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
Iwo Jima was the key to the war’s end. Now planes are able to fly from Guam and Saipan to Japan without being attacked. Plenty of Japanese people want the war to end, too. But the Japanese military command still refuses to surrender. So a massive invasion of Okinawa is planned.
By this time, most people are terribly weary of war, but surrender still does not appear to be imminent. Okinawa, too, proves to be a devastating battle, with one-third of the Japanese island’s civilian population ultimately dying.
Themes
As Ned is sailing toward Okinawa, he gets one of the biggest surprises of his life. He hears a familiar Southern drawl and sees Georgia Boy, who has survived his wounds after all. This only adds to the good morale among the marines. But Ned is afraid to trust that the war is truly ending. On landing day, he dreads another ambush like those they’ve survived in the past.
Most marines can’t help feeling that the worst is already behind them, but Ned senses that there is another devastating battle to come. Again, his traumatic experience makes it hard for him to relax, even when his immediate surroundings are calm.
Themes
But by nightfall, the marines reach objectives that had been expected to take days. It seems too easy. Indeed, a week later, they reach dug-in Japanese defenses at Kakazu Ridge. The Japanese military command intends to try to bleed the Marines dry. As Ned had feared, some of the war’s bloodiest fighting is still ahead of them. It takes 83 days to fight across one ridge after another. The island is officially secured on June 2. The Japanese lose 110,000 men, and 80,000 Okinawan civilians are killed, too. Ned feels heavy-hearted after the victory and fears the toll that a full-scale invasion of Japan would take. Many Japanese citizens wanted the war to end by this time. However, even Emperor Hirohito was protected from knowing how badly the Japanese military was being beaten, and the military command remained determined to fight.
Though the invasion itself is relatively uneventful, the fighting soon turns fierce one again, with terrible consequences for Allies, Japanese soldiers, and Japanese civilians alike. The Japanese soldiers’ tenacity is an indication of how fiercely they are willing to fight to defend Japan itself. Their determination parallels Ned’s commitment to protecting American land, and this parallel highlights the idea that even seeming enemies often have a lot in common.
Themes
On April 12, Ned receives a radio message telling him that the U.S. president, Franklin Roosevelt, has died. He is moved to tears, and everyone is shocked by the news. Nobody had known how sick FDR was; many didn’t even know he had been crippled by polio. FDR had been greatly loved, and the marines mourn together.
Adding to their depressed morale after the arduous fighting on Okinawa, FDR’s death is a terrible blow for the marines, as well as for the American public in general. The secrecy surrounding FDR’s illness is an example of the secrets that were strategically kept for morale’s sake throughout the war.
Themes
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