No Hero's Welcome: January 1945 to October 1945
- It's late January 1945. Chester and his buddies are back on Guadalcanal training hard in preparation for the landing on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima is important: it's another stepping-stone for an eventual attack on Japan.
- Just as Chester is readying himself for Iwo Jima, he's called over by a man who tells him that he's made his points.
- That is, he's served on enough islands now. He can go home. Oh. My. God. Chester can't believe it. He's going home!
- Chester boards a transport ship headed back to San Francisco. On the ship, he thinks back on his service. It's been difficult as hell, but he's proud of himself. He's helped defend his country, and he can hold his head up high.
- The discharged Marines, Chester included, arrive in San Francisco.
- Chester checks into the Naval hospital in the city to prepare for his return to civilian life. He still follows news of the war, of course. In the papers, he reads about the Marines landing on the island of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945.
- Soon Chester learns that the Americans take Iwo Jima. A Marine major who was involved with the invasion of Iwo Jima says that the Americans wouldn't have been able to win the island had it not been for the half a dozen code talkers who took part in the invasion. Way to go code talkers!
- More good news soon arrives at the hospital where Chester's resting. Germany surrenders on May 8, 1945.
- But the Japanese don't. The Americans drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August that year. Still, the Japanese don't surrender.
- Tokyo is bombed by 1,600 American aircraft on August 13. Only after two atomic bombs and the bombardment of Tokyo does the Japanese Emperor, Hirohito, admit defeat.
- After the war comes to an end in the Pacific, a Tokyo newspaper says that if the Japanese had managed to crack the Navajo code, the Pacific war might have been won by the Japanese.
- Aren't we glad the Japanese never managed to crack that code!
- Back in the hospital in San Francisco, Chester begins thinking about all the things he'd done in the war that went against Navajo belief, like touching dead bodies.
- He starts having loads of nightmares about the war. Who wouldn't?
- Chester doesn't have any of his Navajo buddies with him in the hospital. After five months, a doc finally tells him he's good to go. He can head home.
- Chester leaves San Francisco and returns to the Marine recruiting station in San Diego for a few more months of duty.
- There, he's told by Marine commanders not to talk about the code to anyone. Not his friends, not his family, not anyone.
- Chester is super disappointed that he won't be able to tell his family about the code. He's been through all this and he can't even talk about it?
- By the time Chester receives his discharge papers, describing him as Private First Class Chester Nez, on October 11, 1945, the war has officially come to an end.
- The Americans have saved the world! Kind of.
October 1945 through the late 1940s
- Chester heads to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where his older brother Coolidge lives. On the way he stops in Gallup, New Mexico, to pick up an identification card that all Native Americans are required to carry at the time.
- In the federal building where he goes to pick up the card, he's insulted by a civil servant, who tells him he's not a full citizen of the U.S. and that he can't even vote.
- Chester keeps his cool and tells him that he's a Marine who's just returned from serving his country.
- Talk about ingratitude: Chester's just risked his life defending this civil servant's butt, and all he gets in return is insults.
- It's pretty incredible to remember, but Chester reminds us here: Native Americans were made citizens of the U.S. in 1924 (ummm…weren't they here first?), but they weren't given the right to vote until 1948, three years after Chester returns from service.
- Coolidge welcomes his little bro in Albuquerque. Everyone asks Chester about the war, but Chester can't say anything about the code. Talk about self-control.
- After a few months in Albuquerque, Chester heads to the Checkerboard, where Grandmother, Grandfather, Father and Dora still live.
- In Chichiltah, surrounded by the landscape of his beautiful home, Chester says a Navajo prayer.
- When he arrives at Grandmother's hogan, he discovers that a neighbor is holding a ceremony conducted by a medicine man, and most of his family is there.
- Chester heads over to the neighbor's ceremony with his uncle. It's a big ceremony, and there are hundreds of people there.
- Chester's father greets his son, but it's a quiet welcome. The Navajos, Chester tells us, don't celebrate the accomplishments of a person who has done their expected duty. Those Navajos are seriously stoic, aren't they?
- Chester heads back to his grandmother's hogan, where he chills with the family. Everyone is happy to have him back.
- The thing is, it's not that easy for Chester to slip back into his old life. He's haunted by memories of the war. He also feels stifled by the fact that he can't talk about the code with his family.
- After six months at home, Chester's still plagued by nightmares about the war. He tells his family he's having terrible dreams about the Japanese.
- The family holds an "Enemy Way" ceremony to help Chester get over the trauma of the war. They go to a "hand-trembler," a medicine man, who decides which healing ceremony Chester needs.
- The hand-trembler decides that Chester needs a "Bad Way" ceremony, which will help him get rid of the evil presence of the Japanese.
- Chester's father chooses a medicine man to perform the ceremony. Navajos from everywhere come to Chester's "sing," or ceremony, which takes place over four days.
- Thank goodness for that ceremony! Chester definitely feels better afterwards, and the nightmares and visions begin to go away.