Bikini Explosion

I found our discussion on the Bikini Islands and its connection to what we know as a bikini interesting so I looked up more about it. I found out that the islands weren't originally called Bikini but known by the marshallese word Pikinni which means something along the lines of "surface of coconuts" or "coconut place." But the reason it was re-dubbed Bikini was because of previous colonization by Germans who changed the name of the islands. I find it interesting that the name we know today wasn't even what the islands were originally known as and to this day we continue to call the island by that name because the original inhabitants have never been able to return. I found that some native islanders tried to return to the island in the 1970's but they found that the radiation was still too great to return. I also found out that Bikini Atoll used to consist of 23 islands but three of the islands (Bokonijien, Aerokojlol, and Nam) were vaporized during the nuclear tests. The history of these islands is a tragic one, with displaced people who were first colonized by Germany and then displaced by the US with the belief that they would be able to return within a short time, and it is dubbed as a World Heritage Site. A World Heritage Site is a site defined as being exceptionally beautiful, or historical, or significant to history. I find it interesting that the site of 23 nuclear tests is dubbed a historically significant place, because the only thing I find it indicative of is the destruction of a beautiful island, a displacement of its people, and an origin for the name of a bikini, named so because of its 'explosive' effect on the world when it was revealed.