Wireless communication during World War II allowed troops to send messages to their comrades, but it allowed enemy troops to hear those messages as well. Navajo Code Talkers played an important role in creating a code that the Japanese could not break.
Communication Technology in World War II
American and Allied Troops would speak in code in an effort to prevent English-speaking Japanese soldiers from deciphering their war tactics, but the Japanese were adept at breaking the numerous early codes in World War II. These codes became so elaborate that a three line message might take thirty minutes to decipher, which rendered time-sensitive communication useless.
Retired Colonel John E. Gray “served as a World War II Marine anti-aircraft gunner aboard the battleship U.S.S. Maryland during the Pacific Saipan-Tinian Campaign … the Maryland played a tremendous role in naval artillery support of the 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division as it amphibiously assaulted Saipan Japanese defenses ashore. Our fire control adjustment commands in knocking out Japanese defensive targets had to be in code so that the enemy would not be aware of which of their targets were about to be destroyed.”
Why the Navajo Language Was Effective in WWII Communications
Philip Johnston, whose missionary parents raised him on a Navajo reservation, pitched the idea of using the difficult-to-master Navajo language in code to confound the enemy and allow efficient communication between allied troops. Although Native American soldiers, particularly those who spoke Choctaw, had conveyed messages in World War I, the Navajo tongue was unfamiliar to many Native Americans and almost all non-Navajos. According to the August 12, 1997 article entitled “Navajo Code Talkers: World War II Fact Sheet,” researched by Alexander Molnar and prepared by the Navy & Marine Corps WWII Commemorative Committee, no Japanese and approximately thirty or less non-Navajos could understand the Navajo language when World War II began.
The Navajo language, which was spoken on Navajo reservations in the American Southwest, was unwritten and quite complex as it relied on the use of tone, syntax, and dialects. A Navajo soldier that was not trained as a code talker became a prisoner of war at Bataan and was forced to listen to transmissions in his own tongue. The Fact Sheet cited above quotes that Navajo soldier after the war as saying, “I never figured out what you guys who got me into all that trouble were saying.”
Johnston’s idea to create a code rather than to directly translate messages offered a simple yet effective solution as former three-line codes that took 30 minutes to decipher could be communicated in 20 seconds.
Navajos Who Served as Code Talkers in World War II
Twenty-nine original Code Talkers, also known as Windtalkers, began basic training and later became familiar with electronics and the use and repair of the large, bulky radios that would transmit Navajo code messages in every Marine assault in the Pacific between 1942 and 1945.
According to Colonel Gray, “I had brief contact with (the Navajo Code Talkers) as they came aboard our ship. Our observer fire control team on shore would issue encoded target fire control commands by radio to another radio operator aboard with our ship's gunnery fire control center. At Saipan, the radio operators ashore and aboard ship were both Navajo Marines, sending and receiving the fire control messages in the Navajo language. It was a language code the Japanese could never decipher. I was never involved in the radio transmissions, but met the Navajos when they came aboard because they were fellow Marines.”
In 1945, about 540 Navajos volunteered to serve the United States as Marines. Approximately 375 to 420 of those Navajos were trained as code talkers in the Marines, and about 20 served the Army in the Philippines. These men readily volunteered to protect the nation and Allied Forces and did so with amazing accuracy. After serving their country, they returned to their homeland without revealing their mission to protect the security of the code.
Navajos Created and Transmitted Unbreakable Code in World War II
Navajo servicemen became World War II heroes as their language provided an effective barrier to Japanese attempts to de-code strategic military messages between Allied Forces. The combination of the difficult Navajo language, a unique code to represent letters and terms, and the accuracy of these dedicated men proved to be an invaluable tool in helping troops to prevail in WWII.
All quotes from John Gray originated from an interview on October 29, 2009. John Gray authored the book Called to Honor: Memoirs of a Three War Veteran [2006, R. Brent and Company, ISBN:-13: 978-0-9788160-1-8]
Readers may also wish to read Basic Facts and Information about Veterans Day and How to Make Veterans Day Come Alive for Children. Readers are welcome to post comments regarding experiences with the Navajo Code Talkers in the comment box below.
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Katrena Wells - Katrena Wells is a RN in NC with 17 1/2 years of experience in oncology, an educator since 1995, and has taught exercise classes since ...
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