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    Navajo Code Talkers
    Navajo Code Talkers
    Navajo Code Talkers
    Ebook123 pages1 hour

    Navajo Code Talkers

    By Nathan Aaseng

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    On the Pacific front during World War II, strange messages were picked up by American and Japanese forces on land and at sea. The messages were totally unintelligible to everyone except a small select group within the Marine Corps: the Navajo code talkers-a group of Navajos communicating in a code based on the Navajo language. This code, the first unbreakable one in U.S. history, was a key reason that the Allies were able to win in the Pacific.

    Navajo Code Talkers tells the story of the special group, who proved themselves to be among the bravest, most valuable, and most loyal of American soldiers during World War II.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateJul 15, 2009
    ISBN9780802721426
    Navajo Code Talkers
    Author

    Nathan Aaseng

    Nathan Aaseng grew up in Minnesota and worked as a microbiologist for four years before becoming a writer. He has written over ninety books for young readers. He lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, with his wife, Linda, and their four children.

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    Reviews for Navajo Code Talkers

    3.5/5

    23 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This was an easy to understand and well written history of the Navajo Code Breakers and their role in WWII. There are some good photographs in here that depict the Navajo Code Breakers. This book does a good job of giving a concise history of the Navajo Code Breakers from conception to the end of the war. Overall I enjoyed learning about this lesser known aspect of WWII. I would recommend for middle grade and older readers who are interested in history and WWII.
    • 4/5
      Communication was vital during World War II. The United States and the Navajo nation had a tense relationship. In 1940, the Navajo nation proclaimed that they would partake and aid the United States in World War II to defend and protect the Constitution. The US needed secure communications and the Navajo language was complex. This was essential to make sure no communications were intercepted by the opposing force. Through the course of time, a sense of trust was developed. The complexity of the code-talkers language shortened the Pacific war by a year. The Battle of Okinawa is seen as the finest work done by the Navajo code-talkers. After returning to the United States, the code-talkers were treated poorly. They were seen as heroes among the Navajo peoples. It took over 25 years before the efforts of the Navajo code-talkers was recognized. This book is divided into chapters. In terms of a classroom lesson, a teacher can read many of these chapters out loud. This is an important book because it recognizes the achievements of a cultural group that is often forgotten about. The problem with this book is that it lacks many important pictures and the language is often complex. There could be more connections presented in the book and more information could be presented about the Pacific theater of World War II. This book must be supported with more recent supplemental texts.
    • 2/5
      Ok book that related the WWII Navajo code talkers to the events of the time. I thought that it spent too much time on history and not enough on the men who made it. A whole chapter, for instance, was dedicated to the Japanese attempts to break US code. That seemed to be not the subject of this book.

    Book preview

    Navajo Code Talkers - Nathan Aaseng

    Navajo Code Talkers

    Navajo

    Code

    Talkers

    Nathan Aaseng

    Contents

    Foreword Roy O. Hawthorne

    1. War of Words

    2. Needed: An Unbreakable Code

    3. Creating the Code

    4. Earning Trust

    5. Life in the War Zone

    6. Breaking Japanese Codes

    7. Island-Hopping

    8. The Battle of Sulfur Island: The Code Talkers' Finest Hour

    9. Back Home

    Notes

    Bibliography

    Map

    Foreword

    MOST VICTORIOUS SOLDIERS the world over return home to parades, medals, and statues built in their honor. Not true for those who served as Navajo code talkers during World War II whose battlefield contributions to victory were classified and kept secret for many years.

    Navajo marine veterans were ordered not to reveal their mission as Navajo code talkers or, more precisely, as top-secret communicators. The designation Navajo code talker had not been coined yet and was utilized on a very limited scope. The code name for Navajo marine communicators was talker or Arizona and, occasionally, New Mexico. The name Indian or Navajo was never used.

    Nathan Aaseng's saga of unforgettable valor is a gripping chronicle of young Navajo men whose homeland was decimated and whose ancestors had been taken captive less than one hundred years prior to their becoming United States Marines. In spite of nearly two hundred broken treaties and the attempted eradication of their language by the Federal Indian Education System, they responded to the call to arms by the United States of America. Leaving behind the taste of lye soap with which teachers washed out their mouths for speaking their native language, they went on to develop the only unbreakable code in military history. They not only developed the code, but risked their lives to use it in hundreds of battles in the Pacific theater.

    During World War II, Japan's code breakers were among the finest in the world. There was not a single message these experts could not decipher. But when the Navajo code talkers arrived in the Pacific, the Japanese code breakers met their match. It has been said that the Navajo Code Project was guarded as closely as the famed Manhattan Project, which was responsible for the development of the atomic bomb.

    Marine code talkers were usually in the first wave of every island assault so that command centers could be immediately established and orders and directions could be secretly communicated to troop leaders. Although they were not a separate fighting unit, two and sometimes three code talkers were assigned to units of all six marine divisions. My own baptism by fire was on Okinawa where I went ashore with the first assault wave of the Seventh Regiment, Second Battalion, First Division.

    At times, both my partner and I would be assigned to duties other than communications. As we manned thirty-caliber machine guns during Japanese assaults, we were always on the alert for the call talker from communications, which indicated an incoming Navajo code message or the urgency for a transmission. During an assault on Dakesha Ridge, my unit was pinned down for two days under heavy enemy fire, during which time the antenna on my radio was shot off. Using a pair of field wire cutters I succeeded in reconnecting the damaged antenna and reestablishing the transmission of messages in Navajo code calling for artillery fire and air strikes.

    Many of the officers under whose leadership we served have stated the value of an unbreakable code in many of the Pacific battles. One major summed it up when he said, without the Navajo code, we would never have taken Iwo Jima.

    Nathan Aaseng's Navajo Code Talkers is a compelling and realistic portrait of all the courageous Navajo marines and the long-lasting contribution to freedom made by this dedicated group. I am pleased to have served these men as both the former president and current vice president of the Navajo Code Talkers Association. The association was founded in 1972 to foster, encourage, and perpetuate the experiences and friendships of our service; to exhibit patriotism and love of country; and to aid in the education of our descendants.

    After fifty-eight years the United States Congress has enacted legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal and the Congressional Silver Medal to this unique group of United States Marines. Although we had to work in secrecy, we are delighted that readers will finally know our story.

    —Roy O. Hawthorne

    Vice President of the

    Navajo Code Talkers Association

    1

    War of Words

    US. MARINES ADVANCING ACROSS the Pacific island of Saipan during World War II hacked their way through lush, tangled wilderness and dense sugar-cane plantations. Steep ravines and rugged volcanic mountains barred their path.

    There was no such thing as a battle line for these soldiers. Danger lay not just ahead of them, but also to the side and possibly even behind. The unseen guns of the enemy were hidden by the pitch dark of night, by the thick tropical vegetation, or by the walls of caves that burrowed deep into the mountains.

    Each soldier knew his next step might be his last. The rustling of leaves a few yards away in any direction was as likely to be an enemy as a friend.

    On the extreme left flank of the American forces trying to capture Saipan, a battalion of marines ran into blistering volleys of fire from determined Japanese defenders. In the furious struggle that followed, neither side gained any ground. One morning, however, the marines noticed a strange silence along the enemy front. Cautiously scouting the terrain, they discovered that the Japanese had abandoned the area and retreated to new defensive positions. The marines crept forward.

    Suddenly, artillery shells exploded all around them. Hugging the ground to protect themselves from flying shrapnel, the marines soon discovered that the bombardment was coming from far behind them, obviously from their own artillery units!

    Those American gunners were following orders to blast away at the Japanese in those positions. They had no way of knowing that the Japanese had pulled out and that U.S. Marines now occupied the area. Quickly, one of the marines radioed to headquarters, frantically calling for a stop to the bombardment.

    Now the artillery commanders faced a knotty problem. The Japanese were in general far more fluent in English than the Americans were in Japanese. They often pretended to be Americans and sent out false radio messages in English. If the receiver believed these message, traps could be baited and entire battle plans disrupted. Was this one of those fake messages, sent out to halt a much needed artillery attack? Unfortunately, in the confusion of the scattered battle lines, there was no quick way of finding out just what was true.

    The report sounded suspicious and was ignored. American artillery continued to lob explosives at the marines. Another urgent radio message crackled over the wire, pleading with the artillery to stop firing on the marines. This time headquarters sent a message back: "Do

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