As World War II escalated across the vast Pacific, American forces grappled with a critical challenge: their most secret military communications were being routinely cracked. Every move, every supply shipment, every strategy was laid bare to the enemy, leading to devastating losses and putting countless American lives at risk. This urgent problem demanded an unbreakable solution, a code so unique that no foe could ever decipher it, one that could finally give our troops the strategic advantage needed to fight back and win in the Pacific Theater.
Into this urgent crisis, a brilliant and unexpected solution emerged, carried by an extraordinary group of Native American Marines. Their traditional Navajo language, a complex and beautiful heritage largely unknown beyond their own community, held the key to an unbreakable code. This is the remarkable story of how these brave Navajo Code Talkers harnessed their unique cultural gift, transforming wartime communication and ultimately helping America secure victory in World War II. Hear their incredible journey of ingenuity, courage, and pride that forever changed the course of American history.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
In the early part of World War II, shortly after the parmin of Pearl Harbor, the United States was getting ready to fight back in the Pacific. Not too long after December 7, 1941, Marines, Navy, Air Force, and Army ran into one big problem. The problem was communication. They tell us that in any war, which every site that has the best communication normally has the advantage in the war. Well, in this case, the enemy had the advantage. Why? Because they were bricking every military coat that was being used in the Pacific, making it very difficult to strategize without the enemy knowing where we’re going to be, what route we’re going to be taking, what our where, and when we are going to be at a specific location, and they would be there with their submarine blow up our shipment of supplies, equipment as well as personnel. This became a real problem for Marines and Navy, Air Force, and ARMA. A gentleman by the name of Philip Johnston was working near San Diego back in early 1942. This situation of enemy breaking code became public knowledge around January of ’42. Philip Johnston learned of this situation, so he went over to the United States Marine Corps base to talk with the Marine Corps communication officers. He told them, “Why not use Navajo language as a code?” The enemy doesn’t know Naverhole language; therefore, it could be safe. Well, after much explanation, Marines really couldn’t understand what he was really talking about. So Philip Johnston went back to the Navajo Nation, brought four Navajos to San Diego Marine Corps base to demonstrate what he was talking about. They put two Navajos with radio headset on one end of the building, the other two on the other end. They gave this to a message to center the other two. They compared the two messages, the one there was sent, the one there was received. They’re similar, but not exactly alike. But Marines were very desperate to get a code that the enemy would not understand, so they asked the commandant of United States Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. permission to try this suggestion made by Philip Johnston. Philip Johnson was not a Navajo. His parents came to the Navajo Nation late 1800s as missionaries to Navajos. So Philip Johnston grew up on a Navajo, played with Navajo kids, and learned the language. He spoke Navajo very well. He also knew the culture of Navajo well. The commandant asked if they could try this. His initial response was, “No, don’t do that.” “We don’t know these Indians,” he said. “All we know is what we see in the movies. When they see a wagon train, they yell and holler right around their wagon train, shooting arrows. This is not that carnival war, so leave it alone.” That was the commandant’s initial response. Number two, the commandant said, “Ye, Marine Corps is a very proud organization. We don’t want anyone where in the United States Marine Corps uniform that might embarrass this proud organization. Just do the best you can. I’m sorry.” Well, with that rejection, the enemy continued to break coats. The enemy continued to move in our direction real fast, taking strategic islands, as a matter of fact, that we need in order to get close to their homeland. More pressure on the commandant. We need a code. We might as well just call the enemy and say, “Hey, we can go such and such a place, such and such a time. We can be such and such location.” That’s how it was.
And you are listening to Peter McDonald tell one heck of a story about the Navajo Code Talkers and how their code, their language, came to be adopted by the U.S. Marine Corps and helped us win a war. And you were hearing clearly some pretty, well, let’s just say, clearly ugly anti-Indian bias. But in the end, well, we’re going to hear what happens next in this remarkable story of one of the last Navajo Code Talkers. Talking to you here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we’re bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our big cities and small towns. But we truly can’t do the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they’re not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to OurAmericanStories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go to OurAmericanStories.com and give. And we continue with Our American Stories. And Peter McDonald, who is the President at Navajo Code Talkers Association, let’s pick up with his story and pick up with the continued difficulties Americans were having moving along in the Pacific Theater because our codes kept being broken.
The Commandant in April of 1942 said, “Okay, but you got to do it Mile Way.” Number one: asked the Navajo Nation to use the language only. Number two: just recruit thirty young Navajos. Don’t tell them what you’re going to do them, just ask them if they want to fight and shoot the enemy, not with arrows, but with rifles. The commandant also said, “We want to make sure that these thirty young Navajos can’t become United States Marines first.” So don’t tell them. Just ask them if they want to draw on Moraine and fight the enemy. If they say yes, recruit them like you do all other Marines you recruit. So Marine Corps came out to the Navajo Nation in May of 1942 to recruit thirty young Navajos using detectives. The commandant suggested that: “You want to fight? You want to shoot the enemy? You want to wear a nice blue Marine Corps uniform like this? Join the Marines, fight D and Me!” So they did. They volunteered, all thirty of them. They gave them pliminary physical exam. One dropped out, so just twenty-nine were busted down to San Diego. Now we’re talking May of 1942, twenty-nine young naverhoods bust down to San Diego. They were forming to one platoon. There were several platoons going through boot camp, all at the same time. Graduation from boot camp, they create each platoons. Navajo Platoon came in number one of all the other platoons going through boot camp at that time. Of course, a message went took back to the commandant. Commandant was very happy. He said, “Wonderful! Process them through combat train announ, see what they do!” Well, what the Mouran State’s Marine Corps and commandant don’t know: it’s back in those days, in the thirties and forties, it was not unusual for any one of us to put in five to ten miles every day managing the livestock. Before sunup, you eat, you get out and move these livestock out. Three or four of us young people, and they tell us to take these animals out to a nice green pasture. If you do find a green pasture, stay out there overnight if necessary, maybe two nights, so you carry a blanket. If you find a good pasture, you stay out there with the animals, whether it’s screening, dust storm, sun beating down on your snow, and you stay out there. And also one of us will be carrying twenty-two rifle. You get hungry out there, so you shoot a rabbit. You barbecue a rabbit that you’ll meal for the day. That’s how it was. Sometime ten to fifteen miles every day, managing these livestock. So to these twenty-nine young Navajos that just went through boot camp, it was like a vacation. Oh my God, I bet to slip on with metres, clean sheets, pillows. We didn’t know there was such a thing as pillows until we got to San Diego. Also, you don’t have to carry a twenty-two rifle to get something to eat. Just get in a chow line, three meals a day. What a life! Compare training, the same thing? No problem. So these twenty-nine young Navajos that went in first graduated from a Marine Corps communications school with high grades, and then they were separated from all other Marines. They were then taken to the east side of San Diego, a top secret location, a building about half the size of an aviage hotel with high fence all around that building and the gate. At the gate, there were two guards. Over the gate, there’s a big sign that said, “Keep out! Top secret operation!” Through that gate, a Non States Marine Corps colonel, a full-bird Colonel Marcy’s twenty-nine young Navajos through that gate into classroom. And in that classroom were tables with four chairs around each table. In front of each chair, riding tablets, a pencil, blackboard, choking the eraser on the wall. Colonel down a trustees twenty-nine young Navajo Marines. “Now,” he said, “gentlemen, you are Marines. Now you read it: go fight and shoot the enemy. But before you do that, we’d love for you to something else. We’d like for you to develop a military coat using your language.” The colonel said, “Immediately, whatever you do in this classroom, it’s top secret.” Also, the colonel went on and said, “You’re not going to carry anything out of this classroom. You’re not going to care anything to battle, because if you do, enemy shoots you, they search you, and they’ll find that copy of the coat if you, if you take care of it around with you, nothing like that. Everything will be subject to memory only.” Another thing, the colonel said, “Whatever coat you’re going to be developing in this top secret classroom, only you would know, not another Never. That’s the kind of coate we want.” The colonel then said, “Here’s a box full of simple messages sent in combat. Look at it, read it, and see how you can send messages like this using the quote you can be developing.” Colonel sat down, lit his pipe, and set, “Go to work, gentlemen.” So they did. They look at the messages, they read it. They’re all written in an English language, using the English alphabet A-B-C-T-F. This present the first big problem for these twenty-nine young Navajos. We’re talking now June of 1942. Why was it a problem? Because Navajo’s not a written in—
Language is not a written language. And my goodness, his story about boot camp being a breeze because these guys’ lives were tougher out in the field and they didn’t actually have to hunt for their meals. When we come back, more of this remarkable piece of American history and how Americans live and learn, in the end, how they learn to fight and love each other, the story of the Navajo Code Talkers. Here on Our American Stories, and we continue with Our American Stories and Peter McDonald’s riveting story about how the Navajo Code Talkers, well, how they came to be. And he’s the President at Navajo Code Talkers Association. Let’s continue where Peter last left off.
We don’t have Navajo words for letters like A, B, C, D, E, F. So how in the world are you going to send a message? You don’t even have words for it. Eventually, one of them went to the blackboard and wrote on a big letter A and said, “Let’s call the letter A belasana.” Belasana in Navajo means aphole. Letter B: the discussion of the wild, they call letter B shush. Shush in Navajo means bear. Letter C: mussy. Mussy in Navajo means cat. Letter D: b B in Navajo means deer, D-E-E-R. All the way down to letter Z. The code word for letter Z was beshlish Beshtlician. Navajo means zinc. Zinc starts with Z, right? The colonel also said there’s another Marine Corps officer in that same classroom. He said, “This officer is a Marine Corps military coat expert. Whatever coat you developed, you run it by him.” So they did. The officer said, “That’s great, that’s wonderful!” “But remember,” he said, “we have an enemy that is very smart and very intelligent. They can break any coat that’s in use, and they use different method to do that. One other method is repetition. Like the word Guadalcanal has four A’s in it, so you don’t want to say pelasana belisana, plisana belisana four times spelling Guadalcanal. So back to the drawing board. What do we do?” Well, the twenty-nine young Navos decided, “Okay, if that’s the case, then why don’t we create two additional words for each letters of the English alphabet, like the letter A.” The first code word would be plasana, apple. The second court word for the letter A would be tenant. Tenant in Navajo means X, something you chop would with. The third code word for the letter A would be willachi willa Chi in Navajo means N, A, and T. Two additional words for each letters of the English alphabet, from A to Z. They ran it by the code expert. The code experts are wonderful. “That’s what we want! Terrific!” “Yeah, terrific for you.” But what that means is we have to memorize that many more code words for each letters of the English alphabet. Remember, everything is subject to memory only. Every Friday there would be a test. They divide the group into two: Group A and Group B. Well, Todd d Enna, July 1942. Final tests: Group A and Group B. Group A is given a real tough message containing all of those two hundred and sixty quote words. Just develop and memorize. Sent to Group B. Group B wrote it down. They compared the two messages, very much alike, with one exception: punctuation marks. Back to the classroom to create quote words for punctuation marks. A period: no problem, dsision doion in Navajo means up like dot. Summer colon: took a little time to create quote word for it, but eventually it was called decision but set not dead. Decision but not there in Navajo means a black dot that lost its tail that will beat the code word for summer colon. Question mark: at jab at ja in Navajo means ears. Question mark looks like an ear. All the punctuations you could think of. Coote words were developed, memorized fact to Group A and Group B. Group B wrote it down. They compare the two messages, but gully, it’s very, very much alike. As a matter of fact, it looks like a xerox copy of the one that was sent at this juncture. The colonel said, “Gentlemen, we’re finished. Now we can test this coat that you just developed an actual battle to see how your memory works under enemy gunfire.” So Arcus 7, 1942, First Marine Division laid it on the beaches of Guadalcanal with thirteen Navajo coat talkers to test this new quote that was just developed. Three weeks after the landing, General Vandergriff, commander of the First Marine Division, sent work back to the United States saying, “This Navajo coat is terrific. The enemy never understood it. We don’t understand it either, but it works. Sundas some more Navajos.” So from that day on, San Diego Marine Court Base took charge of recruiting noval after August 1942, using the same tactics. “Come out here,” they’d say, “Hey, you want to join the Marines? You want to shoot the enemy? You want to wear a blue uniform like this? Come join the Marines!” Nothing about coats zero. So we all volunteered to join the Marine and fight. I went in early 1944 at age fifteen. That’s another story. But anyway, after Quadle Canal, every landing in the Pacific, Navajo coat was used. After Quadalcanal, Book in the Ville. After Bouk in Theville, Cape Cluster. After Cape Cluster, Noop written. After New Britain, Tarawah, Maken, Kowacheling. And we talk Saipan, Tinian, Qua, Alsan, Quam. After Guam, the next island, Palla Lou, a real bad one. After Paalalu, Iwo Jima, another bad one. After Ewo, Okinawa. After Okinawa, some of us were sent into North China.
And what a story you are hearing. It is Peter McDonald, President at Navajo Code Talkers. And this is what World War II did. From our great and terrific stories about our Tuskegee yarman to the women who worked riveting and doing all kinds of things at shipyards across this country. It moved the country along on so many fronts. When we come back, more of the story of the last Navajo Code Talkers, and that’s Peter McDonald. We’re listening to here on Our American Stories, and we continue with Our American Stories. And Peter McDonald, the President at Navajo Code Talkers Association and a Code Talker himself who served in the Pacific Theater, and he was just talking about the Code Talkers and how they hopped from Ireland to Ireland to island. Every battle in the Pacific, they were there. Let’s pick up when we last left off with Peter.
McDonald. October 25, 1945. We have separate peace treaty ceremony with those Japanese in North China at Singh Tao, China, October 25, 1945. All through these bells, Navajo Code was used. “How does it sound?” Well, let’s go to Ewok GiMA. Three Marine divisions landed on ework gam Our, Third, Fourth, and Fifth, February 1945. Each division of the United States Marine Corps have at least seventy Navajo Code Talkers assigned to each division, every landing. That’s how it was. At least a dozen Code Talkers to hit the beach first with the first wave. So you’re talking about over two hundred Navajo Code Talkers involved. On the island of Ewe, on the south-south coast, there’s marser Rabachi, most people familiar with that. In the center is the airstrip. On the north side, there’s some little hills. Beneath one of those hills, a company Marines was pinned down very badly. They were being fired down from three different directions. Motor shehlles were being dropped on them. They were honkering in their foxhouls desperately can’t move the commander of their company scribble a mess—
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