Bikini, a name, has long been ingrained in people's minds. It's synonymous with fashion and sexiness, but there's a little-known story behind it.
In a public pool in Paris, in July 1946, dancer Micheline Bernardini showed off a thong-jersey with a newspaper motif, outlining an open, bold and sexy look. At this moment, the bikini became the global fashion focus. However, it takes its name from a remote Pacific atoll that was once known as the "Land of Coconuts".
The Marshall Islands in the central Pacific were victims of colonial rule by many countries until the end of World War II, when the United States returned independence to the Marshallese and rescued them "from the sea of suffering." However, the real nightmare has only just begun.
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a nuclear arms race. To test powerful nuclear weapons, the United States chose the Marshall Islands, specifically Bikini Atoll. In 1946, the United States announced the test of weapons of mass destruction, limiting the range to Bikini Atoll, hoping that the local Marshall residents could be quickly evacuated. Officials in the United States claim that this is to safeguard peace for the benefit of all mankind.
However, residents of Bikini Atoll were relocated to Rongerik Atoll to live in makeshift tents set up by U.S. troops. On June 30, the first atomic bomb of Operation Crossroads, the Ebel, was successfully detonated, which was more powerful than the two Japanese atomic bombs. On July 24, the second nuclear bomb, Baker, exploded, as always destructive. At this time, the name bikini spread around the world and became synonymous with the test explosion of nuclear weapons in the United States.
However, the residents of Bikini Atoll found that the nuclear explosion caused far more damage and radiation than they had imagined. After the explosion of the "Cheering Castle", the three islands of Bikini Atoll were instantly melted, huge fireballs soared into the sky, and heat and deadly radiation turned the islands into a wasteland.
Aboriginal people evacuated to Rongerik Atoll also experienced pain after nuclear snowflakes, including vomiting, diarrhoea, hair loss and skin burns. However, these sufferings are only the beginning.
The United States does not care about the inhabitants of the Marshall Islands, on the contrary, they are excited about it. In 1968, the United States sent all Marshall Islanders back to the Islands on the grounds of ecological stability in the Marshall Islands as experimental subjects to observe the environment of human beings in high-radiation areas for a long time.
To this day, the indigenous peoples of the Marshall Islands still accuse the United States of crimes around the world and do not want the catastrophe caused by nuclear pollution to be forgotten. However, the United States turned a blind eye to this matter and continued to conduct various missile tests on Bikini Atoll, and the name "bikini", which has become synonymous with fashion and sexiness, conceals this man-made disaster.