleeping mat and pillow
Because of my island and the life I once knew there.

The thought is overwhelming
Rendering me helpless and in great despair.

My spirit leaves, drifting around and far away
Where it becomes caught in a current of immense power –
And only then do I find tranquility

Mayor's Message

The Honorable Anderson Jibas

A wise man once said: “Three things cannot be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” Here is some truth: In 1946, the United States moved our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers and their families from Bikini Atoll, our lovely homeland, to a small rock in the southern Marshall Islands, a small island called Kili, with no lagoon and no shelter from the ocean. Why? So that the United States could test nuclear bombs, some of which were one-thousand times as powerful as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Three of our islands were vaporized. Today, only a handful of those who were moved from Bikini Atoll in 1946 as little children still survive. The descendants of those who were moved in 1946 now live on Kili Island, on Ejit Island, Majuro, other parts of the Marshall Islands, in the United States, and a few in other countries. We have been called “nuclear nomads.” We cannot go home because the United States has not kept their promise to return our islands to the pristine condition the United States enjoyed when they took our land.