Code Talker

When the Japanese open fire, there’s nothing between the US soldiers on the beach and the ambush. Ned and the others have a hard time climbing in the deep sand. Eventually Smitty digs a foxhole, from which Ned begins to send messages.

The first three days on Iwo Jima are hard for Ned to piece together. There is a multitude of overwhelming sights, sounds, and smells: sulfur, gasoline from napalm bombs, gunpowder, melting metal, and burning skin. For Ned, it’s calming to remember the Navajo voices that relayed messages throughout the long battle. Amid the memory of mayhem, he says, “I also hear clear voices when I remember that time […] Speaking above the deadly whirr of shrapnel, and snap of Japanese rifles, and the ping of bullets bouncing off our radio equipment. Speaking calmly” (186-87).

It takes the Marines four days to make it halfway up the slope of Mount Suribachi. On the way they find the empty caves and chambers of the retreating enemy. Eventually, 40 men summit the mountain and “spill” into the crater. They use a nearby pipe to erect a small American flag. The sight of the flag is cheered up and down Mount Suribachi by the American soldiers.

The secretary of the navy, General Howling Mad Smith, and other admirals feel sure of US victory at this point, but the fighting on Iwo Jima is far from over. Three more code talkers are killed or wounded as the Japanese fight on, even after their stronghold is taken. Ned sees many of his white friends killed too, there one moment and dead the next. By the end of the fighting, 20,000 Japanese soldiers lost their lives. 6,821 Americans also died, and almost 20,000 were wounded.

Three weeks after taking Suribachi, Ned joins an effort to take Hill 362. The contingent comes under fire, and Georgia Boy is shot in the neck. Ned stanches the blood flow but must then leave his friend in the care of a medic. Ned doesn’t see Georgia Boy again on Iwo Jima.

Twenty-six days after landing on the island, US forces declare that the resistance has ended, and they begin to withdraw to Guam. A picture of the flag being raised on Suribachi is later printed in Leatherneck magazine, though that picture is actually of a recreation of the event. Ira Hayes, a Pima man who appears in the famous photo, becomes a minor celebrity, but he doesn’t enjoy the attention because it makes him think of the bloody battle.

Even though Iwo Jima is a key victory for Allied forces in the Pacific, the Japanese refuse to surrender. The code talkers are involved in yet another operation called Iceberg, this time on Okinawa. The number of troops involved exceeds the number who landed on the beach in Normandy.

Ned finds himself again with Smitty; he is then surprised and delighted to discover that Georgia Boy is also back. Many of the Marines are upbeat. They talk about finally going home. But Ned is apprehensive after his experience on Iwo Jima.

When the Marines land on Okinawa and aren’t met with any opposition, it seems their optimism is well-founded, but they soon learn that Japanese forces are waiting further inland, hoping to fire on as many troops as possible and force US withdrawal. The Americans do not withdraw. Fighting endures for 83 days, and heavy casualties are sustained on both sides. In the end the Japanese general commits suicide.

US commanders now have a sense of the heavy losses that might be felt if they invade mainland Japan. Many Japanese civilians protest the ongoing war but are silenced by the “Thought Police.” Some fathers of Japanese soldiers even sever their index fingers and send them to the emperor as a form of protest, though they never reach the intended recipient. The Japanese emperor is considered divine, and his Supreme Military Council is unwilling to admit their embarrassing defeats.

On April 12, 1945, Ned receives the encoded message that FDR has died. The news comes as a devastating shock to many, as few had known he was even sick. The fact that FDR had polio wasn’t common knowledge.

Ned shares meat from a slaughtered goat with several other Indigenous soldiers. In this moment they feel camaraderie and a sense of the days before the war.

The Allies bomb mainland Japan, and Tokyo is obliterated in a firestorm. Emperor Hirohito urges his military council to seek peace, but he is ignored.

On August 6, 1945, the US drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing 70,000 people. Two days later they drop an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Following these devastating attacks, Hirohito goes directly to his military council and says that Japan will accede to the Allied proposal. The emperor goes on the radio and announces Japan’s surrender. The code talkers receive the message that Hirohito is asking for terms of peace and all celebrate, banging drums and yelling and singing. Everyone is elated by the prospect of an end to the killing and returning home.

The code talkers are not permitted to go straight home after the war ends. Two of them, Paul and Rex, are sent to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and they relay messages home, conveying what they see there: The cities have been devastated and the remaining citizens are living in rudimentary dwellings. To Paul and Rex, these shacks look “just like the lean-tos made back home by our own Navajo people. Many of those Japanese survivors looked so Indian that they might have been Navajos” (207).

After the war, some code talkers stay in the armed forces while others move overseas, to countries where they feel welcome. At the end of his tour, Ned returns to his home in Dinetah. The US government prohibits code talkers from ever revealing the special role they played in the war.

As he returns home, Ned is unsure of what to do with his life. He enters a bar at the edge of his reservation and the proprietor refuses to serve him because he’s Navajo. Ned realizes that his status as a Marine won’t change deep-seated racist and discriminatory behaviors in America. Ned doesn’t resist the insult and resolves to use his GI Bill to go to college and become a teacher of Navajo language and culture.

Ned is plagued by nightmares when he gets home, and his family decides to conduct an Enemyway ceremony to restore his balance. He later learns that the GI Bill is not equally available to all servicemembers. The money can’t be used for a house on the Indigenous reservation, which is where Ned chooses to live. Ned participates in his tribal government, working on education reforms for his people.

In 1969 the code talkers are finally allowed to discuss their role in World War Two. The code talkers are recognized in the media, books are written, and they’re even invited to the White House. Above all the accolades, Ned values being able to teach his experiences to younger Navajo generations. Ned’s narrative ends as he once again addresses his “Grandchildren,” exhorting them not to lose touch with their sacred language and culture.