During WWII there came to be a battle of communication. The Japanese and the Americans were decoding encrypted messages as fast as the adversary could send them. No battle plans were kept secret unless even the soldiers didn’t know about it. Which of course would lead to confusion and pandemonium in their ranks. The answer to this problem was found by a civilian and Navajo translator Philip Johnston. He proposed that they make a code of the Navajo Language. There had been many other codes translated into Native American tongues but none had been successful, so the Generals had reason to be skeptical of Johnston’s proposal. But Johnston’s code was different. It wasn’t a code translated to Navajo. It was a code in Navajo. For example, …show more content…
Although, the Generals had been okay with it the commanding officers at the battle stations were harder to convince. But after Navajo success in the Gilbert and Marshall islands they too were convinced. There was still one big problem with the Navajo Code Talkers; They looked like Japanese!!! Often times they were captured or shot at, because of these misconceptions. One time a Navajo was assigned to bring back some Japanese prisoners. The soldiers at base camp laughed saying, “Which one’s the prisoner!” In the end the U.S. or “Our Mother” (translated to ne-ha-mah) had to give each Navajo a bodyguard to prove that they were U.S.

The Navajo were not only good for codetalking, they were also good at survival because of their background in the desert. One time some Navajos and belegaana (the Navajo name for white people meaning Dogface, this term was also used to describe the army.) were sent into the desert for a 2-day march with one canteen of water each. The Navajos snuck out at night and gathered more water from the plants. The next day while the rest of the marines were dehydrated, the superhuman Navajos were just