And the Native communities where these people came from and represented were well rewarded, respected and taken care of after the war right? Especially after they had done so much to help save their country.
Unfortunately, it was decades before they were even acknowledged. Partly because it remained classified because the thinking was that it might come in handy again if no one knew about it, and partly because of that ever-present beast of our society, racism.
I’m going to show my age here …. I remember being a kid and living with my 80 year old grandfather who was a First World War veteran (note that I’m talking about ‘First’ … not the ‘Second’ … in case you thought I was mistaken)
We’re Indigenous from northern Ontario and he was taken up in the war towards the end of the conflict when they were getting desperate for anyone to join. My grandfather didn’t see action in the front lines, he worked in the Canadian forestry corps overseas to build the material needed for the war. He was gone for two whole years … he didn’t speak English (or very little) and he had no clue what the hell he was involved in. But they promised him that he would be paid, that his payments would be sent to his family back home in the wilderness and once he returned, he would be given land to farm, equipment, money to get started, animals and assistance to set it all up.
He got back from the war, got sent up north and told to go home. He arrived home and realized that none of his money had been sent to his family. All his money had gone to pay debts with the Hudson Bay Company. No extras, no land, no animals, nothing else was given. He went back home as poor and with nothing as the day he left … it was like he had never gone overseas. Towards the last years of his life, he was given a few token awards and celebrated but all of it was far too little, too late.
The interesting part was that when the Second War occurred, First War veterans like my grandfather discouraged younger people from joining, telling them that it wasn’t worth it … they told younger men who wanted to join that they would be sent out, maybe fight and would not get anything for it and would be poor and destitute by the time they got back. We had a bunch of First War veterans in our extended family …. but no Second World War veterans.
A code talker was a person employed by the military during wartime to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication. The term is most often used for United States service members during the World Wars who used their knowledge of Native American languages as a basis to transmit coded messages. In particular, there were approximately 400 to 500 Native Americans in the United States Marine Corps whose primary job was to transmit secret tactical messages. Code talkers transmitted messages over military telephone or radio communications nets using formally or informally developed codes built upon their indigenous languages. The code talkers improved the speed of encryption and decryption of communications in front line operations during World War II and are credited with some decisive victories. Their code was never broken.
Jemmy
PugJesus
And the Native communities where these people came from and represented were well rewarded, respected and taken care of after the war right? Especially after they had done so much to help save their country.
Unfortunately, it was decades before they were even acknowledged. Partly because it remained classified because the thinking was that it might come in handy again if no one knew about it, and partly because of that ever-present beast of our society, racism.
I know it all too well
I’m going to show my age here …. I remember being a kid and living with my 80 year old grandfather who was a First World War veteran (note that I’m talking about ‘First’ … not the ‘Second’ … in case you thought I was mistaken)
We’re Indigenous from northern Ontario and he was taken up in the war towards the end of the conflict when they were getting desperate for anyone to join. My grandfather didn’t see action in the front lines, he worked in the Canadian forestry corps overseas to build the material needed for the war. He was gone for two whole years … he didn’t speak English (or very little) and he had no clue what the hell he was involved in. But they promised him that he would be paid, that his payments would be sent to his family back home in the wilderness and once he returned, he would be given land to farm, equipment, money to get started, animals and assistance to set it all up.
He got back from the war, got sent up north and told to go home. He arrived home and realized that none of his money had been sent to his family. All his money had gone to pay debts with the Hudson Bay Company. No extras, no land, no animals, nothing else was given. He went back home as poor and with nothing as the day he left … it was like he had never gone overseas. Towards the last years of his life, he was given a few token awards and celebrated but all of it was far too little, too late.
The interesting part was that when the Second War occurred, First War veterans like my grandfather discouraged younger people from joining, telling them that it wasn’t worth it … they told younger men who wanted to join that they would be sent out, maybe fight and would not get anything for it and would be poor and destitute by the time they got back. We had a bunch of First War veterans in our extended family …. but no Second World War veterans.
Fuck.
I have no words.
Thanks for sharing this!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker