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Operation Crossroads & The Bikini People
The NUCLEAR LEGACY
In July 1946, the United States tested two nuclear bombs at Bikini, a small island in the Marshall Islands. My father, Will Whitmore, was a civilian participant in this project known as Operation Crossroads. He was one of 40,000 Americans who took part in the project. The devastation of the small island, the displacement of 167 Bikini Islanders and the demise of their culture have haunted me for many years. The Bikini Project is my personal endeavor to understand this period in American history, the consequences of Operation Crossroads for the Bikini people and my father’s voluntary participation in a project that brought suffering to many people.
Recognition of Will Whitmore’s Participation in Operation Crossroads
Will Whitmore, 1902-1959
The boxes that contained my father’s Bikini memorabilia were deeply buried in a family storage room until the winter of 2018 when I decided to open them and to take a look. I discovered the six-month daily journal in which my father described his experiences at Bikini. I read the journal at least three times. I peered at his image and the photographs he made of the explosions. I perused the newspaper clippings and his letters to me when I was six years old. In the boxes, I found three reels of 16mm film and the news reel he projected during his public presentations after he returned. I began to organize my father’s Bikini material. I read about Bikini, asked questions and searched for answers.