20th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Drone/Aerial
Ejjit Island

This small islet called Ejjit quietly sits within the Marshallese archipelago and is home to the people of Bikini Atoll. During the 1940s and 50s the United States conducted a series of 67 atomic bombs tests in the Marshall Islands with a primary site for their experiments being directly on the homes of the Bikinians. Leaving their homes to make way for the testing, the people of bikini assumed they would return after just a short while. Unfortunately returning would not be an option. To this day, the radioactivity on Bikini is dangerously high and not able to support habitable conditions. So the people remain on Ejjit, as nuclear testing refugees waiting to someday return home.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 03.2020
Date Uploaded: 10.2022
Photo Location: Marshall Islands
Camera: L1D-20c
Copyright: © Clay Kruse