Marshall Islands

“ Oceanside, Mejen Weto, Long Island, Majuro
mailing address: P. O. Box 1379, Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands 96960-1379
telephone: [692] 247-4011
FAX: [692] 247-4012 Flag description: blue with two stripes radiating from the lower hoist-side corner - orange (top) and white; there is a white star with four large rays and 20 small rays on the hoist side above the two stripes
Economy Marshall Islands Economy - overview: US Government assistance is the mainstay of this tiny island economy. Agricultural production is primarily subsistence and is concentrated on small farms ”

“ Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements Geography - note: two archipelagic island chains of 30 atolls and 1,152 islands; Bikini and Enewetak are former US nuclear test sites; Kwajalein, the famous World War II battleground, is now used as a US missile test range
People Marshall Islands Population: 57,738 (July 2004 est.) ”

“ When Captain Marshall got close in with the land, he found it to be a chain of islands, extending from south-east to north-west for the distance of more than thirty leagues. Having a favourable breeze, they run along the islands about three miles from shore, and several canoes with sails set, came after the ship, but none of them would come near her. Great numbers of the natives presently assembled on the beach, in order to gratify their curiosity in looking at the ship ”

“ All but about 250 are natives. The administrator of the islands is the governor of German New Guinea, but a number of officials reside on the islands. There is no military force, the natives being of peaceful disposition. The chief island and seat of government is Jaluit. The most populous island is Majeru, with 1600 inhabitants. The natives are generally pagans, but a Roman Catholic mission has been established, and the American Mission Board maintains coloured teachers on many of the islands. ”

“ The more intelligent ones divide the roads which they would represent into days' journeys, and designate mountains and islands with little piles of sand, and towns and fishing-stations with sticks. Kotzebue, Chamisso, and Beechey tell stories of the same kind of peoples of the great ocean. The inhabitants of Tahiti and the Marshall Islands give, by means of stones arranged on the beach-sand, a clear view of whole groups of islands, between which they point out the navigable channels. ”

“ The natives are Micronesians of a dark brown colour, though lighter shades occur. Their hair is not woolly but straight and long. They practise tattooing, and show Papuan influence by distending the ear-lobes by the insertion of wooden disks. They are expert navigators, and construct curious charts of thin strips of wood tied together with fibres, some giving the position of the islands and some the direction of the prevailing winds. Their canoes carry sails and are made of the trunk of the bread-fruit tree. The people are divided into four classes, of which only two are allowed to own land. ”

“ The Marshall Islands have the most profuse natural growth of ferns and grasses; on the Gilbert Islands there is not even a fern; while the Ellice Islands hold an intermediate place between the sterility of the latter and the comparative fertility of the former. It is customary to reproach the natives of Oceania with invincible indolence ”

“ The tourist industry, now a small source of foreign exchange employing less than 10% of the labor force, remains the best hope for future added income. The islands have few natural resources, and imports far exceed exports. ”

“ Everywhere one is struck by the preponderance of Japanese among the inhabitants. Since this great war broke out, Japan has taken from Germany the Ladrone Islands, just north of Guam, on the way to the Philippines. She has also taken the Marshall Islands, which bring her outposts fifteen hundred miles nearer to the Pacific coast of America. If we are inclined to be a bit pessimistic over the future fate of Hawaii, perhaps a piece of recent news from Nippon may encourage us.
Japan has just passed a law permitting Japanese to become American citizens. ”

“ ROI-NAMUR ISLANDS
PREPARED BY HISTORICAL DIVISION U. S. MARINE CORPS
Finally, at 1930, Colonel Franklin A. Hart, commander of the 24th Marines ordered his men to dig in for the night. The troops had come across a good portion of the island. Now they would hold the ground gained10 and get ready for the morrow. One rifleman, Robert F. Graf, later wrote about that time:
Throughout the night the fleet sent flares skyward, lighting the islands as the flares drifted with the prevailing wind. ”

“ Maintain striking group to operate against raiders (search for raiders might afford opportunity to reconnoiter the Marshall Islands without provoking Japan) . (5) Protection of outlying islands. This will require the following:
(a) Establish defense battalions at Midway and Samoa and smaller units at Johnston, Wake, Palmyra and Canton. (b) Maintain submarine patrols at all the above-mentioned islands, except Samoa. (c) Despatch two submarines, plus the ORTOLAN, for the defense of Unalaska. (6) Adjust U.S. Fleet training to war conditions. ”

“ In the Micronesian Islands, while animism and tabu were strong, there was not the cannibalism of the southern islands. Work was begun in the Caroline Isles in 1852 and in time spread to the Gilbert and Marshall groups. In the Carolines and Marshalls it has now largely passed to German missionaries, the Americans having enough to do in the Philippines, where there are already over 27,000 Protestants. ”

“ Kwajalein is the largest atoll in the world, 60 miles long and 20 miles wide, a semi-enclosed series of 80 reefs and islets around a huge lagoon of some 800 square miles. Located 620 miles northwest of Tarawa and 2,415 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor, its capture would have far-reaching strategic significance in that it would break the outer ring of Japanese Pacific defense lines. Within the atoll itself there were two objectives: Roi and Namur, a pair of connected islands shaped like weights on a four-mile barbell in the north end, and crescent-shaped Kwajalein Island at the south end. ”

“ There is no difference between the seasons, which, though the islands belong to the northern hemisphere, have the highest temperature in January and the lowest in July. Vegetation, on the whole, is very poor. There are many coco-nut palms, bread-fruit trees (Artocarpus incisa) , various kinds of bananas, yams and taro, and pandanus, of which the natives eat the seeds. From the bark of another plant they manufacture mats. There are few animals. Cattle do not thrive, and even poultry are scarce. Pigs, cats, dogs and rats have been imported. ”

“ To my knowledge, no one has ever fed them silk—simply because silk was too high—but being women, red or white, they’d simply go crazy over it.
“The other factor in the combination is that the Intrepid, due to the unsettled fur market, failed to do any extensive buying on her last annual trading trip through the islands, and as a result practically all the Indians have their full catch on hand. The Intrepid is the only trader through the particular chain of islands I have in mind—the Skopin group, north and east of the Aleutian chain—and she’s not counting on going up again till spring. ”

“ This comprises the whole of the east coast of Australia, or New Holland, and whether it was joined to Tasmania on the south, and New Guinea to the north; the dimensions of New Zealand; New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, with the exception of the fact that the northern island of the latter existed; the Fiji Islands; Sandwich Islands; the Phœnix, Union, Ellice, Gilbert, and Marshall Groups, with innumerable small islands scattered here and there; the Cook Islands, and all the Society Islands except Tahiti. ”

“ The first sheet commences with the Northumberland Islands; and includes the coast between lat. 21° 50' S. and l8° 40' S. The second from lat. 19° S. to lat. 14° 30' S.; and the third contains the north-eastern extreme of Australia and Torres Strait. The anxiety of Captain Flinders to examine the great Gulf ot Carpentaria, induced him to defer for another opportunity the survey of this part of the coast, although it is by far the most dangerous of the whole continent. The shores of this extensive country on either side, from their southern extreme, are bold and comparatively free from dangers. ”

“ On every transport the men crowded the ships’ rails to stare at the low-lying islets which they must soon attack. The 23d, 24th, and 25th Marines were assigned to the Roi-Namur operation, and the 32d, 17th, and 184th Infantry Regiments of the Army’s 7th Division were to take the Kwajalein Island objectives. ”

“ These islands were surveyed, and taken possession of for Great Britain, by the name of Falkland’s Islands. From hence the ships proceeded into the Pacific, and pursued their course to the N.W. On the 7th June, in lat. 14°5'S., long. 144°58'W., a cluster of small islands was discovered, but every part of their coasts found to be inaccessible, being bounded by stupendous rocks, on which a most violent surf constantly broke. ”

“ The land that is laid down is nothing more than an archipelago of islands fronting the main-land, the situation of which is quite uncertain. Our examinations of these islands were carried on as far as Cape Villaret; but between that and Depuch Island the coast has only been seen by the French, who merely saw small detached portions of it. At present, however, all is conjecture; but the space is of considerable extent, and if there is an opening into the interior of New Holland, it is in the vicinity of this part. ”

“ See Training. Manila, Luzon, 343, 344, 347 Manila Harbor, Luzon, 360 Maps Admiralty Islands, 218 Aleutian Islands, 178 Caroline Islands, 218 China-Burma-India Theater, 414-15 Gilbert Islands, 195 Iwo Jima, 388 Japan, 444 Leyte, 308 Mariana Islands, 218 Marshall Islands, 218 New Britain, 144 New Guinea, 144, 218 Oahu, 4 Okinawa, 398 Palau Islands, 218 Papua, 144 Philippines, 24, 330 Solomon Islands, 79 Massacre Bay, Attu, 189 Matanikau River, Guadalcanal, 96, 100 Medical aid men, 137, 203 Medical operations. ”

“ You’ll be interested to know that you are on one of the supposedly uninhabited islands of the Skopin group. Other islands are grouped all around you, making one big snow field when the ice closes down in winter. I could give you almost your exact longitudinal position, but it wouldn’t be the least good to you. The population consists of we five people—and various bear, caribou, and such like. The principal industry, as you will find out later, is furs. ”

“ In that case, a liberty was reserved in the policy 'to touch at the Cape de Verd Islands for the purchase of stock, such as hogs, goats, and poultry, and taking in water.' The vessel stopped at Fago, one of the Cape de Verd Islands, and took in four bullocks and four Jackasses, besides water and other provisions, unstowed the dry goods, and broke open two bales, and took 40 pieces out of each, for trade. The vessel remained at the island from the 7th to the 24th of May, although the usual delay at those islands for taking in stock and water, when the weather is good, is from two to three days. ”

“ The Micronesian islands were first explored and colonized by a a people who came from Malaysia. It is thought that these people spread into the Palau, Caroline, Mariana, Marshall, and Gilbert islands as a single wave of migration. Following this occupation, the people apparently underwent a normal process of cultural evolution [Pg 17] and differentiation. Remains of stone walls, dikes, fences, pillars, graves, and other structures which may be found today at various islands in Micronesia were constructed by the ancestors of the islanders of the present day. ”

“ On the outward side the shore sinks rapidly to a great depth. The surface of the atolls is covered with sand, except in a few places where it has been turned into soil through the admixture of decayed vegetation. ”

“ Not really dangerous, maybe, but mighty awkward if anyt'ing should go wrong wit' de old brig. You understan' dat not one out of four of dese little islands is inhabited. Some of de larger islands have only a scattered village or two; some of 'em haven't a living human being. ”

“ Considering the reputation that most of the South Sea Islands used to enjoy for cannibalistic practices, it is pleasing to read that the natives of one of the isles in the Marshall group in the South Pacific Ocean rescued the crew of a vessel wrecked near Ujaal Island. A number of natives went in their boats to the wreck and took off the crew and a lady passenger, conveying them to an island some fifteen miles from the spot where the ship was lost, and treating them with great kindness. Tents were erected out of the sails of the wrecked vessel, which were removed for the purpose. ”

“ Six months before, a German trading vessel had called at Mâdurô, and landed an old man of seventy and his grand-daughter—a little girl of ten years of age. To the astonishment of the people the old man proved to be a native of the island. His name was Rimé. He had left Mâdurô forty years before for Tahiti as a seaman. At Tahiti he married, and then for many years worked with other Marshall Islanders on Antimanao Plantation, where two children were born to him. The elder of these, when she was fifteen years of age, married a Frenchman trading in the Paumotu Islands. ”