Roles Of The Code Talkers In World War II

The United States solution was a new code. They came up with using the unique Native American language as code. Since Native Americans were the only people who knew their language it was

The reason being that the Navajos native language was unwritten. The article explains,“After basic training in 1942, Nez's platoon was tasked with developing a code, based on the then-unwritten Navajo language. Using Navajo words for red soil, war chief, clan, braided hair, beads, ant, and hummingbird, for example, the Original 29 came up with an alphabet and a glossary of more than 200 terms.” This shows that because the language was unwritten, you’d have to know the language to even have a chance of figuring out the codes. The Code Talkers were the walking carriers of the code and each message that was read by a Code Talker, was destroyed immediately afterwards.

During World War II, you must think that the Japanese would want to kill everyone that was not on their side, right? Well, you were wrong. If a Japanese person (or more) saw a Navajo, they would capture them and torture them until they will give them what their new “language” all means. But, just because there was a Navajo in war, does not mean that they know the code.

So Special About Secret Codes?” does not even give the example of the Navajo code talkers at all. Instead, it gives different examples of codes that were used throughout history. Finally, all the texts explain that codes are very important, while it be in a general sense, like in the excerpt from “What’s So Special About Secret Codes?” or in a specific way, like how the success in many of the wars the U.S. was part of depended on the Navajo code

Native American code transmission began in World War I, with the Choctaw Indians (Meadows, “Honoring”). “Because the Native languages were not based on European languages or

The key to this code was that it was entirely oral, nothing was ever written down. Thus the entire code had to be memorized which would not prove to be too difficult since it was Native Navajos speaking their own language. Some translations were rather simple bombs for example reminded the code talkers of eggs so they used their word for eggs chosea-ye-shi. The native word for frog; chal was used as code for an amphibious assault. "A bomber plane now was jeeshoo (buzzard), a submarine beeshloo (iron fish), and a battleship was lootsoh (whale). Britain became Tota (between the waters), India Ee (white clothes), and Germany Beeshbich aahi (iron hat). Each letter of the alphabet underwent a similar transformation. In the code wolachii (ant) stood for ‘a', shash (bear) for ‘b' and mosi (cat) for ‘c'" (Diné). On a more comedic note "Descriptive Navajo names for enemies and enemy leaders were coined. Adolf Hitler was Daghailchiih (Moustache Smeller)." ("Coded Contributions" History Today, Jul 91)

During World War II, the United States was looking for ways to ensure that its secret messages could not be decoded by the enemy. Philip Johnston, who had grown up on the Navajo Indian Reservation and had become fluent in the Navajo languages” suggested recruiting Navajo soldiers to speak their native language. The language had no written form or alphabet very few people spoke it.

This is where the Navajo code comes in play of changing the course of the language’s downfall. When the military realized that their language was valuable, they were asked to speak it again. After years of suppression, they were suddenly allowed to speak their native tongue again. This is immensely important in regards to the Navajo dialect staying alive. If their language was continually oppressed then, eventually, children would no longer be able to speak Navajo at all. This would lead to the ultimate extinction of their undocumented language because overtime the elders and speakers of the Navajo language would die out and no one would be knowledgeable of the tongue any longer. An example of a code used during World War II that was quite similar to the Navajo Code but not as successful, was made up of the Comanche language. They had the same purpose as the Navajo did, to send important messages that were incomprehensible to the enemy. Unlike the Navajos, the Comanche tribe was not hindered from keeping their efforts a secret whereas the Navajos were and continued their coding in following wars (“Comanche Code”). This created a longer line of Navajo speakers and a greater impact which helped to preserve the language more. The Comanche language

Nevertheless, having been trained in espionage they had a lot to learn about the business. Establishing an unbreakable code was the first test of the spy network’s viability. Tallmadge after barely evading capture, urgently begins to assemble a more complete version of the ring’s numerical code. Poring over a copy of the 1777 London edition Entick’s Spelling dictionary, Tallmadge assigns each pertinent word, location,and name a number from 1 to 763, resulting in nonsensical gibberish unless of course you had the key. Now there letters read something like

However, the Japanese had modified the code, and were using an updated version, JN-25B, at the time of the attack. In addition, the men who broke the code confessed that they had not broken the code before the attack. Stinnett responded to this by saying the switch to JN-25B didn’t occur until 1943, and that the men were threatened with treason if they said they had broken the code (Cirignano). This controversy can be attributed to the Freedom of Information Act, and how a large amount of the evidence procured after 1950 differs from modern evidence. The historians arguing against the conspiracy are going off information from 1950, which is

Code Talkers There were many roles of Code Talkers during World War II. The code was also very hard to crack, and this played a big part of the holocaust. The Code Talkers were known as warriors who used their native language as their weapon during World War II.

There are only forty to seventy Navajo Code Talkers still alive. Navajo code talkers used their native language to help win World War II. The book Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac is about a Navajo boy who is separated from his family and hometown and after World War II. The theme language was power was important when Ned was at boarding school and in after war.

During the Pacific portion of World War II, increasingly frequent instances of broken codes plagued the United States Marine Corps. Because the Japanese had become adept code breakers, at one point a code based on a mathematical algorithm could not be considered secure for more than 24 hours. Desperate for an answer to the apparent problem, the Marines decided to implement a non-mathematical code; they turned to Philip Johnston's concept of using a coded Navajo language for transmissions.

"In very exceptional cases, they made no mention of their plans or movements to any of their embassies, so that, in these instances, there were no codes to decipher. The attack on Pearl Harbour was such a case" (Ford,

After Congress declared war on Japan in December 1941 there was a problem. The Japanese were great at breaking codes. The United States needed to figure out a plan quick if they were going into war with Japan. It was close to impossible to get commands to the military if the codes were broken and the enemy knew what was headed their way. It wasn’t until 1942 when the Marine Corps recruited twenty-nine Navajo radio experts to help create a complex code at Camp Elliott. Four hundred other Navajos followed to help this process.