History of Ebeye

Marshallese. After World War II, the Americans took possession of the regional mandate from Japan and restored the mispronunciation of. 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 Atoll 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