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Representing Place: "Deserted Isles" and the Reproduction of Bikini Atoll

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Representing Place: Representing Place: "Deserted Isles" and the Reproduction of Bikini Atoll Author(s): Jeffrey Sasha Davis Reviewed work(s): Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 95, No. 3 (Sep., 2005), pp. 607-625 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3693959 . Accessed: 23/03/2012 00:42 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Taylor & Francis, Ltd. and Association of American Geographers are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Annals of the Association of American Geographers. http://www.jstor.org RepresentingPlace: "DesertedIsles" and the Reproductionof Bikini Atoll JeffreySasha Davis DepartmentofGeography, University ofVermont BikiniAtoll has beenreshaped through time according to Westernmythologies regarding "deserted" islands. Geographershave increasingly recognized that landscapes are shaped by the ways human agents conceptualize places.Ideals that shape places are not only based on interpretationsofa givenplace, however, but are also formedby the semiotic linking of representations ofsimilar landscapes. Conceptualizations ofBikini Atoll en- abledthe drastic alteration of the landscape by nuclear testing in the1940s and 1950sas wellas subsequent developmentprojects such as thecurrent tourism operation on theatoll. The informationpresented in this articlestems from interview research conducted in the Marshall Islands in 2001 and 2002 as wellas froma review ofhistorical accounts of the atoll from 1945 to thepresent. The conceptualizationsofBikini Atoll held by membersof the Bikinian community, U.S. military and government officials, other people living in the Marshall Islands,and visitors to theatoll explain the transformations ofthe atoll landscape. Going beyond the notion of landscapesas readabletexts, places can be understoodas discursive-materialformations where the semiotic meaningsof places are intrinsically entwined with their reproduction. Key Words: place, landscape, nuclear testing, semiotics,tourism. Asfor Juda of Bikini and his people, now living on Rongerik synonymouswith nuclear destruction, military colonial- Atoll,they probably will be repatriatedifthey insist on it, ism,and radioactivecontamination. thoughUnited States military authorities say they can't see As the quotesat the beginningof thispaper show, whythey should want to: Bikini and Rongerik look as alike however,radically different views represent Bikini Atoll as twoIdaho potatoes. as an objectof the touristgaze focusedon a small,but -(E. Rooney1946) successful,tourism operation (Urry 1990). Today,in and on the Web BikiniAtoll is a manytourist publications promotional tropicalparadise, unspoiled by develop- the atoll is as the ment,with excellent scuba diving. site,www.bikiniatoll.com, depicted tourist an is- -(TimothyFerris, MSNBC-TV, 30 June1997) quintessential place: unpopulatedtropical land. Althoughthe changein Bikini'sstatus over the Thereare not many places that could look more like the yearsfrom nuclear test site and radioactivewasteland to Gardenof Eden. a tourists'paradise may appear surreal, all thesecon- -(A descriptionofBikini Atoll in Conde Nast Traveler ceptualizationsof the atoll present Bikini as a "deserted Magazine,July 2000) isle."While this representation has been dominantfor the last nativeBikinians' descriptions of the It is a a sixtyyears, paradise, placewhere you have everything you atoll connectto a differentvision of Bikinias a need.It is a God whereall is within very place putsyou your homelandwith resourcesand intensecultural reach. plentiful Whilethe 3,100 Bikinians remain scattered -(A descriptionofBikini Atoll by a BikiniIslander, June significance. theMarshall Islands and theiratoll remains 2000) throughout uninhabitabledue to radioactivecontamination, many In 1946,the U.S. militaryremoved the people living on hopeto repatriatesoon. As in 1946,there is stilla stark BikiniAtoll in orderto use it as a testsite for nuclear contrastbetween Bikinian visions of the atoll as a weapons(Figure 1). From1946 to 1958,twenty-three homelandand thedeserted isle mythology that underlies nuclearweapons were tested at BikiniAtoll. The largest widelycirculated representations of the atoll espoused bomb,code-named "Bravo," was a fifteen-megatonblast, byothers. detonatedon 1 March1954, that vaporized three of the For the past sixtyyears, agents have producedand atoll'sislands and spread highly radioactive fallout across consumedrepresentations of Bikini Atoll, enabling the mostof thenorthern Marshall Islands. To manypeople reproductionofa particularlandscape. The basisfor such aroundthe world,the name BikiniAtoll has become representationsis rarely the landscape itself, as muchas Annalsof the Association of American Geographers, 95(3), 2005, pp. 607-625 C 2005 byAssociation of American Geographers Initialsubmission, April 2004; revisedsubmission, July 2004; finalacceptance, February 2005 Publishedby BlackwellPublishing, 350 Main Street,Malden, MA 02148, and 9600 GarsingtonRoad, OxfordOX4 2DQ, U.K. 608 Davis 1N170 E 15 N T-.ngi Taongi . TheRepublic of the . MarshallIslands BBikar Bikini Enewetak Rongerik Tk Utirik Ailingnae Taka Rongelap 7 Ailuk Figure1. Map ofthe Mar- Wotho Jemo shallIslands. The namesof 10 Mejit Ujelang ,'4 Likiep atollsand islands discussed / t 0Wote .Wotje in the articleare empha- "5, Erikub sized. Erikub Ujae Lae Maloelap ez{KwajaleinLib CNamu Aur4 Jabwot Qo N >1 --7Ailinglap ap Arno 0 100 200km " Majuro 0 100 200miles Jaluit Mili Knox Namorika * Kili 5 Kosrae5 (FederatedStates ofMicronesia) Ebon 165 170 E "travelingrepresentations" ofother places deemed to be 1993; Casey 2001). Third,meanings of placeschange similarto Bikini.Such traveling representations ofBikini throughtime, sometimesdramatically (Hall 1997; legitimizesome uses of the place while repressing others. McGuirkand Rowe 2001). And lastly,the dialectical This processof place reproductionis not uniqueto interactionbetween spatial and social processes has been BikiniAtoll. It is usedhere as a case studynot because it recognized(Harvey 1996; Soja 1996; Cresswell2004). is exoticor exceptional,but because it depictsa partic- On the lastpoint there has been debateas to whether ularlyfluid and well-documentedcase of how place places are whollyconstructed by social processesor meaningsare contested,shift through time, and affect whetherthe spatialand social are "mutuallyconstitu- the reproductionof thelandscape. On Bikini,dramatic tive"(Cresswell 2004, 29-33). differencesbetween conceptualizations ofplace (nuclear I referto places as discursive-materialformations. wasteland,tourist paradise, and homeland)can be used This approachmerges these four emphases of current to highlightmechanisms of place reproduction occurring discussionsof place production and appliesthem to the aroundthe world. To demonstratethis process, I weave studyof a particularplace. Bikini Atoll is a placethat has the case studyof BikiniAtoll into contemporary theo- beenheavily impacted by external actors and discourses, reticaldiscussions about place. differentinterpretations of place, transformationsof Recent discussionsof place emphasizefour major those interpretationsthrough time, and interactions points.First, scholars have increasingly concentrated on betweenlandscape and social processes.Various con- theimportance of nonlocal processes and eventsaffect- ceptualizationsof the atoll duringthree different time ing places (Massey1994). Second,there has been an periodshave enabledthe productionof certainland- emphasison theways in whichdifferent actors interpret scapeson Bikiniat the expenseof others.This article places,create discourses about them, and therebyaffect examinesrepresentations ofthe atoll produced just prior place reproduction(Jackson 1989; Duncan and Ley to the beginningof nucleartesting in 1946,conceptu- RepresentingPlace: "DesertedIsles" and theReproduction of Bikini Atoll 609 alizationsof the atoll in the 1960s and 1970s during 14). The factthat the reproductionof thelandscape is a failedrepatriation attempt, and contemporaryviews of entwinedwith imagined conceptualizations ofthe place Bikinias a lost homelandand financiallysuccessful leads to multiple,often contradictory, imaginings for a touristdestination. singlephysical landscape that cause conflict and contests The informationpresented in thisarticle stems from overplaces. Each individualhas a differentconceptual- researchI conducted in theMarshall Islands in 2001 and izationof what a givenplace is (orought to be) and the 2002,as wellas froma reviewof previous social science reproductionof the place is a socialprocess. Places, researchand popularmagazine accounts dealing with therefore,are morethan just the amalgamof the local BikiniAtoll. I studiedhistorical conceptualizations of inhabitants'imaginings; they are the resultof spatially BikiniAtoll over the past six decadesand ascertained wide-rangingregimes of power and theability of some to thecurrent attitudes of various groups of people toward legitimizeone imaginingof a placeover
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