Character Analysis
The Japanese are the Big Bad in this book (hey, they sided with the Nazis during World War II. How could they not be the bad guys?). But even though they're on the wrong side of the war, Chester has a lot of respect for their fighting prowess. These guys do not give up, and they're super-smart warriors. They manage to break every single American military code—except for the Navajo code, of course.
What's more, they're really good at using psychological tactics to wear down the American troops. One of their scariest weapons are the Banzai—Japanese soldiers who run and attack American troops in a "a one-man suicide mission, intent on getting [themselves] killed while taking out as many enemy combatants as possible" (12.102).