History of Kwajalein

e Pacific war where indigenous islanders were recorded to have been killed while actually fighting for the Japanese. Many Marshallese dead were found among those killed in bunkers. However, the flat island offered no other protection against the heavy bombardment. Taking refuge in bunkers resulted in many Marshallese deaths when their shelters were destroyed by hand grenades. Some Marshallese was also reportedly induced to fight by Japanese propaganda which stated (in a similar manner to the later Battle of Okinawa) that the Americans would indiscriminately rape and massacre the civilian population if they successfully took the atoll.

On February 6, 1944, Kwajalein was claimed by the United States and was designated, with the rest of the Marshall Islands, as a United Nations Trust Territory under the United States.

Evolution into a U.S. military installation

In the years following, Kwajalein Atoll was converted into a staging area for further campaigns in the advance on the Japanese homeland in the Pacific War. After the war ended, the United States used it as a main command centre and preparation base in 1946 for Operation Crossroads, the first of several series of nuclear tests (comprising a total of 67 blasts) at the Marshall island atolls of Bikini and Enewetak. Significant portions of the native population were forced to relocate as a result of American weapons testing and military activity in the islands between 1945 and 1965. The German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen was towed to Kwajalein from Bikini Atoll after the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests. It developed a leak, was towed out and sank in the lagoon.

By the