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The Navajo Code Talkers

            During World War II, the United States Marine Corps' Navajo Code Talkers played a crucial role in keeping classified information coded and out of the hands of the enemies. The Navajo Code Talkers were based off the World War I Choctaw Code Talkers that were used by the United States Army. The Navajo Code Talkers were supported by Philip Johnston, a civil engineer WWI veteran. The Code Talkers showed to the Armed Forces the necessity for cryptology and protecting classified information.
             The Navajo Code Talkers were needed during World War II due to the fact that the Japanese were excellent code breakers. The United States Army used the Choctaw tribe as messengers during World War I to confuse the Germans and helped developed a code that eventually expanded to other Native American tribes (Meadows). The Marine Corps decided to take a new path and use the Navajo to transmit messages while on the battlefield. The Navajo language is difficult to pick up and at that time was not well known to the Japanese. The Marine Corps was hesitant to use the Navajo to develop a code but they were pushed by Philip Johnston to give them a chance.
             Philip Johnston, a retired US Army Civil Engineer, helped in promoting the use of the Navajo people as the code talker by the Marine Corps. Johnston was raised on a Navajo reservation where he became fluent in the language (Meadows). With the push by Johnston, the Marine Corps decided to go with the Navajo and had 29 Navajo men were sent to Camp Pendleton in California to create the unbreakable code (True Whispers). A "Code Talker could receive, translate, and send a three-line message in a mere twenty seconds" (True whispers). The ability to send and translate messages during important battles such as Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal. The Code Talkers were also crucial to American victory during World War II by creating an unbreakable code for the Japanese to try to break.


Essays Related to The Navajo Code Talkers

1. Code Talkers

... years of use. Ronald Reagan was the first to recognize the importance of the Code Talkers to the three major wars by declaring August 14th, National Code Talkers" Day. On December 21, 2000, the bill awarding the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers with Gold Medals and the other classified Navajo Code Talkers with Silver medals is signed into law. In the following July, President George W. Bush presented the Congressional Gold Medals to the Navajo Code Talkers. Through the years, code has always been a useful tool ... to keep important messages a secret when fighting in battles and wars. The...

  • Word Count: 1227
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

2. The Navajo Code Talkers

... training they were sent out Marine regiments that were already in combat. Soon after the first Navajo recruits arrived to their units, the Marine commanders sent messages back to the Commandant of the Marine Corps requesting more Navajo code talkers. By the end of the war there were over 500 Navajo Indians serving in the Marine Corps as code talkers. It is stated by Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer at Iwo ... Jima, " Were if not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima." (Navajo Code Talkers: World War II Fact Sheet)The major difference in ... ...

  • Word Count: 703
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3. Code Talker - Chester Nez

The memoir of Chester Nez, "Code Talker," tells of the experiences of one of the original Navajo code talkers of WWII. In this essay, I will explain the experiences Chester Nez shared with other Americans but defined in distinctively Navajo ways before the war, the experiences Chester Nez shared with other soldiers but defined in distinctively Navajo ways during the war, and the experiences Chester Nez shared with other veterans but defined in distinctively Navajo ... ways after the ... their fellow Marines could die. Chester attributes this lack of human error to the strong Navajo oral trad...

  • Word Count: 1635
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. The Native Americans and the Cold War

... five thousand Native Americans served in the army along with eight hundred women. Tribes also gave up land for shooting ranges and other military needs. The Navajo code talkers were a key role in major battle in the Pacific. The Navajo were enlisted in the army and translated many important messages over radio code that was never deciphered until the 1960's when the United States disclosed information about the war. Native American used these ... feelings of WWI and the Cold War to fight termination and defend their identities which ... ...

  • Word Count: 1633
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5. Windtalkers review

... by John Woo, is geared to promote the significance of the Navajo Indian code talkers in later stages of the Second World War. The film takes place in Saipan, home soil of the Japanese, in 1944. The main character is Joe Enders, who is an aggressive marine whom cheats his way back into battle. He is given a new assignment of protecting one of the Navajo code talkers, Ben. This promotes him to Sergeant ... , and later earns him another Silver Star that he thoughtfully gives away. The film includes two Navajo soldiers, Ben and Whitehorse, who ... are in battle to serve the United States as...

  • Word Count: 331
  • Approx Pages: 1
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6. F.D.R

... about to trade sides. The armed forces had one answer for their problems, code talkers. Theses were Navajo men who spoke in their original tongue, or in a version of Navajo. This would allow the Americans to get the upper hand in the pacific. This also gave the Indians and other races greater liberalism during the war. This showed the importance of accepting all races during the war. Not until recently ... have these men recognized, 29 Navajo Indians were given the Medal of ... by President Bush. In addition, a blockbuster Hollywood movie "Windtalkers- was made showing how the code talk...

  • Word Count: 1246
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7. World War II Study Guide

... cars and carriers, armored cars, trucks, light vehicles, rifles and side-arms, machine guns, artillery and ammo were produced in factories - production during the war was 75% greater than in peacetime - US financed the war by taxes and war bonds - WWII cost over $400 billion - Navajo Indians were code talkers (because their language was never written down it couldn't be learned) - War Production Bond directed ... the conversion of factories from peacetime to wartime productions - gasoline, fuel, shoes, coffee, sugar, fats, oils, nuts, butter, and canned goods were rationed - 12 million ...

  • Word Count: 945
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