Code Talker

The US forces spend the next couple days setting up a base of operations on Cape Torokina. The terrain is a boiling-hot, swampy, dense jungle, which is foreign and unsettling to Ned and other Navajos, who come from dry, inland climes. Among the dangers are an erupting volcano and swarms of biting insects. Before deploying, Ned had balked at taking the large anti-malaria pills, so much so that he was eventually force-fed the medicine. Among the insect clouds of the South Pacific, he is belatedly grateful for having been made to swallow them.

Tragedy befalls the code talkers on Cape Torokina when the US soldiers kill one of their own, Harry Tsosie, after he leaves his foxhole one night. The soldiers had been under strict orders to stay in their foxholes all night, to avoid being targets of banzai attacks. These attacks, which are essentially suicide missions, refer to a surprise attack where the Japanese assailant won’t stop until he or his victim is dead. When Tsosie is seen out at night, US soldiers assume he must be the enemy.

Slogging through deep mud one day, Ned and others come across the body of a dead Japanese soldier leaning against a tree, eyes shut, as if in sleep. Ned says, “I was surprised at how young and peaceful he looked and how small he was. I realized, with a shock, that his face was a lot like that of one of my cousins back home” (125). A US soldier nearby fires his gun at the body, saying it’s a smart precaution in case the enemy is only pretending to be dead.

Ned turns 17 on the same day that the Marine Corps celebrate its 138th anniversary—or at least he thinks he does: Ned grew up knowing only his approximate birth date and wasn’t assigned an official birthday until one had to be recorded at the Rehoboth school. To commemorate the anniversary, the rest of Ned’s battalion are given two weeks off, but not the code talkers, whose special skills are too invaluable.

One day Ned is on a trail setting up a command post when he comes upon some abandoned Japanese rations. After two Marines are injured, the rest realize that such “souvenirs” have been left to entice US forces—they’re actually booby-trapped explosives. The code talkers quickly relay this intel around, preventing more US casualties.

A fellow soldier named Smitty, whom Ned often works with, turns out to have been given a double assignment. One of Smitty’s jobs is to prevent Ned from being mistaken for an enemy soldier. Ned and Smitty are at the command post one day, where the Seabees (military construction battalions) have built several structures, including a base for PT boats. Smitty points to one of the PT boat operators, who turns out to be John F. Kennedy, a senator’s son who is assumed to have a bright political future ahead of him. Smitty offers to introduce Ned to JFK, but Ned is too shy.

After the Marine presence has been established, Ned and others are shipped out to train for landing on another island. Ned receives a letter from his parents and in return sends them his dirty fatigues, asking that they use the clothing to perform a protection ceremony for him.

The code talkers are all sent back to Hawaii to learn the updated code. The code’s original 265-word vocabulary has almost doubled. The Navajos have proven their worth in the field, even to military leaders who at first doubted the program. Soon, it’s recommended that every company have eight code talkers among its ranks, and each division should have 100.

Alex Williams, another code talker, tells Ned about his harrowing experience in the campaign to take New Britain Island. Alex was carrying a message between battalions when a US soldier mistook him for an enemy combatant. Even after he said the correct password, the US soldier attempted to bayonet him. He was saved when he sank into a foxhole and the US soldier in the hole vouched for him.

Ned is worried for his friends Smitty and Georgia Boy, who weren’t sent to Hawaii when the code talkers returned there for training. He recalls, “I no longer thought of them as bilagaanaa strangers. They were friends and fellow Marines and I wished they could have enjoyed some of the beauty and peace that was around me at Pearl [Harbor]” (139). The peace to which Ned refers is the downtime between battles—an uneasy peace, as soldiers can’t help but reflect on the violence they have seen and anticipate what violence may come next. Ned suspects that this unease is what drives other Marines to drink. Instead of drinking, Ned comforts himself by rising in the mornings to perform his corn pollen ritual and reaffirm that “the Holy People would not forget” him (140).

Time passes quickly. It’s now 1944, and Ned’s next campaign will be Operation Forager, in the Marianas Islands, under the command of Admiral Nimitz. The amphibious landings are under the leadership of Marine General Holland Smith, who has a fiery temper. Ned is divided into the northern task force, where he is reunited with Smitty and Georgia Boy. They find out they’re headed to Guam and later find out they are very lucky not to have been sent to Saipan. The naval bombardment that preceded the amphibious attack on Saipan was not effective in decimating the enemy. Hundreds of Marines died trying to take the beach after General “Howling Mad” Smith refused to order a retreat. Many civilians lived on Saipan as well, including women and children who fled incoming US forces in fear, often killing themselves in the process. Approximately 3,000 US soldiers died, along with 20,000 Japanese soldiers and untold civilian casualties.

Even on Saipan, there is room for some lightheartedness. A code talker named Danny Akee recalls how the Navajo soldiers there used slingshots to kill chickens and then made chicken stew, which they shared with their surprised non-Indigenous counterparts, who were glad to eat something besides military rations.