WEBVTT - How the Navajo Code Talkers Worked 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.960 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.119 There's Charles w Chuck Bryan over there, and there's Jerry. 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.200 So this is stuff you should know. This is gonna 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:24.480 be a good one. This is a grabstor joint. Did 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:28.280 you want to talk about super first? Are you kidding? Yeah? 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:30.080 I was kidding. Oh, I thought you were serious. Yeah, 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.400 it was bad soup, but I meant that bad. Yeah, 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:37.479 I mean, right before we started recording, like this is 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:40.560 how how awesome things are around here, we were talking 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:43.040 about how bad your French onion soup was. How do 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.320 you mess up French onions? Yeah, that's what I was wondering. 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:47.120 And he said, say that, I want to talk about this, 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:49.680 and I thought you were serious. Yeah, I was kidding. Well, 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.080 and here we are. I was kidding. Yeah, And then 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:53.640 we were talking about the soup anyway, How do you 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:56.400 mess up French onion soup? It's like beef broth, salt, onions, 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.200 cheese bread. Yeah, they put too much in it, melted 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:02.640 in the crock pot. Yes, yes, this. The onions they 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:04.840 used were way too sweet. I think they used like 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:09.320 onions dipped in sugar. It was just not good. Yeah, 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:13.679 not good. You can tell we shouldn't call them out publicly. 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.360 That'd be pretty mean. Sure, I mean, they just don't 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.880 know what they're doing with soup. It's fine, but they're 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:25.320 a soup restaurant. There are a lot of sup restaurants. Yeah, 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.640 do you remember that, dumb one? I think they're out 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:33.640 of business. Now, let us surprise you. Haven't dumb about 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.959 let us surprise you, buddy, soup and sell love that 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:40.720 that's out of business, right, Yeah, there's something called sweet 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:44.640 Tomatoes that's basically the I think I've heard of that. Yep. Hey, 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.240 I like a good soup and salad joint. Yeah, so 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:49.760 what was wrong with let us surprise you? I don't know. 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.920 I just I don't like cute see names unless it's 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.480 on The Simpsons. And I think the teas were made 0:01:55.520 --> 0:02:00.480 of carrots. Yeah for sure. Well that leads us right 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.680 into Navajo code talkers. Exactly. Quite well, we should say 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.360 right out of the gate that, um, we're well, like 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.839 you just said, we're talking about Navajo code talkers. There 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.960 were plenty of other code talkers from other Native American tribes. 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:19.400 This episode is mostly about the Navajo code talkers because 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:22.520 there were so many of them and so much is 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:25.600 known about the codes that they made. But we'll also 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:28.880 mention other tribes as well, Yes, and straight up respect 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.600 to all of them. It always kind of stinks when 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.799 one thing gets all the glory when there were many 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:39.600 factions of that thing. So yeah, right, But I think 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.120 that's better than just naming this episode like how code 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.800 talkers work, but only talking about the Navajo code talkers. 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:51.079 I think we covered everything right, agreed. So Um, if 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:54.240 you have ever seen or familiar with a movie called 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:58.280 wind Talkers, as have you seen it? I didn't see it, 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:00.360 but I did look it up today, and it is 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:05.320 widely regarded as not only garbage, a garbage movie, but 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.840 a real disservice to do a great to do a 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:13.000 movie about the Navajo code talkers, but it's really a 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:17.400 movie about Nick Cage, right, directed by John Woo. Yeah, 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:21.960 it's a violent war movie that happened to be structured 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:26.200 around a really interesting historical plot, right, Like, let's let's 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:31.240 take this really amazing story from history and and let's 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.560 morph it into a story about a white soldier. It's like, um, 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:44.320 dancing to Havana. Nights. Basically, Oh, it's funny, it is. Yeah, 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:46.520 the wind Talkers. I do I do not indorse that film. 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:48.560 I do not either, and neither of us have seen it. 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:51.040 We still don't endorse that. No, I don't. I just 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:53.320 need to see the reviews on that one. But the 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:58.120 the point of it was that there was a Native 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:00.560 American I don't know if he's a Nava or not 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.920 um in that movie because again haven't seen it, but 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:11.320 UM who was who was charged with speaking his native 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:13.720 tongue to someone else on the other end of the 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:16.600 line at the front lines of battle in the Pacific 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:20.680 Theater during World War two, Um to transmit messages in code, 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:25.160 in an unbreakable code, and that actually happened, Like that 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.080 part of the story happened, and it was true that 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.760 there were in World War Two Native Americans in large 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:34.919 part Navajo who were speaking to one another in Navajo, 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:40.720 like on Guadalcanal, or um in the Marianas or the 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.919 Marshall Islands or Okinawa, who were there at all of 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:49.720 these major massive battles in the Pacific Theater between the 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.760 United States and Japan. UM that actually eventually led to 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:59.599 this island hopping process led to them the atomic bombs 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:04.320 being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the Mariannas. Yeah, 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:10.400 code so uh well complex to our dumb ears. To 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.680 the Navajoo, they were just like, this is just our language. True, 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:15.520 but even if you're a linguist, you're like, this is 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.800 extraordinarily difficult language. Yeah, but so complex that UM it 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:23.800 confounded the Japanese, who were really good at busting codes, 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.080 and they were like, I don't know what's going on here. 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.919 You're right, yeah, this is I've never heard anything like this, 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:33.920 which was a huge reversal because prior to the institution 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.680 of um Navajo code talkers and I think nineteen forty two, 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.840 like late nineteen forty two, UM, the Japanese had our 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:46.800 goat with our coded transmissions. Because for the for the 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.920 number one, there were a number of Japanese people who 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.920 had been educated in the US in between World War 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:55.919 One world War two UM and had gone back to 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.600 Japan prior to World War two, and they were totally 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:02.080 fluent in English, so they could speak English like up down, 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.080 in sideways. Plus on top of that, they were really 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:09.360 good at breaking our coats, so they knew basically everything 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.440 we were going to do every step of the way. 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:15.440 So the Navajo code talkers coming into the Pacific theater, 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:19.840 was it reversed our fortunes? There's there's it's not an 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:23.200 overstatement to say that they basically helped the US take 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:29.080 the Pacific from Japan, not single handedly, but through their coat. 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:30.960 Yeah for sure. All right, So let's talk about the 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:35.839 Navajo UH in general. To begin with Native American tribe 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:40.120 UM that inhabited the American southeast or what you know 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:44.040 now we know it as an American Southwest. Back then 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.320 it was known as the South. Yeah, exactly. And you're like, 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:51.240 what this isn't the coast American Southwest? I wish everyone 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.040 could see because Josh literally just pointed in the other direction. 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:58.560 I wonder if you pointed, wet Uh you pointed that way? 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.560 Is that west? I don't even know. Hold on, now, 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:08.800 that's that's north. Okay, the American South, the American South North? Uh. 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:14.560 They the original um people's were they believed from Asia? 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.360 Maybe ironically in the end, when you see how the 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.440 story goes, UH and settled in the southwest round fourteen 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:28.480 hundred ce UM in the sixteen hundreds, UH, A lot 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:32.080 of things changed the next few hundred years were uh, 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:34.800 they were warring with the Spanish, they were warring with 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.680 other Native American tribes. And then that was all kind 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:41.880 of leading up to the eighteen hundreds when the United 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:46.240 States popped up and said, hey, um, here's what we're 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:49.360 gonna do. We're going to wreck your economy. We're going 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:53.080 to destroy your crops and livestock and poison your wells 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:57.320 and kill all your buffalo and put you on reservations 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:02.360 and march you, um, march you to New Mexico, where 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:04.440 your new home will be and what will be known 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:06.920 as the Long Walk. Yeah. It was basically their their 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:10.160 trail of tears. Yeah, exactly. It was just right out 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:17.200 of the Westward Expansion playbook. Um. And so the Navajo 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:22.640 found themselves. When was that the mid it was? I think, yeah, 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:24.960 And like why that, I mean, it's important for a 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:28.240 lot of reasons. But um, the men who ended up 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.560 being the Navajo code talkers in World War Two, their 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:36.280 grandparents were these people that were forced to go on 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:39.400 the Long Walk. Yes, and it wasn't you know, hundreds 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:43.040 and hundreds of years later, like direct descendants that ended 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:45.960 up fighting for the United States. Yes, and this is 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.920 not like, hey, do you mind moving over here? It was. 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:51.360 It was very much like the Trail of Tears. It 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:56.880 was movement three hundred miles to a reservation against their will. Um, 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:58.719 at the barrel of a gun. Yeah, like I don't 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.600 want to go okay, I'll shoot you, yes, exactly. There 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.600 were reports of UM, of the injured, of the tired, 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:10.720 people who fell behind were just shot by the U. S. Infantry. Um. 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:13.160 There was at least one family that reported that their 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.640 pregnant daughter was UM. They were forced away from her. 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:19.199 She was kept behind and they heard her being shot 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:22.400 as well. It was. It was. It was just a 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:25.839 violation and atrocity done to the Navajo like get was 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.839 done to so many other Native American groups. And by 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.679 the nineteenth century, like basically eighteen fifty seven on the 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:38.040 Navajo lived exclusively on reservations in the in the Southwest. Yeah. 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.640 And starting in about the eighteen seventies, the U. S. 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:43.320 Government said, here's what we're gonna do. Um, you have 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:47.480 to assimilate into American society. We want you to forget 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.680 your culture as you knew it. You can't speak your 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:52.720 native language anymore. Um, We're gonna round up your kids 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.400 and send them to American boarding schools, teach them to 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:58.400 read and write in English only. Uh. And you're going 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:02.439 to be punished and for bidden from speaking your native tongue, 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:04.960 from singing in your native tongue. Yes, you will be 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.280 beaten if we catch you speaking Navajo to one another. 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.240 And they, like I think you just said, they would 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.320 kidnap children, take them to these schools, just like they 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.840 did with the Aboriginal tribes in Australia, UM, just like 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.240 they did with the first Americans in UM, the first 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.240 nations in Canada. And it was just not only have 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:27.960 we taken your land, not only have we forced you 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.520 to live in this one area that no one else 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:32.719 wants to live in, like we want to destroy your 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.800 culture now, like we're going after your culture. We just 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.760 don't want to obliterate you guys completely. We'll let you 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.280 live but under these these conditions, and we're not We're 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.880 gonna murder your culture. And so not only were these 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:51.000 code talkers the grandchildren or the grandsons of the people 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:53.680 who went on the Long Walk, they were the very 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:58.640 people who went to these Indian schools and were beaten 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:03.040 for speaking Navajoa. And then about nineteen forty two, the 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:08.000 United States military, specifically the Marine showed up and said, Hey, 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.320 we'd love for you to come speak Navajo officially for 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.560 the United States government. Would you mind doing that? Yeah, 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:18.080 And this was after World War One. It went on 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.360 in World War One. Actually, Um, World War two got 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:22.640 all the press, and the Navajo of course did more 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.280 than anyone else, Like you said, but in World War 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.640 One there were um. In nineteen eighteen, there was a 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:34.160 captain from the Ontywcond Infantry Regiment who heard UM two 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:37.920 Choctaw soldiers speaking in their native tongue and was like, Man, 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:40.960 we're getting hammered with the Germans and the French cracking 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:45.320 our codes. So I think that this language could be 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.440 of use to us because it's really complex. Germans have 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.400 no idea what what's going on with your language, and 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:54.640 I think we could put you to use. And so 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.880 the very first code talkers, I think, were these Choc 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:01.079 talk code talkers in World War One. Yeah. The well, 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:02.959 we were fighting with the French when we were talking 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.240 to the French, but the Germans spoke French and English 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.280 and we're using regular telephone lines in World War One, 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.199 I guess they just had them tapped. So they were 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:13.600 just eavesdropping and we might as well have been speaking 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:18.040 German for as well as they were translating these coded transmissions. 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:20.400 Now all of a sudden they're like, what is what 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:23.360 is this? We've never heard this language before ever. It's 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:25.840 just a couple of Choctaw guys talking to one another. 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:29.800 But it was for Germany an unbreakable code at least 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.080 as long as World War One was going on. Yeah, 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.720 and I don't think this early World War One code 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:36.960 was so much a code as like you're saying, like, 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.800 we're just gonna put a Choctaw on one end and 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:43.120 a Choctaw on the other end of the line, and 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:45.199 they'll just relay the messages that we tell them to 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:50.319 and their native tongue. And the Germans were like nine right. 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:56.040 The only word I could think of, uh holgan its 0:12:56.080 --> 0:13:03.080 World War two rooms that would come years later. So, um, 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:07.200 it wasn't just Choctaw members of the Choctaw tribe who 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:11.319 were code talkers in World War One. Also the Comanche 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:16.760 played a role. Um the Fox which is also known 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:21.760 as the um oh Man I had it. Have you 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.440 ever heard the Fox tribe from I believe Mississippi I 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:27.640 don't think so you oh, you don't. Um. There was 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:29.920 also the Comanche. They played a big role in some 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.560 other tribes did as well. But there's like we're talking 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:37.400 a handful of people in the capacity, like you were saying, 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.720 it's like, uh, just say this in your native language 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:42.960 to this other guy who speaks your native language and 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:45.800 he'll tell you know, the guy on the other end 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.280 what you just said in English. Yeah. And here's the 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.560 rub I mean there. It is rich with irony throughout 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:53.400 this whole story. But here's the rub in World War 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.000 One is that Native Americans weren't even granted citizenship until 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:00.680 so the World War One code talkers were not even 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:04.320 American citizens yet they were doing this. Uh, and they 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:07.520 were not even recognized by the United States and acknowledged 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:11.280 and thanked until two thousand eight, right thousand eight, ten 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:17.120 years ago. France even recognized them in I think, did 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.160 you say that? Okay, So France recognized them first, and 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:25.160 it took another twenty years before the US recognized him officially. Unbelievable, 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:29.760 It is unbelievable. Um. But the the the problem with 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:33.360 World War One is it worked, but we became friendly 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:37.000 with Germany in between world War One and World War Two, 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.840 and Germany said, yeah, we're going to headge our bets here. 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.840 We're going to send some people to the United States 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:49.000 to learn Native American languages and culture so that if 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:50.920 we ever go to war with the United States again, 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.880 we'll have their number. And they did. Apparently there were 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:55.840 plenty of well, I don't know if plenty of the 0:14:55.920 --> 0:15:02.840 right word, but there were Germans who spoke um, Cherokee, Comanche, 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:05.840 so that um, so much so that the some of 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.760 the American commanders in World War two were like, we 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.080 can't use Native American language because there's Germans who know 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:15.600 this already. They were compromised basically between World War One 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:19.200 and World War Two. You wanna take a break, Oh yes, 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:21.080 all right, let's take a break, and we're gonna come 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:24.240 back and talk about the dawn of World War two. 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:49.600 And a man named Philip Johnston. All right, so right 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:54.239 before World War two, UM, there was a training exercise 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:58.320 going on with UH, with soldiers from Michigan and Wisconsin. 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.360 There were Native American soldier is involved, and there was 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:03.920 a man UH and they were, you know, they were 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:06.600 testing out these coded transmissions. Are like, we didn't world 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:08.560 War one. Let's try it again. There was a man 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:11.400 there named Philip Johnston who was a white man, but 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.640 he actually grew up on a Navajo reservation. I think 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:19.360 he just read an article about this. Actually, Um, well, yeah, 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:21.560 he wasn't in the army at this time because they 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:24.200 brought him in like he was way too old, way 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:25.800 too old. But around this time I think he was 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.680 about fifty years old. Yeah, but he had the benefit 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:33.200 of growing up on a Navajo reservation. Considered himself a Navajo, 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:36.960 spoke the language following World War One and said, I 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.240 want to make a comeback, and I want to go 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:42.960 back and fight in World War two and start up 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.960 this crack team of Navajo code talkers. It was his idea. 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.160 And they said he went into the office of whatever 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.720 higher up general he needed to spoke some Navajo and 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:55.840 said this worked once, why can't it work twice? And 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.280 they was like, by George, I think you go onto something. Well, 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.360 they said, we'll give you, uh well of you a 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.960 chance to demonstrate this. So apparently in Los Angeles he 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:08.720 recruited four Navajo men who I guess he was friendly 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:11.320 with because, like you said, he considered himself Navaho. His 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:15.040 parents were missionaries. Um. And apparently he spoke Navajo so 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:19.000 well that at age nine, he served as the official 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:24.080 translator for a Navajo delegation that had gone to Washington, 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.960 d C. To lobby for better treatment and rights for 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:32.240 the Navajo nation. Which is amazing because, as you'll learn, 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:35.399 the not a lot of because there were other white 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.840 people who spoke Navajo that tried to be code talkers 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:40.480 and none of them made the cut. No, such a 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:42.600 hard language, right, So this guy must have just had 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:45.479 an ear for it too and was raised with it. 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:49.639 But um, he uh, he said, we I know you 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:52.080 guys are trying to make a code. I've got this language. 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:54.600 I've got these four guys from Los Angeles with me. 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:56.680 Just give him a shot. And so they gave him 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:01.560 a shot, I think Camp Elliott, and um, they gave two. 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.640 They took the two of the four Navajo guys, broke 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.960 them into pairs, put them in separate rooms, and said, here, 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:13.040 say this in Navajo, say this English phrase the Eagle 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:16.160 Lands at midnight. Will say, all right, that old bit, 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:18.640 and tell your buddies and see what they say. So 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:23.080 they transmitted the Eagle Lands at Midnight or whatever it was. Um, 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:26.280 over the phone in Navajo. The guys in the other 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.520 room took it in Navajo, translated it back into English 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.439 in like a minute. And the guys at Camp Elliot 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:35.960 were pretty impressed by this. They said, we're going to 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:39.280 bring in some German and Japanese people to listen. And 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:41.520 they're like, did you guys get that? I have no 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.520 idea what they said nine and whatever the Japanese word 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.240 is for now? Do you know that? Uh yet yet? 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.600 It's like that sounds a lot like Russians. The Japanese 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.639 word from now they say no so infrequent. I was 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:55.919 about to say, you know why you don't know that 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:57.800 because all you say is yes right when you go 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:02.080 over there, Yeah, sure, I'll take more more please, They 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:06.160 just bang my bowl on the table. So so yeah, 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:08.720 they they they actually didn't do that. I'm kidding, of course, 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:11.800 but they said this is great, and this is the 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:16.040 trick was not only was it um like basically impossible 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:18.840 to crack, but like you're saying, it was super fast, 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:24.000 way faster than machine codes, right, So that's a huge 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:29.320 advantage that this this offered, was you're using um Navajo 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:33.920 speakers to send a coded message. Prior to this In 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.640 an addition to this, you would you would use basically 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:41.240 machines that used algorithms to encode and decode a message, 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:45.359 and it could take hours hours. If you're trying to 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.320 send a desperate message on a frontline battle in the 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:52.440 Pacific theater, you don't have hours for that thing to 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:55.080 get across. So the idea that you could do the 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:57.880 same thing in minutes in a code that you were 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:01.240 just positive the Japanese would have no idea what to 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.400 do with that was a huge advantage for sure. Yeah, 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:07.040 And like the grabs are pointed out, it was taking 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:10.240 a long time with the code machines that the Germans 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.560 in Japanese were cracking anyway. So this was the solution. 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.959 There was like no no downside to it, alright. So, 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.439 like we said, Johnston was Philip Johnson was far too 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.080 old because he was a World War One veteran. Uh, 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:27.760 they gave him a special commission, said you're now a 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.480 staff sergeant and the Marines again or I don't know 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:33.119 if use of the marine or in the army initially, 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:35.280 do you know, I don't know, But at any rate, 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.080 he was in the Marines this time, and they said 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.720 you're gonna lead the Code Talker project go out and recruit, 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:46.760 So he went to reservations, recruited young men, and between 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:50.159 three and four hundred of these young men became UH 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:53.240 code talkers. He recruited more than that, but a lot 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.800 of them failed out for very various reasons, like you know, 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:58.199 they still have to go through boot camp and all 0:20:58.240 --> 0:20:59.920 that stuff, so he still have to be a sold 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:02.800 or on top of it. Although it was a kind 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:06.119 of a truncated version of boot camp because they had 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:08.359 to get them in there quick. They needed them so badly. 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.240 They're like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're fine. Yeah, we 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:14.080 need to take you to code school basically. Yeah. But 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:18.720 the whole thing started with UM thirty. They originally recruited 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:24.120 thirty Navajo speakers. One of them dropped out, so there 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:27.760 were twenty nine original Navajo code talkers and they were 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:32.040 put to work initially creating the code. Because very importantly, 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.919 the Navajo code talkers not only spoke to one another 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:40.520 in Navajo, which was incomprehensible to basically anybody living it 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:44.879 listening to it who didn't speak it, UM, they would 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:49.840 also use a code. They would use code words in Navajo. 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.879 So what they created was a code within a code, 0:21:54.320 --> 0:22:00.480 and it was as unbreakable as as any any codes 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:02.800 ever been come up that anyone's ever come up with. 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.359 I think we should you and I can't speak navajo. Uh, 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:11.080 I'm not, I'm I'm rusty. I think we should play 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.360 just a little bit of navajo, all right, and then 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:22.680 I'll translate lying Kai a kid joggi hanadia lago k 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:31.119 nazad leko a certain jolago nadia and yeah, opens is 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:35.080 so what you just heard in navajo was um. This 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:38.320 is from the parable of the prodigal son from the 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:42.120 movie Wind Talkers. What you just heard was not long 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:44.760 after that, the younger son got together all he had 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:47.680 set off for a distant country and they're squandered his 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:51.200 wealth in wild living, something everybody does from time to time. 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:55.239 But that was that was what you just heard in navajo. Um. 0:22:55.640 --> 0:23:00.760 And it's it's so foreign sounding um for a reason, 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:05.040 like it's a really difficult language in that like the 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:11.000 same vowel can have four different types of intonation and 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:15.240 four different meanings. So one word can have four different 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:17.800 meanings based on the whether you know, you go up 0:23:17.920 --> 0:23:19.960 or you speak through your nose or whatever. But you're 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:23.800 saying the same word, you're just intoning it differently, and 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:27.760 that just changes the meaning dramatically. That was one reason 0:23:27.840 --> 0:23:30.800 why it was so impenetrable. Yeah, And like you said, 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:36.040 they they memorized five code words, three different versions of 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:41.520 the alphabet, and went to war. I mean I used 0:23:41.640 --> 0:23:43.920 the word irony. I don't mean that's that's sort of 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:47.960 undersells it what was going on and why these men would, 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:51.119 um would sign up for something like this, and and 0:23:51.280 --> 0:23:53.080 Ed points out like you can't get into the head 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:55.920 of them or explain every person's motivation because it was 0:23:55.920 --> 0:24:00.159 all different. But um, through interviews, you know what what 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:03.560 sort of stood out was that they still even though 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:08.760 that the United States had stomped them down into near oblivion, 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:13.000