The Republic of the Marshall Islands consists of 180 square kilometers (70 square miles) of atolls and coral islands spread over 1.9 million square kilometers (733,500 square miles) of Pacific Ocean. Two roughly parallel chains of atolls, the Ratak (sunrise) and Ralik (sunset) groups, run along a northwest to southeast axis around 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) west of Hawaii. In the northern part of the group, the Bikini, Rongelap, Enewetak, and Utrik Atolls were affected by sixty-seven U.S. nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958. Further south, Kwajalein Atoll, which encircles the world's largest lagoon, is the site of a sizeable U.S. military base and missile testing facility. Nearly 50 percent of the population, estimated at 58,000 in 2005, resides on Majuro, the national capital, and another 21 percent live on Kwajalein. The rest are dispersed across the remaining twenty-two inhabited atolls or coral islands.

(MAP BY MARYLAND CARTOGRAPHICS/THE GALE GROUP)

The Marshallese are a Micronesian...