First sighting recorded by Europeans was by the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra on 1 January 1528 . Together with Utirik Atoll and Rongelap Atoll , they were charted as '' Islas de los Reyes '' ( Islands of the Three Wise Kings in Spanish ) due to the proximity of Epiphany Ailinginae Atoll was claimed by the Empire of Germany along with the rest of the Marshall Islands in 1884 . After World War I , the island came under the South Pacific Mandate of the Empire of Japan . 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 . Ailinginae Atoll has been uninhabited since 1954 when the few islanders were evacuated due to nuclear fallout fears from the Castle Bravo test at Bikini Atoll to the northwest
Castle Bravo
Castle Bravo
Ailinginae Atoll