Chester Nez

     ​Chester Nez had a hard life from the beginning, living on his grandmas land herding sheep since he was five. He would have to walk up to 20 miles so he could find green grass for the sheep. The government came and dug big trenches in the ground and told Chesters grandma to put the sheep in there, after 700 out of her 1,000 sheep were in there they told her to stop. From there they burned all the sheep. At boarding school Chester and his Navajo brothers were beaten if they spoke their native tongue. One day at school the military came asking for volunteers, without even knowing what they were gonna do. 30 volunteered and one dropped out. The military took the boys to California. They were told that they needed to develop an unbreakable code. After developing a long and strenuous code, Chester and his group were deployed. When he first arrived the person in charge told them that they were not needed and he didn’t want to switch codes in the middle of a battle. One of the Navajos spoke up and told him “Give us a chance.”  

     So there was a competition, he gave them a code to decipher and told them that his men could translate and get a reply. After two and a half minutes one of the Navajo stood up and the officer said “Are you lost already”

      ​ “No we're done” he said. The officer who was looking a little red in the face told them that he could put them to use. This code has been argued that it won the war for us. Chester was apart of island hopping. They would secure islands till they got into range of Japan. When asked if he was harassed for his color he said “No, they treated us like brothers.” 

         ​This book is related to Unbroken because, Chester forgave the U.S. for burning his sheep like Louie forgave his captors. I wonder how the war would of turned out without the Navajo Code talkers.