tyler gibb "The bomb will not start a chain-reaction in the water converting it all to gas and letting the ships on all the oceans drop down to the bottom. It will not blow out the bottom of the sea and let all the water run down the hole. It will not destroy gravity."   These reassuring sentiments were given by Vice Admiral W.H.P. Blandy, Commander Joint Task Force One of Operation Crossroads in 1946. He was speaking in defence of the United States of America's first atomic bomb test in the central pacific.   Around the same time, in France, a fashion designer by the name of Louis Reard had just invented shocking new style of women's swim wear. The swimsuit consisted of nothing more than a brassiere-like top and panty-type bottoms, leaving the abdomen bare. But Reard had yet to name his creation. By the same token, another French designer had come up with his own two piece swim suit. His name was Jacque Heim and ironic to this story, he called his creation the "atom", selling it as the "world's smallest bathing suit."   Independent of the fashion industry's exploits in Europe, the United States of America's military was in preparation for some shock waves of their own.   The Marshall Islands are a group of five Islands and twenty nine atolls in the central Pacific. An atoll is a ring shaped coral island grouping with a lagoon in it's center. During World War Two, the Marshalls were occupied by Japan until American forces took control in 1944. Ever since then the American military had maintained their presence. By 1946, the United States of America was scouting for locations suitable to test their Weapons of Mass Destruction. The northern part of the Marshall Islands looked to be a convenient target due to it's apparent isolation.   In February of 1946 Commodore Ben Wyatt, then the military governor of the Marshalls paid a visit to the exotically beautiful atoll of Bikini. There he was quoted as asking the populace of one hundred and sixty seven Bikinians if they would temporarily vacate their rightful home land "for the good of mankind and to end all world wars."   The Bikinians did leave their tropical home of blue water and swaying coconut trees believing in the words of this ambassador that they would be able soon to return.   In 1946 under Operation Crossroads the United States of America detonated two Nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction above and on Bikini atoll. The yield from each of these bombs was measured at twenty three kilotons. That means the explosions had the power of twenty three thousand tons of TNT. That's a twenty three kiloton explosion over an atoll of only 3.4 square miles.   The Bikinians were not to return to their home land any time soon. Over the course of the next few years they were to be spread out onto other atolls that were, more often than not hostile to human existence. Their former home continued to be a test site for American Weapons of Mass Destruction. In 1954 a hydrogen bomb measuring fifteen megatons was detonated on Bikini. That's fifteen million tons worth of TNT. The difference between conventional and nuclear explosives being that the radiation emitted from this blast was deadly over a hundred mile radius of islands and ocean water. On neighbouring islands knowing no better children were playing in the lethal ash that covered the ground two inches deep. They would later show the deadly signs of exposure through profuse vomiting and diarrhoea while their hair fell out. There is no treatment for radiation exposure.   Twenty six years after their initial exodus from their beloved atoll the people of Bikini were granted the rights to return by the United States of America. They were told that to return was at their own risk due to the radiation still present on Bikini. But a warning about an unknown concept would not hold back the eager people to return to their native land. Six years later, in 1978, the Bikinians who had returned were once again evacuate due to the dangerously high levels of radiation now detected.   The plight of the innocent Bikinians has been a long and deadly one. For the most part they're struggle in history will only be trivialized by what most of the world knows as Bikini. Fore it was after the horrific desecration of the beautiful Bikinian home land that in 1946, the French designer Louis Reard named his two piece bathing suit.   The bikini swim suit is the icon to which the Western world can cling to veil itself from the truths about mass destruction and human suffering. It is a true testament to the exploitation of people by their brothers and sisters. The bikini, now so popular with the masses, proves not only to cleverly cover the more obvious parts of the body but also to cleverly block the eyes.