Navajo Americans who lived in reservations in the Southwest may have been forbidden to speak their native tongue in government-run schools, but their language proved to be invaluable in allowing American and Allied Troops to communicate quickly and efficiently while baffling the Japanese in World War II. Navajo Code Talkers created a code for use in World War II that they transmitted with amazing speed and accuracy, which played a key role in the outcome of WWII.
How the Navajo Code of World War II Was Created
Prior to 1942, the Navajo language was unwritten without an alphabet or symbols. The original 29 Navajo Code Talkers developed a dictionary and a series of code words in which a Navajo word would stand for each letter of the alphabet. This was expanded up to three words for each letter for many of the letters of the alphabet. For example, if a Navajo Marine needed to spell a message with the letter D, he might choose from the word deer (Be), devil (Chindi), or dog (Lha-cha-eh).
A message could be conveyed by spelling the letters of the words with combinations of these code words. In order to spell the word Army, a Navajo Code Talker might have transmitted Wol-la-chee (Ant) – Gah (Rabbit) – Na-as-tso-si (Mouse) – Tsah-as-zih (Yucca) while the receiving Code Talker would write the first letter of each code word, which in this case would be Army.
The Navajo Code Talkers also used words of their native tongue to represent terms frequently used in military operations. Rather than spelling out the word Army as listed above, the Code Talkers could more quickly use the code word for Army, which was Lei-cha-ih-yil-knee-hi. The code began with about 200 words but grew to about 600 words. Here are a few examples:
- The month of March became Squeaky Voice (Woz-cheind)
- Platoon was called Mud (Has-clish-nih)
- Japan was Slant Eyed (Beh-na-ali-tsoisi)
- Dispatch became Dog is Patch (La-chai-en-seis-be-jay)
- Not was No Turkey (Ni-dah-than-zie)
Punctuation was also included in the code. For example, a period was a black spot (Da-ahl-zin) and a question mark was an ear (Ah-jah).
Note: All code words above were obtained from Brownielocks and the Three Bears Navajo Code Talkers page. Readers may wish to view that site for the entire code, a list of the original 29 Code Talkers, and more.
WWII Navajo Code Talkers Were Able to Quickly Relay Top Secret Messages
Many military commands were time-sensitive, yet Americans and Allied Troops had developed increasingly complicated codes in the hopes of preventing Japanese troops from discovering their crucial hidden messages. Three lines of encrypted messages might take the machines of the time 30 minutes to decipher. Navajo Code Talkers developed a code using their native language in which they could encode, relay, and decode a message of the same length in 20 seconds. This more timely communication proved to be quite valuable to American and Allied Troops.
The Amazing Accuracy of the Navajo Code Talkers
After the Navajo code was developed, these Code Talkers had to carefully memorize the words and phrases that would prove to be the lifeline of communication during battles of World War II. Written records of the code were not allowed outside of training areas. To make an error could place a Code Talker and his comrades in grave danger.
These code talkers were amazingly accurate. 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, six of these brave men sent and received more than 800 messages around the clock during the first two days of battle at Iwo Jima without one error.
Navajo Code Talkers Helped to Win World War II
The Japanese might have prevailed in key battles such as Iwo Jima if it had not been for the complex Navajo code utilized by Marines in World War II. These brave men, called Navajo Code Talkers, served their comrades well as they quickly and accurately relayed numerous messages in the midst of fierce battles in the Pacific.
Readers may also wish to learn more about the Role of the Navajo Code Talkers as well as Basic Facts and Information about Veterans Day and How to Make Veterans Day Come Alive for Children.
Readers are welcome to add comments regarding Navajo Code Talkers in the comment box below.
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