at Rongerik in March 1946 Rongerik Atoll was claimed by the
German Empire along with the rest of the Marshall Islands in 1885. 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, 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
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 or
Güedes,
Kiritimati or
Matador, Rongerik or
Coroa and others) continue legally under
Spanish sovereignty. This is because the text of the
German–Spanish Treaty of 1899 which transferred sovereignty of
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
Spanish government studied the case in 1949 and accepted this interpretation, it has not asserted its claim to the islands. ==See also==