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Code Talker Summary

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Kyle Ludwig Mr. Dittmar American History Third Quarter Book Report 6 March 2015 The novel Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac is an amazing story of a young Navajo man that joined the cause to fight in World War II as a Navajo code talker. It presents not only the struggles, challenges and hardships that many soldiers endured but those same struggles, and more, that the Code Talkers fought through. It takes place mid World War II and wraps up with the Japanese surrender ending the long fought war. The book touches on each one of the main stepping stones leading to the final battles against the Japanese at Iwo Jima. World War II was fought from 1939 all the way through 1945 in both Europe and Asia. The war began in Europe with the invasion of Poland …show more content…

They were referred to as The Code Talkers. America was having problems with the Japanese interfering with their radio transmissions and they were intercepting our messages, translating them, and then they knew our whole plan. Philip Johnston came up with the idea to use the native Navajo language to send messages across the radios. Very few non indians knew the language making it perfect for sharing secret messages. He then went through additional training in the art of code talking. They learned the shorthand and were trained in how to operate the radios and quickly and efficiently send messages to one another. They wasted no time getting out in the field. They were trained on the beaches of Hawaii because it resembled the beaches of Guam, Bougainville and many other future targets. However, the sand on Hawaii’s beaches was packed down and low which was much different than the sand in enemy territory. When they landed on the beaches of Bougainville and Guam, it was impossible to move, return fire or set up any camp. The Japanese had dug in hard and rained ammo on the Americans steadily all night. The only thing they could do was dig shallow fox holes in the sand and pray they did not get …show more content…

When they approached the island they found a wall of sand where the tide had washed much of it away. None of the tanks or alligator vehicles could climb it and they soon were bogged down up to their undercarriages in sand. The Marines neared the island expecting to find nothing but destruction. However, they found something far worse. The Japanese soldiers had built shelters and bunkers and were waiting for the Americans to enter the sand and work their way in. Each Marine had a surprise when the Japanese opened fire and, having no support from their own marooned tanks and other support vehicles, the Americans could do nothing but dig down and wait out the storm. When the firing finally stopped and many Americans were dead, the remaining warriors fought hard and pushed the enemy back. The only Japanese remaining on the woodline were a few snipers. One of which caught Ned in his crosshairs. He was hit in the left shoulder but had a clear pass through wound with minimal damage. He made a quick recovery and was sent to San Francisco nearing the end of the war to translate more Navajo messages from the last battles of the war. Once the war ended, he returned home where he became a school teacher. He taught the youth the importance of the sacred Navajo

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