The Big War: Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac

Last week I posted a review of Graham Salisbury's World War II novel titled The Eyes of the Emperor, which dealt in detail with the prejudice against first-generation Japanese-Americans which resulted in their assignment as human "scent bait" for what became the U.S. Army's first K-9 Corps.

In Code Talker: A Novel about the Navaho Marines of World War II Joseph Bruchac takes up another little-known piece of our history, the Navajo code talkers, whose virtually unknown language became the foremost American radio code in the Pacific theatre of World War II. Ironically, for most of the twentieth century the official U. S. position was that the Navajo language was to stamped out through a system of government boarding schools which forbade the use of the Navajo's native language. Because of this suppression, there were no fluent speakers or linguistic documentation outside the Navajo community. When the Japanese proved highly proficient early on at breaking American spoken codes, the fit and hardy young Navajos were avidly recruited by the Marines for radio duty against the Japanese.

Bruchac's main character, Ned Begay, is taken from his family to begin boarding school at the age of six. Although he grieves over his separation from all he loves, he is a gifted student and masters English language and literature readily. When the war begins, he enlists as soon as his parents will allow, at the age of sixteen, and becomes a member of the second Navajo Code Talker group which created an encryption system using Navajo words. In Bruchac's narrative, Begay is assigned to the Leatherneck units island-hopping across the Pacific, from Guadalcanal to Bouganville and finally to Iwo Jima. His description of the misery, pain, and brutality of the Pacific war is straightforward and builds steadily in intensity until the story's climax in the bloody battle of Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima. Through it all, Ned Begay fights bravely as a regular Marine while also working as a radio operator and cypher specialist with his fellow Navajo code talkers.

Like their African-American and Japanese-American fellow soldiers, the Navajos fought with great distinction abroad, but on their return were subjected to the same prejudices they met before the war. Although the Navajo code talkers were essential to the American victory in the Pacific, it was not until 1969 that their records were declassified and they could be honored for their exceptional loyalty and service to the United States, which in their language was called Nihima', "Our Mother." Bruchac's fictional account is an absorbing story of personal courage in battle, but also a moving tribute to these brave Americans whose knowledge of their scorned native language helped to win the war.

Other notable books for young readers about Navajo code talkers include Warriors: Navajo Code Talkers, which features Kenji Kawano's photos of some of the original Navajo Marines, Nathan Aaseng's Navajo Code Talkers, and for younger readers an unusual picture book titled The Unbreakable Code. The story of the Native American code talkers is also featured in Windtalkers,the 2002 movie which starred Nicholas Cage.