Ebeye
Encyclopedia
Kwajalein
Kwajalein Atoll , is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands . The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island. English-speaking residents of the U.S...
in the Marshall Islands
Marshall Islands
The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...
, as well as the center for Marshallese culture in the Ralik Chain
Ralik Chain
The Ralik Chain is a chain of islands within the island nation of the Marshall Islands. Ralik means "sunset". It lies just to the west of the country's other island chain, the Ratak Chain...
of the archipelago. Settled on 80 acres (360,000 m²) of land, it has a population of more than 15,000. Over 50% of the population is estimated to be under the age of 18. With crowded living conditions, an inadequate school system, and scarce clean water, Ebeye has been known by the unofficial title of "Slum of the Pacific."
Etymology
When ChristianChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
missionaries
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
first arrived in the Marshall Islands, they introduced Latin script writing and orthographized
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
the Marshallese language
Marshallese language
The Marshallese language is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Marshall Islands, and the principal language of the country...
. Originally, Ebeye was written Ebeje by Europeans and pronounced approximately ye, which (according to elders of the atoll) means "making something out of nothing." However, the colonial
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
administration mispronounced the J as if it were German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
j, and foreign observers recorded the resulting pronunciation as Ebeye. During the Japanese period, though, the island's pronunciation in katakana
Katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
, ebʲize, re-approximated Marshallese. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
took possession of the regional mandate from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and restored the mispronunciation of ˈ . Because most of the modern Marshallese residents of Ebeye don't have family roots on the island, the German pronunciation has stuck, and everyone uses it, even the Marshallese.
Relocation from the Mid-Atoll Corridor
Prior to the early 1950s, a large number of present-day residents of Ebeye lived on small islands throughout Kwajalein Atoll, which is in fact the largest atoll in the world, boasting close to 99 islands surrounding a massive lagoon. However, with Kwajalein island used as a support base for the nuclear tests conducted at Bikini AtollBikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll is an atoll, listed as a World Heritage Site, in the Micronesian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands....
and Enewetak Atoll, Marshallese residents of Kwajalein were relocated by U.S. authorities to a small, planned community constructed on Ebeye, which was largely unpopulated and had served as a Japanese seaplane base prior to the Pacific War. With the advent of the Nike-Zeus anti-ballistic missile testing program of the 1960s, the U.S. military deemed it necessary for safety and security reasons to evacuate a vast sector of the atoll to create a zone in which unarmed guided missiles could be targeted from the continental United States. For this reason, whole communities of Kwajalein Atoll Marshallese residents were relocated from the "Mid-Atoll Corridor" to Ebeye and were provided with housing and the incentive of work at the base on Kwajalein test site. These promises were not entirely upheld, nor were these relocated families thoroughly compensated. Not only were they removed from their land and access to abundant marine resources, but most "Mid-Atoll" people did not have land rights to Ebeye, leaving them without much of a say in their future. Currently, these people are allowed to return to their islands during range downtime but cannot build homes or maintain their land adequately, as they are subject to removal on a nearly monthly basis by authorities.
Subsequent population growth by migration from outlying rural atolls and islands throughout the Marshalls created a major housing shortage and problems with resources throughout the following decades. Original Ebeye inhabitants with land rights were not compensated adequately for the tenants who came to live on their land, and this created enormous tensions that polarized migrants from other atolls and "landowners" or original "Kwajalein people" . These tensions continue to persist today and are part of the basis for many Kwajalein Atoll landowners' disputes about the Land Use Agreement between the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the Republic of the Marshall Islands Government in Majuro
Majuro
Majuro , is a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. The atoll itself has a land area of and encloses a lagoon of...
.
Geography
Ebeye is the most populous island of Kwajalein AtollKwajalein
Kwajalein Atoll , is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands . The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island. English-speaking residents of the U.S...
in the Marshall Islands
Marshall Islands
The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...
, as well as the center for Marshallese culture in the Ralik Chain
Ralik Chain
The Ralik Chain is a chain of islands within the island nation of the Marshall Islands. Ralik means "sunset". It lies just to the west of the country's other island chain, the Ratak Chain...
of the archipelago. It comprises 80 acres (360,000 m²).
It is the fifth most densely populated island in the world.
With crowded living conditions, an inadequate school system, and scarce clean water, Ebeye has been known by the unofficial title of "Slum of the Pacific."
Refuge from nuclear fallout
Some of the residents of Ebeye are refugees or descendants of refugees from the effects of the cataclysmic 15-megaton Castle BravoCastle Bravo
Castle Bravo was the code name given to the first U.S. test of a dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb device, detonated on March 1, 1954 at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as the first test of Operation Castle. Castle Bravo was the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States ,...
nuclear test at Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll is an atoll, listed as a World Heritage Site, in the Micronesian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands....
on March 1, 1954. The detonation unexpectedly rained nuclear fallout
Nuclear fallout
Fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and shock wave have passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes...
and two inches (50 mm) of radioactive snow on nearby Rongelap Atoll
Rongelap Atoll
Rongelap Atoll or Namorik Atoll is a coral atoll of 61 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is only , but it encloses a lagoon with an area of...
, which had not been evacuated as had Bikini. This caused 100 people to have radiation sickness
Radiation Sickness
Radiation Sickness is a VHS by the thrash metal band Nuclear Assault. The video is a recording of a concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, London in 1988. It was released in 1991...
, and the birth of tragically malformed infants called "jellyfish babies". The American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
authorities then evacuated Rongelap, and Ebeye was the final destination for many of them.