MARSHALL ISLANDS, FLAG OF THE

national flag consisting of a blue field with diagonal stripes of orange and white that increase in width toward the fly end; in the upper hoist corner is a large white star. The flag has a width-to-length ratio of 10 to 19. Following World War II, the United States administered as a trust territory the area that later became the Republic of the Marshall Islands. When the first local government was introduced there on May 1, 1979, the occasion was heralded by the hoisting of a national flag, which had been created in a flag design competition. The winning entry was designed by Emlain Kabua, wife of the president of the new government, Amata Kabua. The blue background of the flag refers to the Pacific Ocean, the white stripe stands for brightness, and the orange stripe is for bravery and wealth. The two stripes together suggest the Equator, which is located slightly south of the Marshall Islands. Growth and vitality for the country are reflected by the increasing width of the stripes. The white star has 24 points, referring to the municipalities of which the nation is composed. The four long rays stand for the capital, on Majuro atoll, and the three administrative centres of the subdistricts. Those rays also suggest a cross and therefore refer to the Christian faith of the Marshall Islanders. Whitney Smith History The Marshall Islands were settled initially around the beginning of the Christian Era by Micronesians who may have been influenced by early Polynesian (Lapita) culture. Radiocarbon dates from earth-oven charcoal samples that were excavated in Laura village on Majuro yielded dates of about 30 BC and AD 50. The early Marshall Islanders were skilled navigators and made long canoe voyages among the atolls. Sighted in 1529 by the Spanish navigator lvaro Saavedra, the Marshalls lacked the wealth to encourage exploitation or mapping. The British captain Samuel Wallis chanced upon Rongerik and Rongelap atolls while sailing from Tahiti to Tinian. The British naval captains John Marshall and Thomas Gilbert partially explored the Marshalls in 1788, but much of the mapping was done by Russian expeditions under Adam Johann Krusenstern (1803) and Otto von Kotzebue (1815 and 1823). U.S. whalers frequented the islands from the 1820s, and U.S. and Hawaiian Protestant missionaries began efforts to convert the islanders in the 1850s. Germany established a coaling station on Jaluit Atoll by treaty with island chiefs and in 1886, by agreement with Great Britain, established a protectorate over the Marshalls. Japan seized the islands in 1914 and later (after 1919) administered them as a League of Nations mandate. Occupied by the United States in World War II, following heavy fighting at Kwajalein and Enewetak, the Marshall Islands were made part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands under jurisdiction of the United States in 1947. After their populations were removed to other atolls, Bikini and Enewetak served as an official testing ground for U.S. nuclear bombs (194658). The tests stopped in 1958 and cleanup efforts began in the late 1960s. During the trial resettlement of the Bikinians, however, their atoll was found to be too contaminated for permanent habitation, and by the late 1970s the people had to be evacuated once again. The Enewetak people were returned to their homeland, and a program to monitor Bikini was put in place. After voting to separate from the other entities of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, in 1978, the Marshall Islands drew up a constitution that voters approved in 1979. It formed the republic and brought internal self-government. In 1982 the government signed the Compact of Free Association with the United States. This agreement, approved by the voters in 1983, requires that the United States remain responsible for defense and external security and that it provide financial assistance for the republic. The compact entitles the United States to use the missile testing range on Kwajalein Atoll, and provides for the republic to become fully independent and to alter its status with the United States at any time, subject to approval of the residents through plebiscites. In 1983 the islanders reopened negotiations on the compact's provision regarding compensation for the people of the four atolls affected by the U.S. nuclear tests. The United States agreed to set up a separate fund for the people of the four atolls and established an open-ended fund to cover personal injury claims among the islanders; it also agreed to set up a joint U.S.-Marshallese claims tribunal. A further agreement set up a fund to improve living conditions on Ebeye island, where all Micronesians working on the Kwajalein missile range and base resided. The Trust Territory was dissolved in 1990 with the approval of the UN Security Council, and on Sept. 17, 1991, the Marshall Islands became a member of the UN. Robert C. Kiste