World War 2 Unbreakable Code Essay

Thesis Statement: Through its use of sophisticated codes, invisible ink, and complicated signalling methods, the Culper Spy Ring under General George Washington played a crucial role in obtaining valuable information from British occupied New York during the American Revolution.

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.

This investigation evaluates to what extent did the Navajo code talkers aid the American military during WWII? In order to assess the extent to which these soldiers assisted the American military during WWII, this investigation focuses on their involvement in transmitting military messages in their native tongue, and the events surrounding these transmissions. In addition, the contribution of other Native American code talkers is considered and compared to that of the Navajos specifically within the investigation.

On May 2nd, American radio nets picked up encoded orders from Japan to their navy. It wasn’t long before the orders were deciphered, this gave the American army the information they needed to surprise Japan’s navy; they were to be destroyed, once and for all. The American Army picked up where the intelligence left

knew that Native American languages, notably Choctaw, had been used in World War I to

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

In my opinion, the article, “The Navajo,” by Patricia Cronin Marcello more effectively uses words and phrases to persuade a reader about the value of the contributions of Native Americans during World War II because it shows how Code Talkers saved many lives, and displays how it was so successful and helpful. “An Air Force Times article by William Wrigg states, ‘According to Marine Corps high command, the Code Talkers saved thousands of American lives.’ The U.S. Marines called the Code Talkers their secret weapon” (Marcello, para. 3). This article shows the usefulness of the Native Americans in World War II because the code talking saved many American lives. In addition, the U.S. Marines even called them their secret weapon, proving what a

They were referred to as The Code Talkers. America was having problems with the Japanese interfering with their radio transmissions and they were intercepting our messages, translating them, and then they knew our whole plan. Philip Johnston came up with the idea to use the native Navajo language to send messages across the radios. Very few non indians knew the language making it perfect for sharing secret messages. He then went through additional training in the art of code talking.

The Navajo Code was used to communicate orders without the enemies knowing what was being said. Throughout the movie, we see discrimination and racism and the effects war has on the soldiers. After losing all his squad members and being sent to a hospital,

World War II was a war of many victories and losses. A battle for constant control of territories, that was ushered by greed and corruption. With this comes the persistent need to find an advantage over the enemy, and during this time Germany became the front runner in innovations and technology. This intelligence showed by the Germans had the allied forces in a scramble to help propel them on top of the battle again. In hopes of success, through desperation the United States had managed to put together a top-secret task force. However this was not the typical task force that the United States was know to specialize in, until the early 1940 's. This task force was hand selected to specialize in tricking the German forces, specifically in the art of Deception. Through the use of these technologies given to them, these brave soldiers used their skills in sonic, radio, and visual deception, to help lead the allied forces to victory. Later called the Ghost Army of the War, these American 's were essential in deceiving the German forces.

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,

Once the Navajo men were given the task to create the code it was not an easy task. Each military word had to be given a code name and the code name had to be

Thesis: The application of Cryptanalysis in World War II was imperative to both Allied intelligence efforts and success of Allied Powers during the Battle of the Atlantic. Citation: Rielage, Dale C. 2002. " 'Indirectly in Operational Signals'."  Naval History16, no. 6: 31.