The bikini swimwear is a French invention but it was named after Bikini Atoll, an omnibus of 23 islands surrounding a 230-square-mile lagoon in the Pacific Ocean. Apart from being the bikini's namesake, Bikini Atoll is well-known as the firing range of at least 20 nuclear bombs. These days, the Atoll is a graveyard of Second World War battleships and a playpen of giant sharks, which propel the adrenaline of curious divers, if not that of tourists.
German navigator Otto von Kotzebue first named Bikini Atoll as Eschscholtz Atoll, after German scientist Johann Freidrich von Eschscholtz who discovered some species in the atoll. The atoll's original Marshallese inhabitants then christened the area “Bikini,” from pik (surface) and ni (coconut). In 1946, days after the US nuclear test on the island, the atoll's name was in the news because a new swimsuit was named after it. The two-piece bikini was said to “split the atome,” and it was advertised as the world's “smallest bathing suit.”
In 1954, the US set off its first hydrogen bomb and the largest nuclear explosion, Castle Bravo, which had a force of a thousand Hiroshima-type bombs. It pulverized two of the atoll's islands and created a mile-wide crater in the lagoon floor. Radioactive contamination exposed the atoll's indigenous population who were transferred to Rongerik Atoll before the tests to nuclear fallout. Some natives died of leukemia shortly after Bravo, while others suffered miscarriages and defective pregnancies.
Among those contaminated were the crewmen of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon 5, which caused a scandal in Japan and, in turn, inspired the 1954 flick, Godzilla, about a monster created by US nuclear tests.
After a massive clean-up, scientists assure that it is now safe to walk on the atolls, except for some islands replete with nuclear residue. The waters have also been declared safe, encouraging some divers to make an extensive tour of submerged WWII battleships. Nonetheless, transport services to and from the area remain limited and locally-grown fruits still have radiation risks. As a result, Bikini Atoll remains uninhabited and sparsely visited.
