The Bikinians Arrive on Kili Island as described by Joji Laiso to Jack Niedenthal, March 1990 [the top picture is of Joji Laiso, the bottom picture is of Mark Jokdru, the hero of the story]
In September of 1948, the Bikinian men chose from among themselves two dozen workers to accompany 8 Navy Seabees to Kili. Upon their arrival, they first cleared away a portion of the island's thick jungle. Then the group constructed a housing area for the entire community, which was waiting anxiously on Kwajalein for the completion of the project.
For the Bikinians, the simple construction project on Kili quickly became mired in controversy. The U.S. military, which had the responsibility for overseeing the project, chose a gruff, unsympathetic American man who the islanders always refer to as "Diana."
Each time I mention this particular period of history to the elders, they recall the same story; specifically, the saga that involved two Bikinians, Joji Laijo and Mark Jokdru, and their American boss-man.
Joji is a small, dark-skinned old man who currently works as a janitor on Kili. He has been assigned the task of making sure that the Council buildings on Kili stay clean and in good repair. One day, when I found myself on Kili to do some business, I invited Joji Laiso over to the house I stay in during such visits.
Joji stood before me with an unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth. Shirt-less, the short man wore only the standard black pair of polyester trousers. Two dripping wet ice-cold colas hung from his hand by a plastic fastener. As he entered the room, he tore one of cans off the circular plastic rings and handed it to me. He strolled over to the corner of the room, sat down on the floor.
He asked, curiously, in Marshallese, "What did you want to see me about?"
Because I had desired to hear the tale told fresh, I purposely had not mentioned to him earlier in the day what the subject of our discussion would be.
I flopped down on the tiny twin bed beside the spot where the old man stretched out on the floor. I ripped open my cola, took a sip, said, "Joji, I asked you to come here so that you could tell me the story about the group of Bikinian and American men who were sent to this island to build the housing in 1948. Is this all right with you?"
Joji responded to my request by immediately lighting his cigarette. The flare of the match cast an eerie glow upon his dark face. The light and the heat given off by the flame caused the pupils of his eyes to become pinpoints, and the whites of his eyes to appear enlarged. The old man carelessly flicked the smoking match into the corner of the room. He pressed the back of his head against the wall. Still without comment, Joji inhaled long and hard on the small white cylinder. The glowing, bright-red, quarter inch of tobacco at the tip of the cigarette illuminated the elder's wide, round nostrils. I watched as he deliberately exhaled a stream of thick smoke from his nose and formed a disgruntled frown with his mouth. As he gazed up at the ceiling, he ran his old wrinkled, nicotine stained fingers through his cropped black hair. Joji's body language told me that he was uncomfortable with my question.
His glare came downward from the ceiling until his eyes focused on mine. He said, "Jack, I didn't like that American. I hope you understand, that if I tell you this story, I am going to speak very harshly about him."
"Don't worry," I replied, "just say whatever you want."
Joji again scratched his head. "Okay," he said, "I'll tell you about that American son of a b----."
JOJI LAISO: "On Kwajalein they decided to send about twenty young Bikinian men down to Kili to set up the community there, and I was one of them. There were also three main Americans: the boss we called Chief, the foreman for the work crew we called Diana, and there was also Dr. Johnson, he took care of us if we got sick or injured.
"I remember that we traveled to Kili by ship. I recall the trip well because it was the first time I had ever seen Kili and I was surprised to see how small it was. When I had viewed Kili on a map back on Kwajalein, it had looked much larger, so I was shocked as we approached the island by sea. In fact, I remember how we all laughed because it looked so tiny.
"After we got off the ship we explored the island and found it overgrown with brush and coconut trees. There had been no people living there for many, many years. We set up tents close to the northern beach, near where we were going to start building our new community. We all slept together in these temporary homes for close to six weeks.
"We began work under the two Americans, Chief and Diana. We quickly found the Americans very difficult to get along with. I especially didn't like Diana as he was always picking on me because I couldn't understand what he was telling me to do. The others hated him also because anytime we would make a mistake, Diana, as punishment, made us do crazy things like have someone hold on to our feet and lower us head-first into the hole of the outhouse. Then he would make us stir the crap in the toilet with our bare hands. He did this to me a couple of times; therefore my hatred for him was very intense."
"Joji, did Diana pick on you specifically? or did he pick others, too?"
"Diana used to always call me 'stupid' because I had a hard time understanding English. The others were better at taking directions in this strange language than I was. He always threatened me by saying he wasn't going to pay me because he thought I didn't like Americans. But I always argued back. I told him that I liked Americans, however, I didn't like him personally. He was supposed to be a leader, our boss, but he treated us like dogs.
"One day a ship came to Kili with some additional wood for us to build the houses with. Chief told me that I should go out to the ship and help the others unload the supplies. This task mainly involved having the mates on the boat drop the bundles of wood over the side of the ship, then we would swim the bundles across the huge waves. When the wood reached the shore, we hauled it up onto the beach where some of the men would be waiting to help us.
"I was swimming in with a load of 2 by 4's when all of a sudden I saw Diana wading toward me with a very mean expression on his face. I knew that I was in trouble, but I didn't know why. I was so bewildered that I couldn't figure out what to do, so I just floated right on in toward him.
"Diana motioned toward the ship, shouting at me something like, 'I thought I told you to stay here on the beach and work!' I tried to explain that Chief had sent me to the ship. He didn't seem to understand. He lifted me right out of the water and began slamming me down, headfirst under the sea. I screamed loudly at first, but then I started to swallow a lot of water. This silenced my pleas for help.
"Although I continued to try to struggle to free myself from him, I just couldn't escape because Diana was a huge navy man with very powerful arms and legs. I felt the water rush in and out of my mouth. I was just on the verge of losing consciousness when all of a sudden I heard Mark, who was on the beach, yell at the other men, who were just standing and watching me drown. He shouted at them, 'Why are all of you just standing here doing nothing?' Mark was the strongest man among us. We had a lot of respect for him because of his strength. During my struggle, I caught glimpses of him walking toward the water. He was breaking-off a piece of palm frond--he tied his pants with it. I rejoiced with the thought that he was about to come out and rescue me.
"My head was really spinning and I was dizzy with pain by the time I saw Mark standing beside us. The only thing I can remember after that is seeing Mark shake his huge fist at Diana. He was shouting the English word 'trouble' over and over again. Diana dropped me into the ocean. Some of the others started to help me out of the water.
"We watched with glee as an enraged Mark pursued a frightened Diana, who was sloppily struggling to run through the waves as he tried to reach the end of the island. My stomach was so bloated that it looked like I had swallowed whole coconuts. I still had trouble seeing and breathing by the time they took me to see Dr. Johnson. When the doctor saw me he just shook his head; I knew he didn't like what Diana had done, but he was like me (much smaller than Diana). I knew there wasn't much he could do except to sympathize with me."
"But what did the Chief say when he found out about what Diana had done to you. Wasn't it the Chief who told you to go to the ship in the first place?"
"The result was that when I went to the Chief to apologize for having caused a problem, he told me that it was okay and not my fault. He got mad at Diana that night, but Diana still treated me horribly the whole time that he was there on Kili; and while I remained afraid of him, he remained terrified of Mark. In the morning, when Diana would go around the camp and wake everyone to prepare for work, he always walked right by the house where Mark slept and let him wake at his leisure. During the day when he would see Mark coming down the road he would walk as far away from him as he could get. I was elated when they eventually made him leave the island. He was a terrible man."
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