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Top Secret Communicators

Hope Grigsby

Professor Gretchen Harvey

History 315

Short Papaer: 3,768

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Copyrighted © 2014–06–01

By

Hope E. Grigsby

All rights Reserved

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Stealth. Secrets. Silence. These are the elements crucial to any successful military campaign. On

December 7, 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii thrusting the U.S. into the midst of World

War II. From the earliest days of the war, the U.S. struggled to establish and maintain reliable codes the

Japanese couldn’t decipher. Victory in the Pacific Theater, would require communication of tactical

secrets between the battlefield and headquarters in the most expedient and advantageous manner

possible. The answer to this problem lay in an obscure ‘hidden language’ spoken by the Navajo Indians of

the American Southwest. With admiration for their ability to rise above the injustices they suffered, the

native language of the Navajo tribe provided the U.S. with an unforgettable gift. This ‘hidden language’ of

the Navajo Code Talkers created an “unbreakable code [which] played a pivotal role in saving countless

lives and hastening” the end of World War II.1

On the battlefield, breaking enemy codes is necessary for gaining the tactical advantage.2 During

World War II, the Japanese were regarded as the best cryptographers in the world, never having failed to

decipher a single message they intercepted.3 Given the proficiency of the Japanese cryptographers, the

U.S. military knew their current codes wouldn’t remain secret for long. The only advantage to this bleak

situation lay in the fact that although the Japanese could decipher any message they intercepted,

decoding the ‘nonsense’ of the encryption into a readable state was very time intensive.4

Cryptography is based on the work of a 19th century German officer named Friedrich Kasiski. In

1863 he published the first monograph detailing how to systematically translate substitution ciphers. He

developed a table known as a frequency chart which predicted how often a certain letter appeared in a

1 "Code Talker Story," 2013, <http://www.navajocodetalkers.org/code_talker_story/> (26 April 2013). 2"Colorado Plateau Archives," 2010, <http://archive.library.nau.edu/cdm/search/collection/cpa/searchterm/%22Navajo%20Code%20Talkers%22!Text/field/relati!type/mode/all!exact/conn/and!and/cosuppress/> (7 February 2013). 3 Nathan Aaseng, Navaho Code Talkers America’s Secret Weapon in World War II (NY: Walker and Co., 1992), viii. 4 Aaseng, 3.

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given number of words.5 The noticeable disadvantage to substitution ciphers rests in their lack of

randomness.

The element of ‘randomness’ was the vital component missing in establishing an unbreakable

code. The army possessing such a code could guarantee uninterrupted communication with the

battlefield6 acquiring the advantage and their supremacy.7 Once the military recognized the importance of

‘randomness’, they began searching for a code that wasn’t based on the traditional pattern of

substitution. The military was aware that during World War I Choctaw Indians, attached to the Army,

pioneered a code based on their native language.8 It had proven highly effective, turning the tide of the

war within twenty-four hours after implementation. Its greatest asset was the speed with which messages

could be translated.9

Based on the success of the Choctaw Code Talkers, the military wondered if the basis for an

unbreakable code might reside in the nuances of an indigenous language spoken by Native Americans. As

the military scrutinized the linguistic foundations of the Choctaw language they determined there was an

insufficient element of ‘randomness’. Broadening their search they turned to the Navajo, who were

predominately sheepherders, and spoke an ancient language learned only through oral tradition.

Philip Johnston, the child of Protestant missionaries, who was reared among the Navajo Indians

stated, “Navajo is an unwritten language of extreme complexity. Its syntax and tonal qualities, not to

mention dialects, make it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training. It has no

alphabet or symbols, and is spoken only on the Navajo lands of the American Southwest.”10 When the

5 Aaseng, 13. 6 Kenji Kawano, Warriors: Navajo code talkers (Flagstaff: Northland Pub. Co., 1990), 4. 7 Aaseng, 16. 8 William C. Meadows, “‘They Had A Chance To Talk To One Another...’: The Role Of Incidence In Native American Code Talking," Ethnohistory 56, no. 2 (2009): 269-284. 9 Meadows. 10 "Navajo Code Talkers cryptology," N.D.,<http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-2.htm> (26 April 2013).

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Navajo language was tested by Marine cryptographers over a four day period they stated, “[we] couldn't

even transcribe the language, much less decode it.”11

At this point the Navajo language received unanimous approval by the U.S. military, for use on the

battlefield, and was classified as top secret, maintaining this classification until 1968.12 Almost a quarter of

a century would pass before Americans became aware of the invaluable contribution of the Navajo Code

Talkers.13 History records the Navajo Code Talkers were involved in “every U.S. Marine assault conducted

in the Pacific between 1942 and 1945.14 Major Howard Connor, “5th Marine Division signal officer,

declared, were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.”15 Not only did the

Navajo language provide an unbreakable code, tests demonstrated that “the Navajos could encode,

transmit and decode a 3-line message in English in 20 seconds. At that time, machines took 30 minutes to

do the same job.”16 This almost instantaneous ability to translate tactical messages provided the U.S.

military the critical advantage necessary to defeat the Japanese.17

Recruiting and training Navajo Indians to be a Code Talker required meeting exacting standards.

Candidates were required to be bi-lingual in both English and Navajo, capable of memorizing over 600

terms and definitions, and able to adapt to living off the reservation while successfully integrating into the

Marines. Historical records reveal that many recruits lacked birth certificates, making it impossible to

verify their exact age. It was discovered after the war that recruits as young as fifteen and those older

than thirty volunteered to be recruits.18

11 "The Code,” 2013, <http://navajocodetalkers.org/the_code/> (17 Feb. 2013). 12 Aaseng, vii. 13 Aaseng, vii. 14 "Navajo Code Talkers History, The Code, Medals, Men & More," 2013, <http://www.brownielocks.com/navajocodetalkers.html> (17 February 2013). 15 "Navajo Code Talkers cryptology," <http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-2.htm>. 16 "Navajo Code Talkers History, The Code, Medals, Men & More," <http://www.brownielocks.com/navajocodetalkers.html>. 17 Aaseng, 3. 18 "Code Talker Story," <http://www.navajocodetalkers.org/code_talker_story/>.

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Code Talkers were referred to as ‘living codes’ and were considered irreplaceable. Each Navajo Code

Talker was assigned at least one personal bodyguard.19 Their ability to rapidly recall over 600 terms and

definitions accurately, even in harried battle conditions, “allowed embattled regiments of Marines to

communicate quickly, concisely, and above all, securely.”20 Twenty-nine Navajo’s, responding to the call

of duty, initiated a pilot program that reduced the translation time of military communiques from hours

to less than one minute, saving countless lives and shortening the course of World War II.

History of the Navajo Indians

The Navajo Indians are descended from a loosely connected group of people who originally

migrated from Alaska and northern Canada.21 Many years ago, they broke from their northern kin and

continued their exodus south to the arid lands that are now Arizona, New Mexico and Southern Utah.

There, they formed into more than 50 independently operating clans or tribes in the 1500’s.22 One thing

shared by all the tribes was that the root of their language descended from the Athabascans.

Many of the Navajo tribes were a plundering, nomadic group of people wrecking havoc on the

other Indian tribes. Some of the Navajo clans mixed among the Pueblo, Shoshone and Yuma Indians, but

remained a distinct social group. They farmed large areas of land, hunted deer, elk and antelope and

gathered wild vegetables. Their name comes from Tewa Navahu which refers to a large area of cultivated

land and was applied to a former Tewa Pueblo.23 They maintained a fairly stable population of about

10,000 people until the arrival of Spanish explorers.24 With the introduction of sheep by the Spanish in the

19 "Navajo Code Talkers History, The Code, Medals, Men & More," <http://www.brownielocks.com/navajocodetalkers.html>. 20 "The Code,” <http://navajocodetalkers.org/the_code/>. 21 Aaseng, 6. 22 "The Navajo Indians and their history," 2013, <http://www.indians.org/articles/navajo-indians.html> (3 April 2013). 23 Jeffery Scott, "Navajo Tribe of Arizona," N.D., <http://jeff.scott.tripod.com/navajo.html> (3 April 2013) 24 Aaseng, 6.

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17th century, most of the tribes gave up their marauding ways and settled into raising sheep for clothing

and food and for barter with other Indian tribes and the Spanish.

In c. 1846, the Americans began to intrude into Navajo lands. The Navajo pillaged them and

punitive expeditions against the Navajo were only temporarily successful.25 Realizing that something

needed to be done to prevent further bloodshed, US officials sought a treaty with the Navajo. They

believed that if one or two Navajo signed a treaty, all Navajo would recognize it.26 But because the Navajo

were independent tribes each led by different chiefs and spread over huge areas of land, a treaty that all

Navajo would recognize never materialized. Then, in 1863-1864, the US army decided to crush the

Navajo’s spirit once and for all.27 Colonel Kit Carson was ordered by General James Carleton to “solve the

problem” Kit Carson did “solve the problem” by destroying their sheep, trampling and burning their

farms,28 burning their villages to the ground and killing those who resisted. He forced the Navajo into the

stark choice of surrender or starvation.29

Most Navajo’s surrendered and were rounded up and driven like cattle on a 300 mile trek to Fort

Sumner in eastern New Mexico.30 Almost 2000 Navajos died of hunger and illness during this exile that

was to last 4 years.31 The result, however, was that for the first time, the Navajos began thinking of

25 "Navajo Indians," 2013, < http://www.questia.com/library/sociology-and-anthropology/cultures-and-ethnic-groups/native-american-culture-and-society/navajo-indians> (3 April 2013). 26 Aaseng, 6. 27 Aaseng, 7.

28 "Navajo Code Talkers," 2013, <http://faculty.gvsu.edu/aboufade/web/enigma/Navajo/PAGES3-6.HTM> (3 May 2013). 29 Aaseng, 7. 30 Aaseng, 7. 31 Aaseng, 7.

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themselves as one people – the Navajo Nation.32 In 1868, they were released from prison and given a

reservation of three and a half million acres in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.33

On the reservation, most Indian children attended an assimilation school where they were

forbidden to speak their own language, often facing the possibility of serious punishment if they were

caught speaking their native tongue.34 Navajo culture was to be ignored; all instruction was to be in

English.35 Even against these odds, the Navajo went on to develop the only unbreakable code in military

history.36 During World War I and II, US servicemen were fortunate that the attempt to replace the Navajo

language with English did not succeed.37 “When I was going to boarding school, the U.S. government told

us not to speak Navajo, but during the war, they wanted us to speak it!” Carl Gorman recalled thinking

that “if I can get back to the reservation safely, I want to become a Navajo language teacher and educate

young Navajos.”38

At this time, the Navajo’s did not keep birth certificates, leading many Navajos to lie about their

age and enlist in the US military too young or too old.39 Even after all the horrible treatment, the

preplanned annihilation of the tribes and the theft of their land, the Navajo people came to the defense

of the US government in 1917.40 More than 300 Navajo men gave their lives for the US during the two

world wars and several smaller wars.41 Their contributions were largely ignored for over 25 years.42

32 Aaseng, 9. 33 "Navajo Indians," < http://www.questia.com/library/sociology-and-anthropology/cultures-and-ethnic-groups/native-american-culture-and-society/navajo-indians>. 34 Gretchen Harvey, "Assimilation of the Native Americans." Lecture, History 315 from Concordia College, Moorhead, 2013. 35 Aaseng, 10-11. 36 Aaseng, viii. 37 Aaseng, 11. 38 Kawano, 3. 39 William R. Wilsont, "World War II: Navajo Code Talkers," <www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-navajo-code-talkers.htm> (26 April 2013). 40 Aaseng, 9. 41 Aaseng, 10. 42 Aaseng, 9.

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Today, the Navajo’s reservation has grown to 16 million acres and they support themselves with

Navajo-owned enterprises such as lumbering, farming, mining and gambling. Their rich heritage is alive

and passed to new generations. Their numbers continue to grow and while young people in the Navajo

Nation search for their own identities, they remain very close to their families and their past.43

In 1942, following the breaking of the American code by the Japanese, Philip Johnston, son of a

Protestant missionary who worked on the Navajo reservations, proposed the U.S. military adapt the

complex Navajo language into an unbreakable code. According to Johnston, Navajo was one of the many

Indian languages that had been “classes as ‘unwritten’ because no alphabets or other symbols of purely

native origin were in existence.”44 This unwritten code was nearly impossible to decipher from abroad,

thus making it the perfect option for coded messages transmitted solely through the radio or phone.45

Johnston further noted that Navajo, unlike most tribes, “invented their own words either by combining

existing Navajo words or by creating totally new words.”46 Unique to the Navajo language was the fact

that words from other languages were not utilized. Every term in the Navajo language was composed of a

variety of syllables and sounds that could be translated differently based on the object the verb acted on

and the subtle differences in tonal inflection.47 Johnston further argued that the Navajo tribe represented

one of the largest surviving tribes with approximately 55,000 members, the majority of whom spoke

fluent Navajo.48

43 "The Navajo Indians and their history," <http://www.indians.org/articles/navajo-indians.html>. 44"Colorado Plateau Archives," <http://archive.library.nau.edu/cdm/search/collection/cpa/searchterm/%22Navajo%20Code%20Talkers%22!Text/field/relati!type/mode/all!exact/conn/and!and/cosuppress/>. 45 Doris Atkinson Paul, The Navajo code talkers (Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1973), 9. 46 Aaseng, 21. 47 Aaseng, 21. 48 Colorado Plateau Archives," <http://archive.library.nau.edu/cdm/search/collection/cpa/searchterm/%22Navajo%20Code%20Talkers%22!Text/field/relati!type/mode/all!exact/conn/and!and/cosuppress/>.

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In response to Johnston’s claims, Colonel James E. Jones “reminded him that such a plan had been

tried during World War I by Canadian forces against the Germans; however [the code] did not work

because the Indians had no words in their vocabulary that were equivalents for military terms.”49

Johnston rebuked these claims, noting that codes composed of Indian words had worked in the past.50 In

an effort to prove his solution was viable, Johnston suggested a demonstration of a code built up by

Indian words, not translations.

On February 28, 1942, with the cooperation of four Navajos, the demonstration began. “Marine

staff officers composed simulated field combat messages, which were handed to a Navajo man who then

translated [the phrase] into his language and transmitted [it] to another Navajo on the other side of the

line.”51 The Navajo who received the code then translated it back into English. In less than a minute, the

Navajo had communicated and translated the phrases correctly; something that took coding machines a

half hour to do.52 “This successful demonstration validated Johnston’s claims and led General Vogel to

recommend the recruitment of two hundred Navajo Indians into the Marine Corps under the new title

‘Code Talkers.’”53

Though General Vogel’s recommendation for recruitment of Navajo Indians was approved, the

U.S. government limited the initial number of recruits to thirty as a “pilot project.”54 In May 1942, General

Vogel traveled to the Navajo reservation and several boarding schools, including Fort Defiance, Fort

Wingate, and Shiprock, in search of young Navajo men that could speak English and Navajo fluently, and

were in good physical condition.55 Within weeks of recruitment, the young Navajo men were shipped off

49 Paul, 9. 50 Meadows. 51 Kawano, 8. 52 "The Code,”<http://navajocodetalkers.org/the_code/>. 53 Kawano, 8. 54 Kawano, 8. 55 Paul, 11.

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to boot camp where they would “run through long hours of calisthenics, basic training drills, lectures, and

tedious routine assignments such as guard duty.”56 For many Navajos, boot camp marked the first time

they had been off the reservation. Though most of the Navajo recruits were unprepared for the rigid

schedule, the strange equipment, the rigid rules, and the officer’s abuse, most adapted quickly.57

According to the book The Navajo Code Talkers, by Nathan Aaseng, the “impossibility of riling up the

Navajos for any reason drove the drill instructors to despair…no strenuous drill or forced march was too

tough for the Navajos.”58 Aaseng attributes the Navajos unique ability to adapt to the challenges in boot

camp as a direct result of living in a harsh environment without the comfort of modern conveniences.59

Following boot camp, twenty-nine of the thirty Navajos were relocated to Camp Pendleton where

they were given the promise of promotion at the end of the four week concentrated training course, a

promise that never came to fruition. This course educated the Navajos in “Morse code, semaphore

signals, techniques of military message-writing, wire laying, pole climbing, communication procedures,

and… the operation of the radios that would be used in the combat zones,” and set the stage for the

creation of the Navajo code.60 For many Navajo men, this code proved challenging to create as the words

could not be too long and had to be easily memorizeable, and quick to recall. “The group also had to

agree on words that had no fine shades of interpretation” based on the different tonal inflections,

preventing any miscommunication to occur. It was from these parameters that the first group of Navajo

recruitments devised the initial code consisting of two hundred and eleven terms that were most likely to

be utilized in the field, as well as words for letters of the English alphabet.61

56 Aaseng, 28. 57 Aaseng, 28. 58 Aaseng, 28. 59 Aaseng, 28. 60 Aaseng, 29. 61 Aaseng, 30.

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The majority of the Navajo code was centered on the use of obvious terms representing military

equipment, strategies, and movement. For instance, Marine Corps units were named after the numerous

Navajo clans; the names of birds denoted airplanes; and the commanding general was called war chief

while a major general was recognized as a two star.62 Yet, less than a year after its creation, the U.S.

military deemed that the Navajo code contained an “inadequate number of terms for the job due to the

fact that new pieces of equipment, tactics, strategies, and terminology… came into use.”63 The creation of

these new terms led Navajo code talkers to spell out each word in an effort to make up for their limited

vocabulary, thus increasing the repetition of letters and the time necessary to communicate and translate

the code. “It was, therefore, decided to add 200 terms to the vocabulary, [expanding the code vocabulary

to nearly double its size] and provide alternate terms for the 12 letters of the alphabet most frequently

repeated in English.”64 By interchanging the number of words representing the 12 most common letters

of the alphabet, the Navajo could disrupt the normal pattern of frequency, thus ensuring ‘randomness’

and lessening the chances for the Navajo code to be deciphered.65

Upon the completion of boot camp and Navajo code training, the Navajos were sent to a Marine

unit deployed in the Pacific theater where they acted as messengers, talking and transmitting information

on orders, tactics, and troop movements.66 While the Navajo code talker program offered the U.S. an

opportunity to win the war, it posed several problems for the Navajo Indians. Prior to the arrival of the

Navajo code talkers, the U.S. military failed to alert the Marines in the field, leading to a mass panic attack

when the first coded messages were sent. “Not only did the Navajos sound like the Japanese to many

62 Kawano, 9. 63 Aaseng 32. 64 Paul, 38. 65 Aaseng, 48. 66 "Navajo Code Talkers cryptology," <http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-2.htm>.

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marines, they also looked like them.”67 One marine noted that the Navajo men portrayed a wide variety of

physical characteristics that appeared to be more similar to the Japanese than to the belegaana (white

man).68 This led many Navajos to be frequently captured and taken for interrogation. Others were nearly

killed within the first few weeks of deployment. “After several close calls, many of the marine units

assigned a belegaana bodyguard to protect the [Navajo] code talkers from confused American soldiers.”69

The Navajo code talkers quickly proved to be useful in battle. Many Navajo were quick to respond

when ambushed. On one occasion, a marine recounts being attacked by friendly fire. According to the

story, “the Americans started firing because they thought it was the Japanese and the American group

being shot at used the radio to tell them to stop shooting.”70 Thinking it was a ploy by the Japanese, the

Americans continued shooting. The marine was careful to note that it was not until the Navajo code talker

told the Americans to stop shooting that they realized they were shooting at their own men.71 On other

occasions, the Navajo code talkers relayed information regarding future attacks and locations, saving

thousands of American lives.

Philip Johnston’s program had proven to be a great success, leading the U.S. military to sanction

its expansion. Not only had the code befuddled the Japanese who were skilled code breakers, but also

breeched many of the cultural misconceptions the marines originally had about the Navajos. As the

program was expanded, the Marine Corps discovered that the percentage of Navajo illiteracy was high. As

a result, many of the young Navajo men who volunteered to join the armed forces were denied. Then,

less than a year after the war began, the Navajos finally persuaded the War Department to create a few

67 Aaseng, 41. 68 Aaseng, 42. 69 Aaseng, 45. 70 "Navajo Code Talkers,"<http://faculty.gvsu.edu/aboufade/web/enigma/Navajo/PAGES3-6.HTM>. 71"Navajo Code Talkers,"<http://faculty.gvsu.edu/aboufade/web/enigma/Navajo/PAGES3-6.HTM>.

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all-Navajo training platoons for non-English speaking men. These platoons would teach the Navajo

military English and prepare them to be mixed with regular regiments.

“War played a significant role in offering many Native Americans the opportunity to earn a decent

living for the first time in their lives.”72 As the Second World War came to an end, Native Americans began

returning home and began settling into cities where work was readily available. Many took advantage of

their GI Bill benefits which provided the opportunity for college education and vocational training. The

few who returned to the reservation found their dreams of acknowledgment and change dashed.73 Even

though many Navajos served during World War II and two consecutive wars, they were not given the right

to vote until the late 1940s.74

By the end of the war, over four hundred Navajos had been recruited for code talker training.75

Unfortunately, the Navajo Code Talkers were forced to return home as heroes without a heroes’

welcome, as the U.S. military considered the code a secret too important to divulge.76 For more than two

decades the Navajo code talkers were not nationally recognized or commended for their service. The

contributions of the Navajos were kept secret and only belatedly recognized in the late 1900’s after their

participation in both the Cold and Korean Wars. Sadly, many Navajo code talkers would pass on before

receiving recognition for their invaluable contributions. Then, “in 2001, nearly 60 years after they created

their legendary code, the Navajo Code Talkers finally received well-deserved Congressional Medals of

Honor.”77 Today, there are less than fifty code talkers still alive.78 Seneca, the Roman philosopher and

72 Colin G. Calloway, First peoples: a documentary survey of American Indian history 2nd ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004) 493. 73 Calloway, 493. 74 Michel Martin "Navajo Code: Powerful As Any Weapon In WWII?," 2013, <http://www.npr.org/2011/11/28/142849647/navajo-code-powerful-as-any-weapon-in-wwii> (26 April 2013). 75 Aaseng, 35. 76 "The Code,”<http://navajocodetalkers.org/the_code/>. 77 "The Code,”<http://navajocodetalkers.org/the_code/>. 78 Sam Lowe, "Honoring Code Talkers," 2013, <http://discovernavajo.com/aaalivingmag.html> (26 April 2013).

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politician once said, “Be silent as to services you have rendered.”79 The Navajo Code Talkers epitomize

this statement, having sought neither publicity nor acknowledgement for their service that played

such an instrumental role in saving the lives of countless Marines and hastening the end of World

War II.

79 "Seneca," 2013, <http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/29077.html> (3 April 2013).

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