Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII

Chester Nez, Judith Schiess Avila

I read this book a while back, but I'm reviewing it now in his honor. The author, the last of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers, died yesterday. Before I read this book, I'd heard of him and the work this group of Marines did, but I had no understanding of the danger they endured.  

The book not only tells of the development of the code, and the battles in which it was used, but shares the author’s life growing up on the Navajo reservation, and his life after the war. His humor, humility and wisdom make this worth reading. I’m not a war buff. That’s not why I read it. This is a human story that includes a war.

The author doesn’t make himself into a hero, though many people would say he was one, and he doesn’t glorify war or his part in it. His account of war tells of his friendships with his fellow code talkers, and shows compassionate awareness of the indigenous people of the Pacific islands where major WWII battles took place, destroying their homelands. For a reader not acquainted with Navajo culture and who has never heard that difficult language spoken, it’s still accessible, though if you have some familiarity with both the book will mean even more. I was the only member of my book club with that background when we read it, and all of us liked this book, and felt that in reading it we had met a man worth knowing.

Honor his memory and that of all the Code Talkers. Read this book.