Aerial view of Enewetak and Parry.

Map of Enewetak Atoll

Enewetak (or Eniwetok) is an atoll in the Marshall Islands of the central Pacific Ocean. An atoll (pronounced /ˈætʌl/ is an island of Coral that encircles a Lagoon partially or completely The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI is a Micronesian nation of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions Its land consists of about 40 small islets totaling less than 6 km², surrounding a lagoon, 80 km (50 mi) in circumference. A lagoon is a body of comparatively shallow salt or Brackish water separated from the deeper Sea by a shallow or exposed sandbank, coral It is located at 11°30′N, 162°20′E, making it the second westernmost atoll of the Ralik Chain. The Ralik Chain is a chain of islands within the island nation of the Marshall Islands. 1999 population was 820.

Technically a Spanish colony, Enewetak was not known to Europeans until visited in 1794 by the British merchant sloop Walpole, who called it "Brown's Range" (thus the Japanese name "Brown Atoll"). Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It was visited by only a dozen or so ships before the establishment of the German colony of the Marshall Islands in 1885. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI is a Micronesian nation of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean Along with the rest of the Marshalls, Enewetak was captured by Japan in 1914 and mandated to them by the League of Nations in 1920. The League of Nations was an International organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920

The Japanese mostly ignored the atoll until World War II. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including In November 1942, they built an airfield on Engebi Island, which was used for staging planes to the Carolines and the rest of the Marshalls. The Caroline Islands form a large Archipelago of widely scattered islands in the western Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Guinea. The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI is a Micronesian nation of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean When the Gilberts fell to the US, the Japanese Army's 1st Amphibious Brigade came in to defend the atoll, January 4, 1944. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Events 46 BC - Titus Labienus defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina. Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. They were unable to finish fortifying the island before the February invasion by the US, which captured all the islets in a week. The Battle of Eniwetok was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought between 17 February 1944 and 23 February

After the war, the residents were evacuated, often involuntarily, and the atoll was used for nuclear testing as part of the U. Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness yield and explosive capability of Nuclear weapons Throughout the twentieth century most nations S. Pacific Proving Grounds. The Pacific Proving Grounds was the name used to describe a number of sites in the Marshall Islands and a few other sites in the Pacific Ocean, used by the Bodies of United States sevicemen killed in the Battle of Enewetak and buried there were exhumed before testing commenced and returned to the United States to be re-buried by their families. Some 43 nuclear tests were fired at Enewetak from 1948 to 1958. The first hydrogen bomb test, code-named Ivy Mike, was in late 1952 as part of Operation Ivy, and vaporized the island of Elugelab. The Teller–Ulam design is a Nuclear weapon design which is used in Megaton -range Thermonuclear weapons and is more colloquially referred to as "the Operation Ivy was the eighth series of American nuclear tests, coming after Tumbler-Snapper and before Upshot-Knothole. Elugelab Island (or Elugelap was part of the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands before it was vaporized by the very first test of the Hydrogen bomb This test included the use of B-17 Flying Fortress drones to fly through the radioactive cloud for the purpose of testing onboard samples. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout

The drones were controlled by B-17 mother ships flying within visual distance of these drones. In all there were 16 to 20 B-17s taking part in this operation, of which half were controlling aircraft and half were drones.

For examination of the explosion clouds of the nuclear bombs in 1957/58 several rockets (mostly from rockoons) were launched. A rockoon (derived from the terms Rocket and Balloon) was an extension to the rocket which allowed the rocket to achieve further distance

The people began returning in the 1970s, and on May 15, 1977, the U. Events 1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the Papal bull Ad exstirpanda, which authorizes but also limits the Also 1977 (album by Ash. Year 1977 ( MCMLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays S. government directed the military to decontaminate the islands. This was done by mixing the contaminated soil and debris from the various islands with Portland cement and burying it in one of the blast craters. Portland cement is the most common type of Cement in general usage in many parts of the world as it is a basic ingredient of Concrete, mortar, Stucco The crater was at the northern end of Runit 11°33′9.22″N, 162°20′50.29″E, which is an island on the eastern side of the atoll. This continued until the crater became a spherical mound 25 feet high. The crater was then covered with an 18-inch thick concrete cap. All services participated in this effort.

The U. S. government declared the islands safe for habitation in 1980.

In 2000, the Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal awarded in excess of $340 million to the people of Enewetak for loss of use, hardship, medical difficulties and further nuclear cleanup.

Note that this award does not include the approximately $6 million annually budgeted by the U. S. for education and health programs in the Marshall Islands.

The U. S. government referred to the atoll as "Eniwetok" until 1974, when it changed its official spelling to "Enewetak" (along with many other Marshall Islands place names) to more properly reflect their proper pronunciation by the Marshall Islanders. ^[1]

Media

Notes

1. ^ Barton C. Hacker, Elements of controversy : the Atomic Energy Commission and radiation safety in nuclear weapons testing, 1947-1974 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994): p. 14.

External links

• Annotated bibliography for Eniwetok Atoll from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
• Atomic Veterans History Project
• Enewetak Clean-up from U.S. Atomic Veterans
• Information on legal judgements to the people of Enewetak