-Good morning, everyone and welcome to the webinar.
My name is Kate Fitzgerald and I am the distance learning specialist here
at the National World War Two Museum in New Orleans.
Before we get started I want to do a quick review of technology.
I'm going to share my screen with you
and you should be seeing a 'Don't go away the webinar will begin shortly.'
Now, you should see something that says "Participation Technology Review."
If you look at the bottom of your screen
you should see a little box that has a Q in it and that says Q&A.
If you have any questions about technology
or any questions for myself, or Kirby
if you'll go ahead and type those questions into the Q&A box
we will get to those at the end of this presentation in our Q&A section.
Now, you should be seeing a screen with a cover of the book
and if you go to art museum website store, the link below
the link was also in your teacher guide that was sent out.
We will resend that teacher guide
to everyone after the program is over in case you need it again
but you will receive a 20% discount from the museum store
if you order codeword courage using the code word webinar.
All right. If you haven't already purchased the book
this would be a great time to do it.
Without further ado, today's presentation is on Code Word Courage
and we are joined by Kirby Larson.
She is a Newbery award winner and she's here to talk about her research
and why she chose to write Code Word Courage.
She's going to start and then I'm going to do
a little bit about the themes in the book
after Kirby gives her portion and then we'll end our session
with a Q&A where we can take questions.
Without further ado.
-You're ready for me to take it away? All right.
-Yes. While Kirby talks
I'm going to mute myself and take away my video
but I will come right back on as soon as Kirby is done.
-Okay. Do you just see-- Got it.
All right. I'm excited to talk to you all about this book
which is the fourth and final book in the series
that we call the Dogs of World War II.
I will tell you a little bit about how I came to be a writer
and a little bit about my writing process as well.
Like many of you I had this burning question as a kid
"What should I be when I grow up?"
For a long time I wanted to be a circus performer
doing the Flying Trapeze and then after I read the Encyclopedia Brown books
I decided I definitely wanted to be a detective
but my mom said that would be too dangerous.
A lot of girls in my generation were encouraged to be nurses
but I get queasy at the sight of blood so that did not seem like a good solution.
Finally, when I realized how much I loved reading
I thought, "Hey, maybe I could be a writer of children's books."
I started writing stories and sending them out
and I would send them to publishers in New York City
because that's where most of the publishers were.
Publishers are companies that take people's stories and turn them into books.
I'd send off my stories and I'd be so excited waiting for those letters
to come back to tell me I was going to have a book.
Well, I did get lots of letters. I stopped counting after 250.
The thing is, these were called rejection letters
and these letters said "Dear Kirby, we do not like your story"
"and we are not going to make it into a book."
I was like, "Why are these publishers not cooperating?"
"This is so disappointing."
"I finally figured out what I want to do with my life."
There was something I needed to learn
that there are two very important things for a writer
and I hadn't learned them yet.
Actually, how I learned them is an interesting way.
I learned them when about 10 years ago
Kirby, who never had a dog in her life decided to bring a little dog into her life.
A dog whose name is Winston V Larson and Winston even loves to dress up for Halloween
he's such a good sport but since I had never had a dog
I knew I needed to take a training class with Winston.
He and I go off to the training class
and the first command that they taught us was, sit
or taught me to teach Winston.
Then the second command was to stay.
I was sitting there working with Winston
on these commands and all of a sudden I realized the two most important lessons
for a writer too are to sit in her office chair every single day
and stay there until she has polished her stories
until they are the very best they can be.
Once I figured that out that writing was a job
and I needed to take it very seriously
and I needed to send out not my first drafts like I had been doing
but my polished drafts sometimes my 10th draft.
After I figured that out I began to get some books published.
Now, it's pretty exciting.
I have not always been a student of history
but when I became so fascinated with history--
There's Winston and I working away in my office.
When I became fascinated with history
I was especially intrigued by World War Two.
It seemed to have a tremendous impact on our country
and my husband gave me this book
called Code Talker and it was a memoir of a man
who actually had been a code talker in World War Two.
Because I've done a lot of reading about this war
I had heard of code talkers before
but there was so much I learned from Chester Nez's story.
For instance, I had never realized
that many young Navajo children like six, seven, eight years old
were taken away from their families in the 1920s and 30s
and beyond and they were sent away to residential boarding schools.
When they got to these schools
for example, the boys who in their culture were supposed to wear their hair long
they were forced to have their hair cut short
and they were forced to dress in clothing that was unfamiliar to them.
In addition, when they got to these schools
if they were ever overheard speaking their own language which was Navajo
they would get their mouths washed out with this disgusting soap called Fels-Naptha.
I once said a naughty word
and my mom washed my mouth out with Fels-Naptha the soap
and I can tell you it's disgusting and terrible.
They were punished for speaking their own language
and I learned something else about their history.
In the 1800s, they were forced to move from their homeland
which is in the four corners territory of our country
even moms with babies on their backs
and they had to walk miles and miles and miles to a new location called Bosque Redondo.
On this terrible walk, which the Navajo actually called the long walk
over 300 people perished in this terrible walk.
Then, on top of that when they were finally allowed back
to a smaller part of their homeland now a reservation
they began to raise sheep to try to support themselves, sheep and goat.
When you think of the Navajos
you may think of the beautiful blankets and rugs that they weave
and that's from the wool from their goats and sheep.
Well, after a few years of having a lot of sheep
the government decided that they had too many sheep
and so they were forced to give up some of their sheep
and thus some of the way they could support themselves
and make money and feed their families.
I'm telling all this to help you understand that the Navajo young men
had been through many tough experiences.
It was a shock to me to learn that after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941
along with thousands of other young men
thousands of Navajo young men also enlisted in the Marines and in the army.
It was hard for me to understand
how they could be that self-sacrificing to do that for a country
that really hadn't cared for them or supported them, but they did enlist.
There was a sergeant, not a Navajo
his name is Phillip Johnston and he had grown up on the Navajo reservation
and even though he lived there his whole life
he could only speak a few words of Navajo
because it's such a difficult language to speak and to learn.
He got an idea that maybe the military could create a code
based on the Navajo language because very few people could speak it.
He went to the military and he gave his proposal
and they accepted it and 30 Navajo Marines volunteered
to help create that first code.
The initial code contained about 200 words
but over the course of the war
it evolved and there ended up being about 400 words in the code.
The code talkers that they came to be called would be out in the battlefields
with these very heavy radios and they could quickly transmit and decipher codes
even under just extreme battle situations.
To give you one small example of how the code was used
the Code Talkers would think about things that they knew from nature.
For example, they could think of a whale
which is a gigantic creature and they compared it
to a battleship which is a gigantic ship.
I am not going to be able to pronounce this word correctly
but they called a battleship in Navajo they called that Lo-tso
which is the same word for a whale.
That's one way that they used their language to develop a code.
If you're curious about all the words
that they ended up developing in their Navajo Code Talkers dictionary.
You can go to the website that's here on the screen
which is actually included in the resource materials
that you received prior to the webinar today.
You'll see, you'll be amazed when you look at it
how complicated the code is and to have to memorize all that
and be able to translate it on the spur of the moment.
It's really an astonishing accomplishment.
If you can see me you could tell that I am not Navajo
I needed to enlist the help of some people
who were Navajo to help me tell the story accurately and respectfully.
Now on your screen, you should see a picture of Dr. Roy O. Hawthorne
who was one of the 400 Navajo Code Talkers.
I reached out to Dr. Hawthorne through the Code Talkers Facebook page.
I explained what I was trying to do.
I asked if it felt like it was okay thing for me to take on.
Dr. Hawthorne responded and he said he was really excited
that I was thinking of trying to tell this story for the middle-grade audience.
He was terrific and telling me his own stories and things that he had experienced.
His stories really helped me to create the Navajo character
the marine in my book Code Word Courage who I named Denny Begay.
I used Begay because it's a common Navajo last name
and this is just an inside story between us.
I used Denny because that is my baby brother's name
and I wanted to work him into a story.
Another person who was tremendously helpful was the man
who's standing in this photograph
his name is Michael Smith.
He's the son of the man who's seated there
Samuel Jessie Smith Sr. and Jessie Smith Sr. was a Navajo Code Talker
who actually served in the battle of Iwo Jima
which is one of the battles that's referenced in Code Word Courage.
Sadly the elder Mr. Smith has passed away
but his son was also excited about this project
and he graciously agreed to read my entire manuscript
and that's a big commitment.
He read through the whole thing to make sure I was being accurate
and respectful of the Navajo culture.
He was a tremendous help in keeping me on the right track.
He was also a tremendous encourager.
I'm so grateful for the help of Dr. Hawthorne and Michael Smith.
After I got their encouragement and permission
of course, I had to do my research.
I began to read every book I could get my hand on about the Code Talkers books
that they had written themselves
books that were written about them by other people.
These are actually two of the memoirs I read
and the book in the upper corner was written by the daughter of a Code Talker.
Then I wanted to hear them if I could
and thankfully, they had recorded some video interviews
on this website navajocodetalker.codes
and as well there are some oral histories recorded at the Library of Congress.
Those sites too are given to you as links
in the documents that you received prior to the webinar.
I would highly recommend going to one of these sites
and just listening to at least one of the men talk about their experiences.
When the war was over in 1945
the Code Talkers we're told to go home
and not tell anybody what they had done and they did not.
They went home and they didn't say a word to anyone
not their family members, not anyone.
It wasn't until the late 1960s when someone was doing some research
on another topic that they encountered some information
about the Code Talkers in some then declassified documents.
It took 50 years in all for the Code Talkers
to be recognized for their contributions to our country.
In 2001 President Bush presented gold medals
to the four surviving Code Talkers.
If you get a chance to look at any images from that ceremony
it's really moving and I encourage you to take a look at that.
I love this quote because it really sums up what I believe.
"If we don't understand our past"
"we're going to have a hard time figuring out our present and our future."
"I really do believe it's by understanding our past"
"that we are given the ability to make changes"
"in the present and changes in the future."
I particularly love writing stories about the past for young readers
because I think they are really the hope for the future.
I think if they can understand
they will certainly figure things out for us because I write for young readers
kids your age, I'd like to have an 11-year-old character.
One advice almost every writer hears and gives is to write what you know.
I began to think about myself as an 11-year-old girl.
I created a character named Billy Packer.
I'm the one on the right in the striped sweater.
I never quite fit in.
I was always a little lonely I had a hard time making friends
a little bit goofy and left out.
I knew what those feelings could feel like and I thought that Billy Packer
might be one of those kids similar to what I was like.
I was thinking if she was 11 in 1942
that would have made her a young girl living through the Great Depression.
I started to think about all the things that happened during the Great Depression.
One of the most powerful things is that so many men
and women left their families behind in search of work.
I was pretty sure that that was something that would have happened to Billy too.
In fact, they were left on their great aunt's farm
her brother Leo and Billy wondering and longing for their father to return
but he never came back.
I could just imagine how Billy would just listen
to every car going down the highway and wonder
"Would my dad be in this car coming home finally?"
You'll have to read to see if she ever does get reunited with him.
Another thing I knew about Billy
is that she would be like most other kids
living in the United States and that they would be participating
in the war effort somehow.
They might be planting a victory garden.
Even boys would knit socks and mufflers for the soldiers.
They might write them letters.
They would definitely help purchase groceries using their coupon books
that their families were given to ration out the food.
I would highly encourage you
to check out the World War II museums website and get involved in there.
Get in the scrap program
because it will really put you in the shoes of those children
who were living during the war.
It will give you a great picture of the things that they did to pitch in and help out.
Another thing kids like Billy would have done would be
to save their nickels and dimes and quarters
and bring them to school to purchase war stamps.
When they had purchased a book full of war stamps
they could trade that book in for $25 savings bond
war bond actually they were called.
The reason they were called war bonds
is that our government used the money
that was raised through these efforts to help pay for the war.
You've probably already figured out that wars can be incredibly expensive.
I do a lot of different things to try
to understand what it was like to live during World War II.
I was not born then I was born ways after the war.
Some of the things I like to do is I like to read the books
and comic books that kids would have read, then.
I like to listen to radio shows that they would have listened to
and that's actually easy to do on many different archives
or listen to records that they would have listened to.
Remember, kids didn't have TV.
Their entertainment was they either made their own entertainment
or they listened to records or the radio.
I even like to find old cookbooks and recreate recipes
that kids might have eaten during World War II.
I found some delicious
especially dessert recipes in cookbooks like this one.
There were some icky recipes too
like this braised pork liver and I have to be honest
I never really tried these recipes that don't sound as appealing.
Then, of course, when I had completed all my research
and I felt I had a good understanding of my characters--
There's something else that's really important in these books
that I've written about World War II.
There is always a dog and in Code Word Courage the dog
is actually a stray dog who's named Bear.
I modeled him after a Belgian sheepdog
because the sheep were so important to the Navajo people.
I didn't end up using that plotline in the book
but Bear stayed a big smart Shepherd.
In this story, Denny is the one who finds him when he's lost
and because he has to go off to fight in the war
he leaves him with Billy.
Through this story, Code Word Courage
you will discover that Bear ends up saving both of his human friends.
I hope you'll take time to read it to find out how.
It has really been fun for me to share a bit of the story
and the work I was involved in to get this story in front of you.
Now I'm going to turn this story back over to Kate.
-All right.
Thank you, Kirby, so much and I am going to elaborate.
Can you hear me?
-[?]
-Yes, I'm going to elaborate on what Kirby talked
about using three different parts from the story.
I'm going to go ahead and mute Kirby
and then we'll bring Kirby back on after we read three parts from the
we won't give it away but three parts from the book.
Then, we'll do some Q&A.
-I think you muted yourself and not me.
-All right. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen with you guys.
We are going to start on chapter 2, page 13.
Our first theme that we have to talk about
before we talk about the code talkers themselves
are the American Indian or native American residential schools.
On page 13, it starts with, "His buddy had no idea what it was like to grow up"
"on the reservation being hauled off to boarding school"
"as an eight-year-old where the main lesson was being Diné was unacceptable."
"10 years later Denny could still taste the soap,"
The soap that Kirby talked about.
"The principal would shove in his mouth every time you spoke Navajo
his own language.
In World War II, as we now know they used Navajo language to make a code
but this same code was a code that the American government
starting in about the 1870 tried to get rid of.
Native American, including Navajo children
but many other tribes as well children were removed
from their homes and from their families
and brought to these boarding schools.
Here we have a picture of one of these boarding schools.
They were meant to assimilate American Indian children
into the greater American culture.
It would take away their way of life
their traditions, their way of dressing but especially their language.
They were usually given different names a more American sounding name.
We're going to look at some pictures of what happened to what they looked like.
"Even more than that"
"they were not allowed to speak their language anymore."
"These languages like Navajo start to die out"
"because people aren't speaking them anymore."
Here we have a couple of pictures.
Most of these school locations were in the West
in the northwest near reservations themselves.
There are some schools still left that you can go visit as museums.
Then at the bottom you see a native American schoolboy
from what he looked like when he came from the reservation
into what he looked like just a couple months
after being at the reservation themselves.
Here's another example. These are not Navajo children.
These are Apache children.
They went to the Carlisle boarding school as you can see they have long hair.
They're wearing pretty much their traditional dress at the time
then only about a couple months
after they had been at this Carlisle boarding school--
This is the same exact group of children
and you can see they are wearing totally different clothes.
They have all of their haircut
and it basically looks like they are been assimilated
into the broader culture around them.
Their Navajo language or their Apache culture
or whatever tribe they came from it starts to die out.
It doesn't really come back into use until World War II.
This is going to cause some controversy that we'll talk about here in a little bit.
We're going to move on to our next theme which is the code talkers themselves.
If you'll head to chapter 10, page 78.
We're going to read about the code talkers themselves.
Sergeant Johnson picked up a pointer
and tapped at the list of words on the blackboard.
Begay, what's this?
The pointer landed on Ga-gih, "Crow,"
Denny answered. "That's what it meant yesterday."
"Today it means patrol plane."
The pointer kept tapping, Tas-chizzie swallow, was a torpedo plane.
Atsá, eagle, a transport plane.
As the sergeant went down the list Denny's heart beat faster, it was a code.
The Navajo language was the basis of a code.
That's why he was here. He glanced around the room.
That's why they were all here.
Just like Kirby said in her presentation, Phil Johnson
who his parents were missionaries and he grew up on a Navajo reservation
had the idea to do this.
He served actually World War I
and he witnessed other Native American languages
specifically the Choctaw being used in Europe.
We get asked a lot why then wasn't Choctaw used in World War II.
Between World War I, world war II German anthropologist actually went
and studied most of the American Indian tribes
in the United States and learned their language.
They never learned Navajo because it wasn't written down.
Most of the other ones were written down.
Sergeant Phil Johnston knew this.
Just like Kirby said, he brought his idea to the marines and he had them do a test.
30 Navajos ended up being the original Navajo code talkers.
Here is a couple of pictures.
In February of 1942, just three months after Pearl Harbor attacked the US
and America is plunged into a World War II
they did their first demonstration.
Get this, the Navajos encoded, transmitted
and decoded a three-line English message in 20 seconds.
Whereas the machines from the time took 30 minutes to do that same job.
All it took was this one test in front of these Marine Corps generals
for the Marines to sign onto this program and make it a top-secret mission.
The first code talkers immediately went to creating a military alphabet.
Like we said it wasn't written down as Navajos did.
They had to basically write it down and create it on their own.
Kirby showed us some great examples of words that they used for substituting.
Not only are they the code talkers
but they created the code themselves which is really cool.
Here at the museum, we actually have an oral history from Thomas Begay
one of the code talkers who fought in world war II.
We're going to listen to what he says about being a code talker.
-I did not enlist in the Marine Corps for code talker.
I sign up to be Ariel Gunner, later hours told
that I was going to learn a Navajo code to provide
and maintain communication for all the marines.
We transmit over the radio in Navajo.
We did everything by memory like the medicine man
or prayers, Navajo songs.
It wasn't too hard for me to memorize all this stuff.
I was on command ship and went through Guam Saipan.
Then they told us that we were on Iwa Jima
and they should be an easy island because army air force has been bombing.
Navy's been shielding.
They should be no Japanese left on the island.
One morning about two in the morning
we were all awakened by a loudspeaker. "Wake up and get ready"
"get your last breakfast, steak, and eggs."
I guess we were in for a surprise.
We had the radio going already and then about 0900
the first group of Marines hit the beach.
Well, I tell you, I was numb when I hit the sand.
I had no feeling at all, but I had to stay low because the Japanese knew who to hit
especially radiomen or officers.
They tried to knock out the radio at the first shot.
Those Japanese, they're pretty good shooters
they don't mess around, they're there to kill.
Like I said, I signed up for Airel Gunner and I end up in the wrong place.
-A little background on Thomas
because here we have him in a picture obviously, a little bit after World War II.
He was born in New Mexico
and he grew up only speaking Navajo and then at age 13
he attended one of those boarding schools we talked about
and learned English for the first time.
At 16, right after Pearl Harbor he ends up enlisting
in the Marine Corps and goes on to fight in World War II.
He's going to be one of those Marines
that was recognized from President Bush just a couple of years ago.
We'll talk more about the code talkers when we get to questions and answers
but I also want to talk a little bit about the home front.
If you read the book or if you plan on reading it
the home front is a big part of the story.
We're going to start on page 159 with chapter 20.
Billy pasted under the gold star on the frilly red heart
she just cut out.
"Would a homie Valentine really cheer up an injured soldier?"
"I wish we could go with Miss Daly and help hand out the cards,"
Kate said." Hazel agreed."
"Mom's Red Cross ladies go every week"
"to Camp Pendleton to deliver mail at the hospital."
She says, "The soldiers are so glad to get it."
"Too bad, we aren't 14,"
Clarice chimed in, then we could go too.
Billy was relieved about the hospital's rules against visitors under 14.
It wasn't that she was squeamish about seeing the injuries, much?
She knew if she stepped one foot into that place
she would be reminded that Leo or Denny could easily be
one of those recovering from war wounds.
This chapter and even this segment talks about a couple of different home front themes.
The first one is just that almost every American
in World War II was touched by World War II.
Even though Billy is just a young girl she's not in the military
she's just at school she knew that her brother
and her brother's friend were fighting in it.
Almost everyone at this time either had a family member
or someone that they knew or loved who was fighting in the military.
Which brings us to something that Kirby also talked about
and I actually have one here with me.
Every American was issued a ration book with stamps in them every month
even students like you got one.
As different food became scarce
they were added to those rationing lists
and so the books would change and you had to learn about them at school.
Many classrooms had posters and ration books that the teacher used to teach
how to ration food, you had to use math
along with a little bit of just intuition
on how to go to the grocery store and use not just money, but rations.
Like I said, if you ever come to the museum
we have a bunch of these here or if you do get in a scrap like Kirby talked about
we also have ration books in there.
I'm going to take it to the present day right now.
Back in World War II on the home front and right now
just as you saw Billy and other students wrote letters
to people who were fighting overseas
and you as a student can actually still do that in 2018.
An operation gratitude
which you see on your screen here
has delivered over 2.1 million care packages
with things like letters, candy, blankets
all kinds of things to Americans serving overseas and actually, here at home too.
If you look at the bottom one of their biggest volunteers is actually
Steve, who is a 100-year-old World War II veteran and he talks about
he got letters when he was in World War II
and so he wanted to do that same thing to people who are fighting in 2018.
We'll send out some information just in case your class
is ever interested in getting on board with operation gratitude.
Those are our three big themes that we're going to talk about today
with the passages.
There are so many more World War II themes within this book
but I don't want to give it all away
because you're going to have to read it if you have it.
Now, we are going to move so I'm going to stop sharing my screen.
Now, I'm going to unmute Kirby we are going to move to our Q&A session.
If you have any question we've got a couple already
but go ahead and start writing them in the Q&A
and we'll go from there.
I'm going to start with my first question Kirby
which is from Justice in North Carolina.
He wants to know why did you call it, Code Word Courage?
What does courage mean to you?
-That is such a great question.
Well, first of all, Justice I have to tell you that originally
I titled the book Bear after the dog in the book.
My editor thought we needed a stronger title
and so we made lists of what the title could possibly be.
I felt strongly that code needed to be in the title.
We played around with code codeword, those different things.
I have a dog myself you saw the picture of Winston
and I walk him every day and it's while I'm on my walk
so that I get my best thinking done.
We were walking and I was thinking about
how one of the reasons I was motivated to write this story
is that I was so impressed by the courage
the selfless courage of the Navajo Code Talkers.
It just clicks that night and I applied Code Word Courage.
I rushed home and emailed my editor and she really liked it, too.
I think it just-- I was trying to capture in just very succinctly
what I was celebrating and trying to honor
in those amazing men and what they had done.
-That's awesome. I think it's a great title.
If I had to answer what does courage mean today, Justice?
I think that I would say that it's everyday common people
stepping up to doing uncommon things that they don't necessarily think
they did anything special because they were just doing their duty
and what they were supposed to do.
That was a really great question.
I'm actually going to move on to another question
I will stick with the dog theme.
Why do you like to put dogs in this story
and really all your other World War II stories as well?
-Well, it actually was one of those happy accidents.
The very first book that I wrote in this series is called Dash.
It's not the first one that was published
but it was the first one I wrote.
It was about a Japanese-American girl
who was separated from her dog when the girl
was sent to one of the incarceration camps during World War II.
I found that just having that dog in there gave me a way
to talk about heavier issues and more emotions.
It worked so well, that when my editor asked if I had another idea
I said, "Yes," before I even had the idea.
I went researching, where else were dogs involved in at the homefront?
I learned about the dogs for defense program
which was the inspiration for the book, Duke.
Dogs are just so-- They love us they're so loyal and faithful.
I think they have a good way of bringing us into a story.
For example, like I said earlier
I didn't really like history when I was a kid
but I think if I'd had a book with a dog in it that was historical
I would have just gobbled that book up.
I think dogs are a great way to draw us into the story
and then hopefully, I do a good job of telling me about the historical event
so you want to stick with the story.
-Exactly. I'm actually going to move out of the way for a second
because if you can see behind me the map in my office
is actually my favorite map of all time.
It is war dogs that were used in the Pacific Theater.
If you can see they're all these little dots we're looking at the Pacific
on the green dots are Marine Corps units that had actual working dogs.
Here we know that policemen military, firefighters, they all use dogs
but World War II was the official first to use of dogs.
The red, that's where the army used the working dogs.
Famous battles like Iwo Jima Guadalcanal, Okinawa
they all had working dogs that did so well
that they continued to use dogs in every aspect of the military from then on.
Any book that I can read about World War II and dogs, sign me up.
-[laughs].
-Now we're going to move a little bit more
towards your research and your history.
Gabriel wants to know why were they not allowed
to speak their language at those schools?
-Well, Kate, I think you did a great job of explaining that.
The concept was that they wanted the Navajo
well actually Indian Native American but since I wrote about the Navajos
to be more part of the American culture.
You have to realize people looked at things differently in times past.
We're feeling like when other immigrants come to this country
maybe the Irish or whatever
they learned to speak English so anyone living here
should learn to speak English.
There was also a feeling that if they took the language away
from them that would also help them be more part
of the then current American culture. That was really basically it.
They just wanted them to be more American
which is quite ironic when you think about it
because they were here before the Europeans.
-Exactly. There's a story that comes from World War II
where they had to keep this top secret
so much that the commanders didn't even know that these units existed.
Once they saw it in action once
then all the commanders throughout the Pacific wanted these code talkers
but they weren't quite sure what language they were speaking
or who they were because they had gone to these schools
and their culture had almost died out.
It is ironic because World War II actually then helped save that culture.
Which brings us to our next question from Margo
and I can always help answer this too
but why did the military want to keep code talkers
and have their secrets after World War II?
Why couldn't they just talk about it?
-Well, I'm not a military expert but my guess would be
that though they hoped that would be the war to end all wars
there was always a possibility there will be future wars.
I'm guessing because that code had been so successful
the Japanese military was never able to decipher that code.
I'm guessing that they wanted to keep that
in their back pocket like a secret weapon.
They didn't want the code talkers to talk about it
because they didn't want anybody to know in case they needed to use it again.
That would be my best guess.
Kate, maybe you have more information than I do about that.
-No, you're exactly right.
World War II ends in 1945 and we're plunged right into the cold war.
We're not quite sure exactly what that's going look like
or what we're going to have to do.
We've soon to go fight a war in Korea
and the code talkers are used there as well.
Basically, they were afraid that if they declassified it
and allowed people to talk about it
then whoever our enemy may be in the future
might be able to decipher that code.
Which brings us to, were there any other Native Americans
in World War II other than the Navajo code talkers?
You have a question from California about that one?
-I don't have my book right in front of me
but if you read the author's note in the back I believe
if I'm remembering correctly
there were 40 other Native American tribes
that were represented in the military services.
Not all of them were necessarily working in the code talking manner--
The list is in the back of the book.
You can get it completely from there
but absolutely, there were mostly men.
I don't believe there were any women from other tribes
who were involved in the war effort.
-I've actually got two facts about that or really three.
The tribes often are considered within America
their own nations and almost every nation declared war on the Axis
right after America and the allies declared war on the Axis powers.
They were at war themselves and 99% of eligible Native American young men
had signed up to join the war effort
only a couple months after World War II started.
That's the highest percentage of any ethnic group out there by far.
I only learned this yesterday when I was researching other Native American tribes
that the first code ever transmitted and decoded on d-day it was not Navajo
but it was a Native American code talker actually a Choctaw Indian.
I thought that was really cool that code talkers
although they're famous in the Pacific
they were used in other places too.
I learned a couple of those things yesterday.
-I love history now.
I mean you just keep learning these things
and how they're tied together. [laughs] They're great.
-Speaking of history in World War II and dogs
do you have any other books planned about dogs in war
that you're allowed to talk about?
-Thank you for asking it that way.
I do not like to talk about books I'm working on very much at all
but I have written six books set in World War II
and after I finished Code Word Courage
I felt like I wanted to explore a different time period.
I've actually moved away from the war and going a little farther back in time.
This is all I'm going to say
but I'm working on a new book set in 1929.
I just needed a little break from World War II
to look at a few things differently.
So far there's not a dog in this book but I'm not finished.
We never knows how that's going to turn out.
-That's a great segment. Into the next couple of questions
we're going to ask and we're going to move away
from the historical part and into more of the English language arts part.
The first question I'm going to ask
is why did you choose to tell this story from two different perspectives?
-That is a really great question.
I wrestled with that myself, how to do that.
Well, actually, there's three perspectives because Bear also tells a little bit
-True.
-I felt like I would be able to tell the story more fully if I use two points of view.
For example, so much of what Denny was doing as a code talker Billy
would not be able to see that.
I suppose I could have had him write her a letter
but yet he wouldn't have been allowed to tell her what he was doing in a letter.
As I wrestled with the different possibilities
it seemed to me that the best way to fully tell that story
was to use two points of view.
I did that in Liberty as well.
Sometimes, the story just seems to need the fullness
of the experiences of two main characters to honor the story fully.
-Awesome. It's true.
Bear, we forgot about Bear so it's really is three perspectives.
-[laughs].
-Students in South Carolina want to know
what are some tips then to be a successful writer?
-The first tip, it might seem obvious
but it's to read as much as you can.
I visit a lot of schools.
In fact, I'm not at my home right now.
I'm in Savannah.
I've been visiting schools here and when I go to school I notice
that a lot of kids will get hooked on one genre of book
for example, let's say fantasy.
I would say if you want to be a writer
yes, read your fantasy but try to read in a variety of different genres
and that will help that whole sense
of story get into your bones and into your heart.
This other tip I know it's going to sound funny
but it's really just to pay attention.
For example, I would never have written the book Liberty
had I not visited the World War II museum on a really hot day.
I needed to be someplace cool
and I was in New Orleans and they had air conditioning.
I went inside and, of course, got lost in there
because it's so wonderful.
It was there that I learned about Andrew Jackson Higgins and his boats.
I paid attention to what I was learning there.
I was so curious I had to learn more.
That led to my writing another book.
I just encourage you to pay attention wherever you are
and to read as much as you can.
I think those are two good tips that will get you a long way
as to being a good writer.
The students in Bluffton South Carolina say come visit us
-I want to. I want to come to Bluffton.
I think you're just over the bridge or something, right? [laughs].
-We'll do one more English language arts question
and Heather wants to know as a writer
why do you send rough drafts first
and not just a totally polished draft right away?
-Okay, that's a really great question.
Actually, the truth of it is I work with an editor at Scholastic
but she doesn't even get to see my rough drafts
because I have to tell you my rough drafts are so rough and terrible.
I also co-write non-fiction picture books with a good friend named Mary Nethery.
Mary is the trusted first reader of all of my rough drafts.
My little heart is still fragile at that stage that I don't--
I want someone who I know really cares about me.
Mary reads my rough drafts.
She usually gives me lots of positive
but she usually says something like, "I really like the story"
"but you should probably have a plot."
Then, I go back and look at ways to have a plot, and so I work on that.
When I send it to my editor
she may be getting the third draft or the fourth draft.
I'm trying to send her something that's pretty solid
that she'll be able to say, "Okay, yes, I can see this.
Maybe you could [?] this part or [?] that part.
She's a very busy person.
She has lots of books to shepherd
and so I want to make sure that I give her something
that she can have time for and deal with.
Not even my beloved editor gets to see my first draft
because they are really horrible.
There's hope for anyone else out there who writes terrible first drafts.
-That's awesome. Where do you do most of your writing?
-I'm lucky, I have a little office in my house and that's where I do most of my writing.
A lot of my research takes me away to the places
so I'll do note taking in other places.
When I get ready to revise that terrible first draft
I like to go to a really noisy coffee shop and read through the manuscript.
If I get distracted by the noise of the coffee maker or someone talking nearby
I know that's a place in the manuscript that I need to work on
because I've lost interest or been distracted.
I love to be in a noisy place when I'm reading through for revision.
-Awesome. I also like to be, when I'm working
have a little bit of background noise as well.
We've only got time for a couple more questions before our time is up with Kirby.
Alec wants to know, what was the first book you ever tried to write?
-The first book I ever tried to write
which did not get published was a picture book inspired by my little sister
my baby sister.
My mom had this great red high heels.
My little sister would put on this red high heels
and when she put them on and went clumping around the house
we couldn't call her by her name which was Lisa.
We had to call her Mrs. Burns for some reason
and that just tickled me.
I tried so hard to write a picture book about a little girl
who turns into someone else when she puts on her mom's shoes.
I could never get that to work.
That was the very first book I tried to send out.
-Awesome. We actually had a question emailed to us a couple of days ago
that I want to make sure.
The third graders at Willo-Hill Christian School want to ask
are there any Navajo code talkers that are still alive that we know about?
-There are. I don't have all of their names.
They're very few in number because you realize we're talking now in 2018
and even if they were 16 years old like Mr. Bagawis when he enlisted
that would make him very old by this point.
There are a few left.
There are non of the original 30 code talkers still living.
That's the last one of those two--
they were the last to survive and he passed only several years ago.
-Here, at the National World War II Museum
and that is something that we focus on.
It is collecting oral histories from veterans so that when the time passes
and there are no more World War II veterans out there
we still have those stories.
That's how we have our code talkers
that we just had a little portion we listened to.
We collected his oral history a couple of years ago.
Like Kirby said, of the original group that created the code, there are non left.
There were over 420 that actually are considered code talkers.
There are still a few that are left.
They've actually gone back and visited the sites a couple of times.
Isaac wants to know going back to English language arts
how long does it take to get a story published?
-Well, if you're talking from the time I finish the manuscript
to sending it to my editor
it would take about one year
because the manuscript has to be copy-edited and the facts all have to be checked.
Then, it has to be put in the form of a book.
Then, it has to get a cover.
From the time I turn in an accepted manuscript
to the time I hold the book in my hand is about one year.
You have to be patient when you're an author.
-Definitely, yes. This is going to be our last question of the day.
Then, we'll wrap up or coming back to Bluffton, South Carolina.
Kirby, how do you decide what kind of personalities
that your characters should have?
Is there any kind of strategy that you do?
-That is such a great question.
Actually, it has to do with what I think the main problem
or sometimes people call it the dramatic question of a story is.
If it's about trying to find a friend
I might make that character be a little prickly or hard to get to know
so that you create a little friction
between the problem you're trying to solve
and the character who's trying to solve it.
I do think about things like that.
I also borrow personality traits from the people I know and love.
Occasionally, I think they recognize themselves in the book.
Mainly, I'm trying to think of-- this is what I'm trying to talk about in the story
what kind of character would really struggle most with that?
That is a big question I ask myself.
Sometimes, I don't even know until I finish the first draft.
I don't really answer all that for myself.
-I feel it would be difficult.
I remember writing books when I was in elementary school
and it's definitely a process.
The only way you're going to get better at it
is to keep trying and to keep writing.
We are going to wrap up here.
I'm going to share out the museum's discount code one more time.
If you haven't read the book you go to our website
which is in the teacher guide
or if you just go to our website and type in "Code Word Courage"
it will pop up and if you use the code "Webinar"
you'll have a 20% discount.
Speaking of webinars
we actually have another one coming up on January 25th
for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day
where I will be interviewing a Holocaust survivor.
I'm going to leave the last word to Kirby.
I really appreciate you guys listening to us
and learning about the code talkers with us
at the National World War II Museum.
-I'm so grateful for this opportunity
because I really do love to talk about writing and about books.
I was incredibly impressed with the questions that we got today.
It really shows me that we do have good writers
and readers out there who are participating in these webinars.
Thank you for all your hard work too.
Kate and the people who are participating.
I wish I could get to Bluffton.
[laughter]
-All right. Don't stop reading and writing out there.
I hope you tune in for our next webinar here
at the National World War II Museum.
Have a great Thursday, guys.
-Bye.