codetalkers

The Code Print Share

Black and white photo of two young Navajo Code Talkers in a jungle like clearing. One is talking on the radio while the other is taking notes beside him.The Code used by the Navajo Code Talkers created messages by first translating Navajo words into English, then using the first letter of each English word to decipher the meaning. Because different Navajo words might be translated into different English words for the same letter, the code was especially difficult to decipher. For example, for the letter "A," the Code Talker could use "wol-la-chee" (ant), "be-la-sana," (apple), or "tse-nill" (ax.) Some military terms that had no equivalent in Navajo were assigned their own code word. The word America, for example, was "Ne-he-mah" (Our mother). Submarine became "besh-lo" (iron fish).

Military commanders credited the Code with having saved the lives of countless American soldiers and with the successful engagements of the U.S. in the battles of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. At Iwo Jima, Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer, had six Navajo Code Talkers working around the clock during the first forty-eight hours of the battle. Those six sent and received more than 800 messages, all without error. Major Connor declared, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima."

Black and white photo of a Navajo Code Talker Manual, a slightly-fraged booklet about eight and a half by eleven inches, with printed type reading CONFIDENTIAL and NAVAJO VOCABULARY on the page and the hand written note of T H Begay at the top. Black and white photo of the inside of the Navajo Code Talker Manual. There are three columns of print reading MILITARY MEANING, NAVAJO PRONUNCIATION, and NAVAJO MEANING as their headers. For example the first row reads, Battlion, Tacheene, and Red Boil.
Code Talker Manual. 
Click the pages to see a larger version.