Code Talker by Chester NezMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I had read earlier versions of this story as it is written by my sister-in-law, and the beginning of the book seemed to have a lot of the flavor of that first version, though that was written as a novel as opposed to a memoir. I think it took me quite a few chapters to start to get the feel of the newer version -- though I don't know why that would make a difference! It is definitely a well-polished book with almost excruciating attention to detail. I say excruciating not to be critical, but I don't particularly like a lot of description, and this book definitely pays a lot of attention to surroundings and sounds, etc. The story itself is very interesting and I became much more engaged after the battles and the back and forth to Chester's childhood. It is, I can be certain, a meticulously documented story, and it was an interesting contrast to another book I recently read about an American soldier who was captured by the Japanese on the Pacific islands. It was very nice to read that Chester believed (from what he witnessed) that the Americans treated the Japanese prisoners very well. (The Japanese did not, or at least from this one particular soldier's experience.)
The use of the Navajo language as a code in war almost seems too easy for the U.S. government to ever employ. I would imagine it was fought over and poo poohed by many high ranking officials and was therefore kept a huge secret much longer than it ever would have been if it was THEIR idea. The fact that the original coding system (shackle) took almost four hours to decode whereas the Navajo code took minutes, would definitely change the outcome of a war. How could it not? I think it is a great tragedy that these Navajo solders were not recognized much, much earlier for their amazing contributions. (I don't believe it was because they wanted to keep it in the vault in case they wanted to use it again. I think it was one of those things that could only be employed once ... because as was implied in the book, there were other Navajos recognizing their language and making innocent comments.)
Anyway, it is an amazing tribute to Chester Nez and his fellow code talkers.
HALLIE: Chester Nez's story is beautiful and sad and has all the components that a good story should have. It was amazing to hear about how they lived and breathed this code in order to completely change the whole outcome of the war. I personally enjoyed Chester's own life story. This was a great read and even though it was somewhat drawn out in parts I most certainly enjoyed it.
