They Never Let Them Return

In 1945, a British colonial official told the entire population of a Pacific island they were being moved. Temporarily. For their own safety. Just until things settled down. That was eighty years ago. They've never been allowed to return. The island is called Banaba. On Google Earth it looks like Nauru — the same grey moonscape, the same stripped coral pinnacles, the same scarred interior. Same British Phosphate Commission. Same geologist who found both deposits. But Banaba is not the same story as Nauru. Nauru kept its people. Banaba's people were removed while there was still plenty of phosphate left. Because the presence of two thousand people with individual land title claims was inconvenient for the extraction schedule. Twenty two million tonnes later, the island is empty. And it's now the only piece of land in an entire nation that won't go underwater. Chapters: 00:00 Temporary. That Was 80 Years Ago. 00:30 The Island Called Banaba 01:05 Google Earth 01:40 The Same Geologist Found Both Islands 02:30 22 Million Tonnes 03:10 Not the Same Story as Nauru 04:00 Phosphate Discovery 1900 04:40 The Banaban Land Title System 05:20 The British Phosphate Commission 06:00 Not Passive — They Resisted 06:30 Then Came 1942 06:46 Allied Forces Return 1945 07:20 They Were Told It Was Temporary 08:30 What the BPC Had Already Decided 09:30 It Was a Clearance 10:20 Rabi Island — Finding Nothing 11:15 Not Fijian 12:00 Mining Until 1979 12:30 The 1981 Legal Case 13:00 £10 Million 13:18 Google Earth Revisited 14:00 The Railway Tracks Still Visible 14:45 The Machinery Nobody Cleaned Up 15:30 Permanent Population: Effectively Zero 16:10 The Most Unexpected Element 16:40 The Highest Point in Kiribati 17:30 When Every Other Part of Kiribati Is Gone 18:15 Our Land Died So Others Could Live 19:30 What Is It Waiting For Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banaba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Phosphate_Commission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Ellis_(prospector) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabi_Island https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiribati https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tito_v_Waddell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_Oceania https://www.chemistryworld.com/culture/the-islands-the-world-forgot/4018561.article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphate_mining_in_Banaba_and_Nauru #BanabaIsland #OceanIsland #ForgottenHistory #DarkHistory #Kiribati #ColonialHistory #GoogleEarth #Geography #ClimateChange #IslandHistory