Windtalkers is a movie turned novel focused on the Native American code talkers and their treatment during WWII. The story follows Joe Enders and Ben Yahzee of the second recon team in the invasion of Saipan. The story is told chronologically with no major time leaps. Windtalkers has many themes that are common in other war stories such as; war being hell, soldiers being too young, etc.. However, the bread and butter of Windtalkers is the Native American code talkers. The code talkers were essential to the US having secure communication, a resource that saved an immeasurable amount of lives. To the US government the code talkers were a resource that must remain in the hands of US soldiers, even if that meant killing the code talkers to avoid
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After the war the code talkers didn’t receive any promotions or increases in pay. They continued to be privates without gaining any awards, even though the code talkers went through as much as other soldiers while still having to learn the code and communicate through it. Along with this the code talkers were treated as just vessels that carried and communicated the code, which meant that if it came down to it, code talkers were killed if they risked being captured. Along with all of the risk, even when a code talker did something worth of a medal they were not rewarded. The author conveys crafts this theme, along with a subtle theme of discrimination against Native Americans, through the actions of Ben Yahzee and Charlie Whitehorse. It is pointed out many times how Whitehorse and Yahzee were treated as outsiders and generally kept to themselves. The most obvious example of both themes occurs after Yahzee and Enders go behind enemy lines, as per Yahzee’s idea, to stop a friendly fire incident. After they succeed, it is only Enders who receives a medal. Enders even directly tells the colonel who gave him the silver medal that Yahzee deserve the medal more than him, to which the colonel scoffs about how that was “the first time Navajo resemblance to Japs has paid off”(155), referring to the code talkers as ‘them’ and the US soldiers as
After the war the code talkers didn’t receive any promotions or increases in pay. They continued to be privates without gaining any awards, even though the code talkers went through as much as other soldiers while still having to learn the code and communicate through it. Along with this the code talkers were treated as just vessels that carried and communicated the code, which meant that if it came down to it, code talkers were killed if they risked being captured. Along with all of the risk, even when a code talker did something worth of a medal they were not rewarded. The author conveys crafts this theme, along with a subtle theme of discrimination against Native Americans, through the actions of Ben Yahzee and Charlie Whitehorse. It is pointed out many times how Whitehorse and Yahzee were treated as outsiders and generally kept to themselves. The most obvious example of both themes occurs after Yahzee and Enders go behind enemy lines, as per Yahzee’s idea, to stop a friendly fire incident. After they succeed, it is only Enders who receives a medal. Enders even directly tells the colonel who gave him the silver medal that Yahzee deserve the medal more than him, to which the colonel scoffs about how that was “the first time Navajo resemblance to Japs has paid off”(155), referring to the code talkers as ‘them’ and the US soldiers as