438 No landscape is harder to capture for me than an atoll. The islands are so low that any distance makes it very hard to get a good image. This is the best I could do and still get the essence of Majuro Atoll. This is only 5 of the 13 islands that make up the system. You say you can count more than 5 islands in the photo. You would be correct. Not every apparently separate land mass gets its own name. They are grouped together by a system that appear to be at least partly related as to whether you can walk from one to the other.
445 A closer shot to show the beaches and sand bars.
463 Diana and I on Delap Beach. You can see the Amsterdam on the right in the picture.
475 These ladies are doing some planting around a new fence.
Because this area is so rich in WWII history and because I'll forget it if I don't write it down, when we get to significant WWII sites I'm going to include more history than usual, especially events related to the war. That, in addition to the usual history do whenever we go somewhere new may result quite a long dissertation that will not interest many of you. Please excuse me and just scan it until you get to the current travel parts.
Oct 5 – Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands. The Marshall Islands, actual name the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is located in the North Pacific. It's part of Micronesia. There are about 70,000 residents who occupy about 35 coral atolls out of the almost 1,200 islands in the country. They share ocean borders with the Federated States of Micronesia, Wake Island, Kiribati, and Nauru. Not that the ocean is crowded here but they claim ocean territory up to the claims of each of these. In some places the exact location of the boundary is somewhat vague and occasionally disputed. Our port is the atoll with the largest population, Majuro, which is also the capital.
Micronesian colonists arrived here in the 2nd century BC. These folks were amazing navigators. Because their world had always consisted of more water than land they did not suffer the fear of the ocean that plagued Europeans until the 1500s. Europeans first arrived here in 1520. Spaniard Alonso de Salazar sighted land here in 1526. The Spanish and English both explored the area. The current name of the island group comes from British explorer John Marshall. It became part of the Spanish East Indies in 1874, but was sold to Germany in 1884, and became part of German New Guinea in 1885. The Japan occupied the Marshall Islands in World War I, which were later joined with other former German territories in 1919 by the League of Nations to form the South Pacific Mandate. In World War II, the islands were taken by the United States in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign. Along with other Pacific Islands, the Marshall Islands were then consolidated into the United-States-governed Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Self-government was granted in 1979, and full independence in 1986, under a Compact of Free Association with the United States.
Politically, the Marshall Islands is a presidential republic. The US provides defense, grants, and social services. Since the island is poor in natural resources, the islands' main source of income is service related, in addition there is some fishing and farming. However the largest portion of their domestic income is in the form of US aid. In fact, they use the US dollar for their currency. Most of its citizens are of local descent with a few immigrants from other Pacific islands. They have 2 official languages, and English. (Odd that they have English and an official language and we don't. Yikes, don't get me started on the stupidity we currently operate under in the US). Marshallese belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian language group. As is often the case with small island groups the vast majority of the residents practice their religion. About 75% belong to the United Church of Christ (called Congregational here) or the Assemblies of God.
Before the onset of WWII the islands were under German but even then the Japanese visited the islands occasionally as fishermen. They didn't land very often so contact with the locals was infrequent. With the advent of the Meiji Restoration in 1868) the decision was made to create a large empire in East Asia and the Western Pacific.
During WWI Japan joined the fight against the Germans and captured some German islands including several in Micronesia. In 1914 the Japanese took Eniwetok Atoll, and Jaluit Atoll, the governmental seat of the Marshall Islands. After the war, in 1919, Germany abandoned its Pacific colonies which included the Marshall Islands. In 1920 the League of Nations approved the Japanese takeover of all former German colonies in the Pacific Ocean situated above the equator. A major advancement toward the Meiji goal of establishing a Pacific Empire. They kept Jaluit as the capital.
While the German interest in the area was mainly economic, the Japanese interests were looking for land. Although the Marshalls were a very small area they did help ease the problem with Japan's increasing population. Over 1,000 Japanese moved here during this colonial period they never outnumbered the locals as they did in the Marianas and Palau.
They did appoint Japanese local leaders to diminish the power of the traditional chiefs. The native Marshallese society had been matrilineal. The Japanese tried to impose their patriarchal system but the locals ignore this attempt. In the 1930s they seized about a third of all the land for the Japanese government. Before banning foreign trade, the missionaries were allowed to continue their activities unmolested. However the local people were sent to Japanese schools, where they studied both the Japanese language and culture. This was the policy not only in the Marshalls but throughout Micronesia. In 1933, Japan quit the League of Nations and started building military installations on several atolls, mostly air bases. The Marshall Islands were important geographically and became the easternmost point in Japan's defensive ring at the beginning of WWII.
In the months before Pearl Harbor, Kwajalein Atoll was the home of the Japanese 6th Fleet Forces Service, the unit tasked with the defense of the Marshall Islands. During WWII, the United States invaded and took over the islands in 1944. The Japanese installations that were not destroyed were cut off and allowed to perish. The islands were added to the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, along with several other island groups in the South Sea.
The battle in the Marshall Islands was an extended campaign. It began about half way through 1943 and didn't really stop until mid-1945. While the bombing phase was underway massive damage was inflicted on the Japanese bases. Unfortunately the local population was also affected mainly by injuries and scarcity of food. During the siege phase, over 5,000 Japanese died of starvation by 1945. The invasion phase was over in 1944 when the US liberated Majuro as well as Eniwetok and Kwajalein in one month. Within the next two months they controlled all but 4 small islands of the Marshalls.
From the end of the war until 1958, the US tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, including the largest nuclear test the U.S. ever conducted, Castle Bravo. In 1956, the Atomic Energy Commission called the Marshall Islands "by far the most contaminated place in the world".
We have the nuclear tests to thank for one of the iconic items of apparel ever invented. The bikini, noted for its brevity, was designed as a protest against nuclear testing when Bikini Atoll was used as a test site. French engineer Louis Reard's 1946 design was the first swimsuit to expose a woman's navel. The original was essentially four triangles of fabric connected by spaghetti straps to form a bra and G-string bottom. In 1952 the test of the first U.S. hydrogen bomb, code named "Ivy Mike", destroyed the island of Elugelab in the Eniwetok atoll.
Majuro is a large coral atoll, and belongs to the District of the Ratak Chain in the Marshall Islands. The atoll itself has a land area of almost 4 square miles and a lagoon of 114 square miles. Like most atolls in the Marshall Islands, Majuro's islands are narrow land masses. The main population center, also named Majuro (where we are landing has a population of about 25,000 and is the capital and largest city of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
It's been inhabited for over 2,000 years. It became German along with the rest of the Marshalls in the late 1800s and a German trading center was established. During WWI Majuro was taken over by the Japanese and given to them by the League of Nations in 1920.
In January 1944 the US landed on the island but found that the Japanese abandoned the island much earlier. One Japanese soldier was left to be a caretaker. He was captured and the island was the largest anchorage in the central Pacific under US Navy control. It became the largest and most active port in the world until the war moved to the west.
We arrived at the atoll at just before 10AM. (An atoll is a coral reef that built up around a volcanic island as a barrier reef. Over time the volcano erodes away leaving just the coral reef, usually as a ring of very low coral islands that comprise the atoll. The Majuro atoll has 13 major islands and many little islets. The highest elevation is 20 feet, the highest point of Majuro Island, the main island of the atoll and its governmental HQ is 10 feet. It's atop a bridge they built to connect Majuro Island with its neighbor, Rairok Island. Several islands have been connected with bridges. Majuro is only about 5 miles long but it's possible to drive from Majuro across four other islands to get to Laura Island. Laura you say? What kind of name is that for a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean? Well, when the USA had control of the lagoon here the commander of the base renamed that island for his wife, Laura, and the name stuck. It's the only really nice beach in the atoll and some people who went there today said the water in the shallow lagoon just off the beach was 97˚ F. Now that's warm. Another of the islands is named Rita after Rita Hayworth.
Actually to be accurate, Majuro Island is three separate islands that have been joined by land fill, Delap (where we're docked), Uliga and Djarrit. Since they've been joined they have adopted the name of the Atoll for the island they formed.
We entered the huge lagoon between Lobokaire and Calalin Islands and sailed almost 10 miles across the lagoon before arriving at Majuro Island where we docked at Delap, a small city at the south end of the fishhook shaped, larger island. We were greeted at the pier by a collection of school busses, one from a kindergarten, and small busses just a bit larger than a van, and guides who were waving to us. Our marine welcome was a huge swarm of round translucent jellyfish; I believe they are moon jellyfish, between our ship and the pier.
We disembarked into the hot, humid and sun filled afternoon. We didn't arrive here until after 11AM. The pier was a little chaotic. There were busses lined up but it was difficult to find out where they were going. It turned out that most were shuttle busses to take people to the museum downtown. We actually wanted to drive around the island a bit before settling at the museum so we found a small bus from the Long Island Resort that had a guide aboard and would take us around the island for $15.
The guide, Sabrina, was obviously Polynesian. She told us she was born in Kiribati on Kiribas which we know as Christmas Island, a place we've visited. She's lived in Majuro most of her life. She said she works at the hotel and because her English is good they asked her to guide, something she's never done before. As the bus took us along the only road on the island she did a nice job of pointing out the main sights and filling us in on local happenings. She said that because there's only one road they only have two directions, this way and that way, always accompanied by pointing. The road only has two sides, ocean and lagoon. As in, "If you want to get to the museum you go this way and its ocean side, but if you want to go to the Long Island Resort you go that way and it's on lagoon side." Pretty straight forward as directions go.
Part way into town she stopped at Delap Beach so we could take some pictures of the ships in the lagoon and our ship in specific, docked at Dewlap Pier. The beach here is not pretty; in fact I wouldn't call it a beach at all. We were told that the only proper beach was on Laura and I now believe it. Sabrina took a picture of Diana and me with the Amsterdam in the background. We stopped at the telecommunications center, two huge satellite dishes and a smaller one as well as antennas for various broadcasts.
We passed a store with some seashells in the window that I knew Diana would want to go back to later. Our next stop was at the museum. The lawn in front of the island's highest court has been set up with a small stage and some chairs under a temporary awning. Several vendors have set up tables including the island's visitor bureau and post office. We bought some stamps at that table. It costs only 46 cents to mail a post card to the USA, a real bargain considering how far it has to go. Postcards from Europe were often well over 1 euro and don't go nearly as far. The lady there hand cancelled it and put it in the mailbag. I thought for a minute she was going to hand it back to be but she didn't. They did give both Diana and I leis made from leaves and there were lots of items woven of various greenery with seashells worked into the design. It was pretty nice work. They have no local source of wood so carving is not a local item. Diana bought a woven necklace with one large and several small cowrie shells woven into the pattern.
When the people of Bikini Atoll were moved here prior to the atomic tests in the 1940s they were allowed to keep their own government and here we are almost 70 years later and there's still a Bikini Atoll Town Hall on Majuro. We made a stop at the building. It's clean, neat, freshly painted and in good repair so I'm assuming that they are still functioning. It was odd to see the curb painted with reserved spaces for the mayor and other city officials if an atoll that no longer exists.
At that point we turned around to head back to the dock. As we approached I asked if Long Island Resort was on the next island, Rairok and she said that it was. She said that Rairok was also known as Long Island because at about 12 miles, it's the longest island in the atoll. That's a little under 40% of the atoll's total length of 32 miles. They did take us over the bridge to her island and that's when we climbed to the highest point on the atoll, 20 feet.
I didn't see any American fast food place but they did have and Ace Hardware, Majuro Hardware. One of the nicest resorts, restaurants and dive shops belongs to an American, Robert Reimers. He's married to a Marshallese lady and has lived her for over 40 years. Church is a very big deal here, almost everyone goes on Sunday. Most, about 95% are Protestants but there are a few Catholics. As mentioned before the United Church of Christ and Assembly of God make up the large portion of the Protestants. That fact was very evident here on Majuro. I saw several Assembly of God churches along the road on our 8 mile drive. Our guide told us that everything closes on Sunday, and she meant everything. I did see two Mormon missionaries patrolling the streets. Funny how they look the same in every country I've ever seen them in (I know, in which I've ever seen them is correct. Frankly, I don't care.) I thought that long pants, a white shirt and tie looked hot in Texas. It looks sweltering here because of the humidity.
We were dropped off at the dock and went aboard the ship to eat lunch and cool off a bit. We dropped off the morning's purchases, ate at the Lido and headed back out. This time we hired a taxi to take us to a few places we hadn't stopped, the main one being the shop with the shells. They didn't have a very big selection but they did have a nice piece of brain coral and some miniature triton shells that were an attractive creamy white color. We bought those and then headed down to the museum.
When we arrived the band was playing Hotel California. The museum is a very small, but well thought, out ethnographic museum. They have displays about the migration of people to the islands most likely from an area around what today is Taiwan. They have displays on the dress and customs of the ancient Marshallese as well as ship building, navigation, weapons (most involved attached sharks teeth) and jewelry. It was nice to see that the woven articles with shells worked into the design that we saw in the little market were an ancient tradition that continues. They are not yet big enough to ban photography so I did take pictures, without flash though. My feeling is that it could potentially damage old papers and the color of things dyed with traditional methods, that plus the fact that it's very rude to impose that bright flash on fellow visitors trying to enjoy the displays. Although I do admit that if I am totally alone and the object can't be harmed by light and is in a difficult place to shoot I will occasionally turn on the flash.
We spoke to a man there who was acting as a docent. He said that many of the old traditions are dying out because the people who know about them won't tell outsiders their methods. He said that one of the traditional things most in danger is the Marshallese martial art. Those who know will not trust anyone outside their clan with the knowledge. I am very interested in cultural and traditional information and Diana is more so. Talking with this man was the highlight of the visit to the museum.
In one room they had a slide show. I'm usually fairly disinterested in these because they are usually too long and produced at about the 5th grade level. I guess that's necessary because the average newspaper is written at just about that level too because they don't want to go over the heads of their average reader. This one was different. A resident of Majuro, Dutch if you go by his name, in the German and Japanese Colonial period had taken a lot of glass negative images. This would have been the late 1800s to the early 1900s. They have scanned these and put them in a show. The only addition was a title showing where and who the picture was taken, if that was known, and the date or approximate date the picture was taken. It was amazing to watch the change in clothing. Easy to tell when the missionaries arrived. The idea that the missionaries ideas of modesty might have been culturally determined by where they came from was not a consideration at that time. Certainly the awakening that some things are cultural not Biblical was a great advancement for the Gospel. It's difficult to be too hard on them though, they were prisoners of their times, just as we are prisoners of ours.
One of the most interesting artifacts was an irregular grid about 3 feet square constructed of thin sticks called Marshallese Stick Charts. The sticks are arranged to show variations in swell and waves. Small cowry shells are attached to show the location of islands. With these charts and their knowledge of the stars they devised a method of navigation that is also on the list of endangered knowledge. As with the Europeans and Asians, they named there constellations after objects, people or animals they recognized. For instance the North Star is called Linmanman (Coconut Husking Stick Goddess). Since this star remained pretty much in the same place all year they thought it was the pivot point of the star dome, thus the pointed stick used to husk coconuts made a good analogy. They have a constellation between Leo Minor and Ursa Major they call Wa-eo-waan Tumur (Outrigger canoe). We see it as the handle of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major). They have another constellation between Ursa Minor and Ursa Major called Made-eo-an-Alot. The picture of this constellation is of a fish on a spear. The three stars that make up the fish's body line up between Draco and Bootes.
We are now headed back to town with the same cab. The driver patiently sat talking to other islanders all the time we were in the museum and made all these stops for us. Heading out of town Diana had picked up a brochure from a craft house she wanted to visit. When we stopped there I didn't go in but decided to stay outside and look around. Directly across the street was the Majuro Bowls, a now empty bowling establishment. The average salary on the island is about $2 per hour. Given a normal work year in the US that's a little over $4,000 per year but I don't think the work here is that regular so I'm guessing the average yearly salary is about $3,000. Maybe you can't operate a bowling alley on what the locals can afford to pay for a game.
Just south of the bowling alley was a house nestled in a grove of palm and what looked like banana trees. There's a drive way in from the road that's just wide enough for a car to get through. Alongside the road was a substantial wooden boat about the shape of a common rowboat but much larger. Being completely open on the top it would make a good boat for net fishing. It looked to be in pretty good shape. Might have needed some repairs or maybe the owner quit fishing.
We drove past the College of the Marshall Islands, a group of concrete buildings painted light blue and white. It was founded in 1993. There were students sitting under some picnic style pavilions at the front of the campus.
The Atoll's government building was very nice and looked pretty new. It was also of concrete construction. The government building of the Republic of the Marshall Islands was the exception on the island. It was a glass and steel building at least 4 stories tall. Some critical portions of it appeared to be discretely concrete reinforced. They're only a bit off the Equator so Typhoons of any great strength would only occur here infrequently and quickly move north but some of the storms that come through could create damaging winds. Better safe than sorry. The major bank I saw in town was the Bank of Guam, one of our later stops.
After hauling us all over the island, stopping where our whim determined, waiting for us while we toured the museum and driving us back to the port with even more stops, I asked our driver how much I owed him and all he said was, "Pay what you like." Calculating the standard island salary would have produced a fee of about $8 or so but after all he did and the conversation we had with him that didn't seem like nearly enough to me so I doubled it and threw in a tip. The grin on his face and his smile of honest appreciation was worth whatever I overpaid him. I wish I had a picture of it to show you.
When we got back to the port our hotel manager and his wife, Henk and Crystal Mensink were posing in front of the Welcome to the Marshall Islands sign with their foldable tandem bicycle. I decided to take their picture too. Henk had substantial experience managing large hotel resorts before going to sea. He's an available and friendly manager and I like sailing with him.
It was close to time to sail so we headed on board and quickly headed to the room to get cleaned up after a wonderful but warm day on Majuro Atoll.
Our entertainer was Den West. He plays a variety of stringed instruments, guitar (acoustic and electric), banjo, mandolin and pedal steel guitar. The nature of the instruments almost required that he play many styles of music and he did exactly that. It was another unusual and enjoyable evening. His wife, a song writer singer, Betty West, accompanied his on several songs.
Now two days at sea before arriving in Chuuk aka Truk.
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