by Rosemary Brown
Code Talker by Chester Nez with Judith Schleswig Avila is a fascinating recounting of Chester’s experiences as a Navajo code talker during World War II. Chester was one of the first 29 selected to serve in the Pacific arena. Eventually there were 400 Navajo code talkers in all, and their role was a key factor in the Allied victory over Japan.
Chester grew up immersed in the Navajo culture and language. We learn about his early childhood following the herds of sheep his family owned over the arid landscape in Arizona, as well as his experiences in boarding school, where he learned English.
After the attack on the US naval fleet at Pearl Harbour, the Japanese dominated the Pacific. They were able to stymie US efforts to regain key islands by rapidly breaking codes the US military was using.
This led to the call for Navajo recruits fluent in their own language as well as English. Chester joined the Marines. He and the other Navajo recruits went through the same training as other recruits and often excelled in comparison. Then the Marines selected a group of 29 Navajo to develop a code in their own language. Once the Navajo developed and tested the code, the code talkers and their fellow Marines were sent to the battle for the island of Guadalcanal. Chester also participated in campaigns to retake New Caledonia, Guam, Bougainville, Pelelu, and Anguar.
Chester’s descriptions of fighting in the Pacific – the sights, smells, and sounds—are graphic, and it is no wonder that many soldiers returned to the US so traumatized.
The Japanese were never able to break the Navajo code, and working in pairs, the code talkers were a much faster method of communication via radio than the old code machines were.
We follow Chester after his honourable discharge as he returns home, finishes high school, begins university, is called up from the reserves during the Korean War, and returns home again to work, marry, and raise a family.
The Code Talkers had taken an oath not to disclose what they did during the war, even to their families, and their story did not become public until 1968. The US government lauded their work and acknowledged the vital role they played in the war. Chester was honoured in many ceremonies and was invited to speak all over the US and to be interviewed by various media. What thrilled Chester the most though was being able to finally tell his father and the rest of his family that he had been one of the original code talkers.
This book is a compelling read, from its descriptions of growing up herding sheep and the Navajo culture, to Chester’s war experiences, and then life after the war with all its joys and sorrows. I encourage all to read it.
I was not sure, however, what to make of Thomas King’s novel Indians on Vacation, and it did not absorb my attention as his other books have done.
King tracks the travels of an elderly couple who have been together for many years: Mimi Bull Shield, a Blackfoot, and her husband Blackbird “Bird” Mavrias, who is of Cherokee and Greek heritage. Bird and Mimi are on the 100-year-old trail of Uncle Leroy Bull Shield, who travelled throughout Europe and sent postcards home. Mimi and Bird are visiting the cities these postcards came from and are now going to Prague and Budapest. As King portrays the relationship between these two, he intersperses their current trip with memories of travel to other cities.
Uncle Leroy travelled with a Crow Bundle, so they decide to create a bundle of their own. They use a small gym bag to collect items in, reflecting that cultures change and that “authentic is overdone and is used by whites to keep us in place.”
Their goal is to find traces of Leroy and to see if they can discover where he and his bundle ended up. Travelling with them are Bird’s demons Eugene, Chip Kitty, and the twins Deedee and Desi, who visit him at the most inopportune moments to comment on what he is doing.
There is a running commentary throughout the book on the nature of tourists and tourism; contrasted with a poignant moment in the Budapest train station where they come face to face with the plight of Syrian refugees.
One memory is of a trip to Greece, where they find the home of Bird’s Greek grandfather. Prague and Budapest, however, bring them no closer to finding traces of Leroy and his bundle and they will soon head back to Guelph. While this book did not grab my attention, others thought it was quite amusing, especially the interactions between Bird and Mimi. You will have to read it to decide for yourself.
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