Navajo Code Talkers

Perhaps one reason for which the Navajo code talkers were so successful and one reason for which the institution of code talking was so readily acceptable stems from the fact that in traditional Navajo culture two three hundred years ago the Navajos were Raiders and when they went on the warpath according to legend they used a special warriors language in order to prevent enemy spies from understanding them so they did according to legend almost precisely what they did as code in the Pacific during the war with the Japanese. CHOIR SINGS

about 38 years ago the Navajos from this country were recruited to assist in the battle that was being waged in the Pacific using a native tongue to transmit secret important messages from the front line back to the headquarters so they can direct fire to their enemies when Pearl Harbor was bombed December 7 1941 I was a Navajo silversmith do my trade I got a postcard from Uncle Sam saying that I want you that means I was drafted. I was drafted for this co-toppers in the Marine Corps. I was a ninth grader there at Shiprock. They used to call it agricultural high school.

I was kind of a wild Indian, I suppose, in the class, so in order for the teacher to get rid of me She strongly recommended that I join up. I was the only student from our class that went and volunteered at Fort Defiance during lunch break. These recruiters had gone off to eat, and we were winding around, and one of the offices that they used, they had a desk in there, and they had the brown folders that were stacked up over here to one side. Those were the boys going. And over here, there was one sitting to the side with a little note that said, Parents Won't Consent. So I'd pull off that tab and slip it underneath that big bag. So there was three of us.

The volunteers were to be interviewed. There was Howard Gorman, Henry Gatewood, and myself. Thirty-five years ago, when I was 15 years of age, I left Tisnazpans, which is about 150 miles north of here, to join the United States Marines. The Navajos were very patriotic. My father, as a matter of fact, joined the service by lowering his age and he as I said we're very patriotic bunch of Indians and we were having a good time singing in the bus thing in Navajo and having a nice glorious time and we it didn't last long after the uh after we got into san diego we we got into the gate there and we got off the bus and and boy the sergeant was standing there and he he told us okay you guys are now in

the marine corps and uh they start drilling us they start marching us to where we were going going to stay and get our gear, our clothing and things like that, and they didn't just give it to us, they threw it at us. And some of the boys really kind of made, just made we were kind of sad that we joined the Marine Corps now, the way they were really treating in a rough in the Marine Corps it appeared to me the first time it looked like a big prison these guys wearing these caps you know over their ears and make the baggy uniform they told us then then what they were going to really use us for, that they were going to use the Navajo

language as the code. Because the Japanese were really, really smart, you know, they really were deciphering the American code just right and left. And so they thought they'd They'll use a new angle in sending codes, language codes, and that's how they employed or they got us into the Marine Corps to use our language. Philip Johnson, he was raised on the Navajo reservation, son of a missionary, and he is He's very good in Navajo language and tradition and everything. He is one of the persons that I know thought about, why not use the Navajo language in this war, Second World War, against the Japanese.

And that's how the Code Talkers come about. As a matter of fact, it was so secret that it was not released until about 10 years ago to be made public. Because it was so highly secretive, these young guys were never really allowed to write home and tell about their war experiences. This sort of thing, the letters were censored. And we had no idea what the old man was doing. between. That seemed to last forever for me. We didn't know where he was. That was a big part of my life where I never saw my father, where really sons should be close to their old man i never i didn't have him around and wrote uh to uh philip and said i've got all these parents coming in all the time and relatives and they want to know what's happened all their sunday

just like they've disappeared off the face of the earth nobody knows where they're at or what they're doing or what what's up and so against his better judgment he wrote this real detailed letter specifically spelling out that hey this is all top secret don't let it out but just for your information this is what's happening to these guys they're all okay and everything but it's a top secret mission and don't tell anybody so lo and behold what does stewart do with all this information he turns around he writes a big story for arizona highways and it gets published in arizona highways and you know what hit the fan they're after johnson you're right as a result philip got court-martialed and censured the last day that he was on duty he felt that this stuff would just get buried in archives someplace and so he pilfered all of the records and of course they were highly confidential and secret we were were forbidden to speak the Navajo language. As a matter of fact, I was punished quite

often by these nuns. We're told not to speak our own language. There's the co-talkers in the Pacific, you know, where our language was important there, but certainly not in in the church or schools. My father had the same situation, I understand. They beat them when they didn't speak English. They're teaching Navajo in schools now, I understand. They trained us right to the point where we were all sharp. And they were, after we got through with our platoon, they were really, they were really proud of us. They saw that things were going to happen right here in the United States, but you had to put on a uniform and go to shoot in the war overseas.

So these two men backed out, the elder people. So I said, I'll go along. I was 29 years old, but I said, I'll go. And we were on the fire at Guadalcanal the first time, and boy was I scared and oh afterwards I found out that all night you know all these sounds like they were shooting just shooting constantly shooting like bombardment shell dropping bonds from airplanes what that really gets you I I remember when they used to drop bombs on us. I couldn't get used to it. And the worst it got, like Saipan, they'd tell us that some airplanes were coming over. And then they'd drop bombs on us. And boy, I just wish that I was about 20,

30 feet deep into the ground someplace where I won't hear. But that's the way it goes. it was it was it got me I got hurt on side pan and I got evacuated from side pan we marched all night all day very little to eat but I tell you it's up to you I want to go long talk about it aye aye sir we start marching walk walk Well, three days, three nights to reach our objective. That had to be the roadblock between Munda Airfield and Baroka Harbor. So we had to check out. Once they take us, pretty hard to row. That's the island that the Marines took after 72 hours. And of course before we went back aboard the ship, we had to bury a little over 500 of our own Marines in this big trench.

They dug a trench, bulldozer trench about six or seven feet deep. And we just laid these bodies in there above the other. And they covered that up and that's how we left some of our dead Marines there. We took Saipan and Tinian. All this time, I have one other co-talker with me. His name was Vicente, Roy Vicente. He's from Tohaichi, New Mexico. Him and I, we operate the same radio. We alternate during the day and during the night. And And after Tinian, Mary Ann Alden, we went on to Iwo Jima, which was our last combat invasion over there as a coal tower with the 4th Marine Division. I think, to me, Iwo Jima is one of the greatest battles in the Pacific as far as the Marine Corps organization goes.

goes. The coal talkers were riding there doing their work and fight. During the day, they'd be fighting. During the night, they'd be operating their radio, sending messages from the coal talkers. It was much quicker than the Morse code. Thank you. © BF-WATCH TV 2021

I don't know. He was a man, he was a man, he was a man, he was a man, he was a man, he was a man, he was a man, he was a man, he was a man, he was a man. The 10th of March, well this is my second lawn walk. My ancestor made the lawn walk before summering, so I'm the next one making a lawn walk.

The third day, they start getting sick, they start getting diarrhea, dysentery. We start losing them. And on the fifth day, sixth day, seventh day, we're still walking. No meal. Everybody's thirsty, and you start giving up. They died in the sleep. This is where my heart, it gets me. In the prison camp, I had malaria, and they kept asking me, me, why are you fighting your own people? I tried to tell them I am a Navajo, but they don't know. They don't know Navajo. Then they take me to Nakasaki, the communications center. That's where this interpreter told me, you're going to have to intercept the code here now. a lady will come see you she is Tokyo Rose so I have to listen she called I went up there and I

It sounds like a Navajo talking. . And she asked me, did you understand these words? yeah understand I understand the words but in the in the words it's just a regular word that I translate them but that doesn't mean anything to them it's in the code and I don't know the the coat. Why did they beat me up? They beat me up. I can't translate the right word, what it means. I can't translate. So they had to beat me up to get it out of me. This has been

been going on for at least about five months in 44. They let me out in the wintertime in 44 in November. They let me out in the parade ground without no clothes to stand out there one whole hour because I can't translate the code the Japanese they never broke the Navajo code back at the beginning of World War two Navajos would go to movies and they would see the the newsreel and in it they would see Mussolini speaking speaking, and they would see Adolf Hitler speaking, so they attached names to these

people as they frequently do to other people. They're great for making up nicknames of various types. Hitler had this little tuft of a mustache right under his nose, and they dubbed him , meaning the one who smells his mustache. Navajo, through its long years Years of association with the Pueblos, later with Spanish-speaking people, and finally with English-speaking people over the course of four centuries or so, has borrowed a very, very small number of terms from those languages, primarily because of the difficulty attendant upon taking a word, especially a verb from somebody else's language incorporating it into Navajo and using it in meaningful form one cannot inflect an English verb if the item is really incorporated into Navajo culture Navajo is much more likely to develop a term of its own so when stoves

appeared on the Navajo scene they were called fire inside of metal when railroad locomotives appeared they were they were called which means fire makes it roll about or fire makes it move the airplanes were called the which means a is a car or vehicle and not means it flies so a flying vehicle is literally floating wood and this means a boat and is a submarine because it moves underneath the water down at the bottom so these these are the ways in which Navajo has expanded its vocabulary to incorporate new cultural concepts without borrowing the terms from other languages it has developed them on its

own or if it needs to use them then it merely uses them in the form of phrases and the like within the context of sentences and that's the way we operated but we didn't mind it we liked it as part of our return from the battle zone according to our Navajo tradition there must always be a small dance performed for each warrior that returns from battle in this case that was what it was so in my case I took several years before I had one and it was a blessing and a curative ceremony and it has to be performed and that way then your life thereafter will be in good harmony with the nature and all things things on this earth, which is probably the best thing that our Navajo people have. So

in Navajo way, it's the Navajo sport dance. Here is John Brown, Jr. He's one of the top councilmen today, and he's been in the councilman in probably 15, 20 years now. And he's well liked by his community. Some of these guys died from drinking. After the wars, my dad always told me what you fellas did for the US government in this war business. they should provide you with a good home on a piece of land and of course that didn't come about we even today we're still trying to get some kind of a home some have after fashion but But in my case, I still live in my camper that's sitting on my pickup truck.

So that's the extent of my home. Some of our subordinates were told that if ever a code talker was going to be captured or that they had orders to shoot the code talker so that our code would not get into the hands of the enemy. It's a good thing we never learned about it. The Navajo Nation Code Talkers have not only made a tremendous contribution to this country we call America, but also have made tremendous contributions contribution to the progress and the welfare of the Navajo Nation. One of the best things about this job is being able to honor individuals who have served the United States with distinction.

I know I speak for all our citizens when I express the nation's gratitude to America's Navajo Sons for their dedicated and highly effective service during the war. And I'd like to add my personal admiration for these men who almost 40 years ago volunteered for duty with the Marine Corps in defense of their country. In appreciation for the bravery and fearless service of the Code Talkers, it is my pleasure to present a Presidential Certificate of Recognition for their role in winning World War II. I'm told there's a Navajo term that means with a courageous heart you have fought well I know all the American people will join me in saying to the Navajo code talkers with a courageous heart you have fought © BF-WATCH TV 2021

THE END Thank you. Thank you.