The Navajo Code That Stumped The Japanese

This story is a lot of fun so I have to share. This is about the men from the Navajo nation that stepped up and used their language as code for the Marines. Their participation was a key part of World War II. In May of 1942, there were 29 Navajo recruits that worked to devise a plan to prevent the Japanese from hearing in and gaining valuable information in their conversations. This proved to be an excellent method that stumped the enemy and secured success.

So how did this all work? Luckily, their language had a few steps in order to learn what it meant. Such as using a string of unrelated words but only taking the first letter of the word once it had been translated into English. So though the code talkers used a lot of different Navajo words not beginning with, say for the letter "T", they would all translate into English language starting with the letter "T". There were a few words that were key military terms such as shark meaning destroyer or hummingbird meaning a fighter plane.

There were over 400 Navajo code talkers that worked in the military and through their hard work and dedication, managed to keep the Japanese from ever breaking their code. With that, we helped pave a way for our Allied victory! I have to look into the six code talkers that worked in the Iwo Jima fight that had sent and received more than 800 messages in their first 48 hours of fighting. Not one error.

These are also heroes that helped fight for their country and helped save America. I'm most impressed with their methods and dedication to protecting their home too. I tried telling my husband about this but he told me "yeah, you didn't know that?". Well, not everyone just sat for a few years reading NONSTOP, every book within reaching distance. He also can speed read, finishing a page while I'm still working on my first paragraph!

Events like these, I keep wondering why there aren't movies about them? Sure it doesn't have to be a documentary, but shining some light on this real historical event will help teach and inspire generations to look more into our past. I would love to see a Pixar, Dreamworks, or any animation studio taking on these stories and coming up with something amazing.