The Haunting of Bikini Atoll

MEN OTEMJEJ REJ ILO BEIN ANIJ. (Everything is in the hands of God)

– Motto on the flag of Bikini Atoll

The flag of Bikini Atoll, a Marshall Island group in the Pacific Ocean, looks a lot like the US flag – red stripes with a blue field in the corner. The blue field contains a circle of 23 stars, representing the islands of the atoll. Three black stars on a white stripe signify the islands damaged by a 15-megaton nuclear blast in 1954. Two lower-placed black stars stand for Kili and Ejit Islands, the new homes of the displaced islanders. The slogan, 'Everything is in the hands of God', is what their leader, Juda, said when told by a US Navy commodore that the islanders would have to give up their home 'for the good of all mankind'. This was how the US Navy characterised relocating 167 people in order to use Bikini's lagoon for nuclear testing.