Editing Rongerik Atoll (section)

==History==
[[File:LST-1108 arrives at Rongerik Atoll on 8 March 1946 (146763092).jpg|thumb|left|An American [[Landing Ship Tank|LST]] at Rongerik in March 1946]]
Rongerik Atoll was claimed by the [[German Empire]] along with the rest of the Marshall Islands in 1885.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Churchill |first1=William |author-link1=William Churchill (ethnologist) |date=1920 |title=Germany's Lost Pacific Empire |jstor=207706 |journal=Geographical Review |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=84–90|doi=10.2307/207706 |bibcode=1920GeoRv..10...84C }}</ref> After World War I, the island came under the [[South Seas Mandate]] of the [[Empire of Japan]], although the island was uninhabited. The island became part of the vast US [[Naval Base Marshall Islands]]. Following the end of World War II, it came under the control of the United States as part of the [[Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands]] until the independence of the Marshall Islands in 1986.

It is most famous as the temporary location, from March 7, 1946 until March 14, 1948, of the Bikini Atoll's indigenous population while the United States government conducted the [[Operation Crossroads]] nuclear tests.  After months of food shortages and malnutrition,<ref>[https://digitalpasifik.org/items/379493 Scientists and natives discussing the food shortage on Rongerik Island, 1947]</ref> they were moved first to [[Kwajalein]] and finally to [[Kili Island]]. On March 1, 1954, Rongerik was exposed to radioactive fallout as a result of the detonation of [[Operation Castle]]'s [[Castle Bravo|Bravo]].

According to Spanish researcher Emilio Pastor in a paper submitted to his government in 1948, a number of small islands in Micronesia ([[Kapingamarangi]] or ''Pescadores'', [[Mapia Atoll|Mapia]] or ''Güedes'', [[Kiritimati]] or ''Matador'', Rongerik or ''Coroa'' and others) continue legally under [[Spain|Spanish]] sovereignty. This is because the text of the [[German–Spanish Treaty (1899)|German–Spanish Treaty of 1899]] which transferred sovereignty of [[Spanish East Indies|certain Spanish possessions]] in the Pacific to [[Germany]], namely the [[Northern Mariana Islands]] (except [[Guam]]) and the [[Caroline Islands]] (including [[Palau]]), failed to include these smaller islands. Although the [[Government of Spain|Spanish government]] studied the case in 1949 and accepted this interpretation, it has not asserted its claim to the islands.<ref>[http://es.noticias.yahoo.com/blogs/cuaderno-historias/las-cuatro-islas-espa%C3%B1olas-perdidas-en-el-oc%C3%A9ano-160928181.html Yahoo News (Spanish) - "Las cuatro islas españolas perdidas en el Océano Pacífico"]</ref>