Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code by Joseph Bruchac

In October, 1929, eight-year-old Betoli, a member of the Navajo nation, was forced to leave his family , his home, and his goats and sheep to attend boarding school. The school was run by missionaries who decided they would rename him Chester.

At the school, called Fort Defiance, Chester had his long hair cut and he was told not to speak Navajo. For many of the children, Fort Defiance history stirred memories of the Navajo people being held prisoner and force-marched to New Mexico. Chester would comfort those younger children who had scary dreams.

In June, 1932, Chester was able to return home where he could freely speak his own language, care for the sheep and goats he loved so much and pray using corn pollen. His loneliness retreated. But when he returned to school in September, he was once again forbidden to speak Navajo.

As he grew up, Chester worked hard to master English and to pray as the Catholic missionaries taught him, but he also kept his Navajo ways too. Chester was in grade ten when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Although the United States had treated the Navajo as enemies, Chester felt he was part of the country and wanted to defend it.

In April 1942, the U.S. Marine Corps visited the Navajo Reservation, looking for men who spoke Navajo.Their Navajo language, once considered unimportant was now needed to send coded messages. The Americans needed to create a code the Japanese could not break. So Chester along with twenty-nine other Navajo, were chosen among hundreds to form Platoon 382 to work on the code.

At Camp Elliott, Chester and the rest of Platoon 382 were told to create an unbreakable code. They were to make one word for every letter of the alphabet. After choosing an English word for each letter, for example, ant for A and bear for B, they chose Navajo words to replace the English words. Ant became wol-la-chee and bear was Shush.

Discussion

Well-known Native American author, Joseph Bruchac presents the story of Chester Nez, a Navajo Code Talker who served in the Pacific theatre during World War II in this informative picture book. 

 

Chester was born on the Navajo reservation in Chi Chil Tah, New Mexico in 1921.His mother died when he was very young, so he was raised by his father, grandmother and maternal aunt.  His family owned one thousand sheep but in the 1930's, the livestock reduction program forced the removal of seven hundred sheep. This was devastating to Chester's family. 

 

Chester began attending school when he was eight years old but his family removed him from the school and he was sent to a boarding school in Fort Defiance. Although there was likely more food at this institution, there was physical and emotional abuse. Like many Indigenous children in the early 20th century, Chester was not allowed to speak his native language; he was punished if he spoke Navajo.

Chester was recruited into the Marine Corps in 1942 and after boot camp he was along with other Navajo recruits were sent to the Navajo Communications School at Camp Elliott to devise an unbreakable code. They came through, devising a code that was easy to learn and which the Japanese were never able to break. Navajo POWs who were tortured by the Japanese, never revealed the code.

When Chester and the other Navajo talkers arrived in Guadalcanal in 1942, the U.S. Marines had already fought months of bitter battles with the Japanese. The Navajo code talkers quickly proved their code worked and came to earn the respect of their commanding officers. There was little doubt that the Navajo Code Talkers helped win the war in the Pacific.

For Chester, war was a terrible experience, the sight of dead bodies, experiencing "banzai" attacks and seeing and enduring much cruelty. Chester was part of several other brutal battles: the Battle of Bourgainville, the Battle of Guam in which he was wounded, and the Battle of Peleliu. When he returned home, he needed to heal and so an Enemy Way healing treatment was developed. 

In Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code, Bruchac writes about the development of the Navajo code and Chester's role in creating the code as well as his faithful service to the country that had treated he and his people so poorly. The mistreatment of the Navajo by the U.S. government is only briefly explored but offers readers a chance to explore and learn more about this aspect of U.S. history. Despite the abusive treatment Chester and other Navajo experienced, their willingness to defend the U.S. is a testament to their integrity, faithfulness and determination. Bruchac also highlights the toll war took on Chester and how he struggled to heal himself from his experiences at boarding school and from his war service.

Chester's story is also told in the rich artwork of illustrator Liz Amini-Holmes. Bruchac includes a short Author's Note about Chester's life after World War II as well as some of the Navajo code used by Chester and the Navajo Code Talkers. 

Further Research:

You can explore more about Chester Nez from the Library of Congress's Chester Nez collection at the Veterans History Project.

 

Navajo Code Talkers in World War II

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian's online exhibit

Navajo Code Talkers Foundation

Information about Canada's Cree Talkers used in World War II

Book Details

Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talker's Story by Joseph Bruchac
Chicago: Albert Whitman & Co.     2018