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Chapter 17
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Code Talker, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory, Language, and Identity
The Navajo Way and the Life of the Warrior
Culture and Patriotism
War, Healing, and Peace
Summary
Analysis
The next two days are spent establishing the base on Cape Torokina and exploring the island. Its jungle terrain is especially foreign to Ned. There is even an erupting volcano. But there are also hordes of mosquitoes, meaning that everyone has to take awful-tasting Atabrine pills to ward off malaria. At first Ned enjoys tricking the watch officer, who distributes the pills, by just pretending to swallow them, but eventually he is found out.
Malaria was a huge problem during World War II, as troops were exposed to disease-carrying mosquitoes unknown to them at home. Malaria ultimately took more soldiers out of action than the enemy did—hence the strict administration of preventative pills.
Themes
At night, the Japanese often launch banzai attacks. In such attacks, Japanese soldiers leave their posts and come running at their enemies with a single weapon or even just their bare hands. Because of these nighttime attacks, the marines are ordered never to leave their foxholes at night. This leads to tragedy when one of the original code talkers, Harry Tsosie, is accidentally shot to death after he leaves his foxhole at night for some reason and is thought to be an enemy.
Banzai attacks often ended up being suicidal for Japanese soldiers. They were not to stop until either they or their enemies were dead. Of course such attacks were terrifying and demoralizing for the Allies as well, and could sometimes lead to tragic collateral deaths, as happens here.
Themes
Ned and the other code talkers are kept busy even when the rest of their battalion is moved off the line. One day, for example, there are signs that the Japanese have just retreated. Marines are busily foraging through the personal belongings the Japanese have left along the trail. But the Japanese have started booby-trapping some of these items, knowing the Americans like to take them as souvenirs. After two marines are wounded by shrapnel in this way, Ned and his partner Bill Toledo send an urgent coded message warning all units about the traps. If they hadn’t, Ned is sure that many more would have been wounded or killed. As soon as they finish sending that message, a Japanese mortar round lands right where Ned and Bill had been standing.
All kinds of scenarios could emerge which required the code talkers to send urgent, accurate messages, even when they weren’t right in the thick of battle. Because of the need for urgency, the code talkers also had to place themselves right in the line of fire, as seen here with Ned and Bill’s last-minute escape from the mortar round. By this point, it’s become clear just how high the stakes are for Ned—he’s risking everything to serve the United States, driven by his devotion to the land that his people have loved since long before the U.S. existed.
Themes
They spend two months on Bougainville, which Ned remembers as “hard and strange.” Between the thick mud, the mosquitoes, and the volcano, Ned thinks that the very earth seems unhappy about the war. In December, there’s even an earthquake. The marines get their first clear sight of the enemy when the quake sends Japanese snipers falling from the tops of palm trees.
Throughout all these weeks on Bougainville, the Japanese soldiers remain sheltered in their network of caves and tunnels, only seen during the nighttime attacks. This adds to the strangeness of the war and the sense of distance from the enemy.
Themes
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On Bougainville, Ned spends a lot of time with Smitty, a friend of his from Camp Elliott. Long after the war, Ned learns that Smitty had a double assignment—not only to serve in their Signal Corps unit, but also to watch over and protect Ned from other marines, so he would not be mistaken for an enemy in disguise because of his skin tone and the “sort of Asian look that a lot of us Navajos have.”
Because Ned’s appearance could be mistaken for Japanese, he is at greater risk of accidentally being shot as an enemy by a fearful fellow marine.
Themes
One day, Smitty points out a brown-haired lieutenant getting out of a boat and asks Ned if he’d like to meet him. The lieutenant is the son of Joe Kennedy and will probably become a Massachusetts senator if he survives the war. Ned declines, since he’s shy around new people, but later he finds out that Smitty’s prediction was correct. He never does meet JFK, since the code talkers are only invited to the White House many years after his presidency.
Ned has a close brush with future president John F. Kennedy, who did indeed serve in the Solomon Islands campaign, in which he won multiple medals. Ned also nonchalantly acknowledges that White House visits remained in his future, hinting at the changed circumstances that will eventually allow him to tell his grandchildren this story.
Themes
On December 26, the Marines pack up to move off Bougainville. They’ve successfully established the American presence on the island, and with the help of the Seabees (the naval construction battalion), they’ve prepared everything for the Army takeover. Ned can finally relax. He also receives a letter from his parents, assuring him of prayers, and there’s a P.S. from his younger sister, complaining of boredom at school. Ned mails his parents his unwashed fatigues for use in a protection ceremony.
The Seabees were a vital part of the South Pacific campaigns—after the Marines captured an island, the construction battalions would immediately move in to set up airfields, bases, and important structures to prepare for a longer-term presence on the island. Ned sends his dirty uniform home because it can stand in Ned’s place in the protection ceremony.
Themes
