BIKINI ATOLL

Bikini Atoll itself is already a sort of monument.

The very shape of this shallow, crescent-shaped band of coral reef and volcanic earth has been altered by man in an irrevocable way. This is a site that saw twenty-three nuclear bombs detonated on its land, in its water, and in the sky above it.

Following World War II, this small island was acquired by the United States of America’s government and would become the target of nuclear devices in order to test their destructive power.

Of these tests, perhaps the most infamous is of the Castle Bravo device.

This bomb yielded a force of 15 megatonnes of TNT, and is--to this day--the largest nuclear detonation facilitated by the United States’ Government.