The Navajo Codetalkers: The Beginnings

During the Second World War, a certain group of Native Americans joined the war and possibly changed the course of history. Over 420 Navajo fought in WWII and communicated with their unique language. Their rights were taken away from them by the country they were responsible for protecting. Despite being prosecuted and treated harshly, the situations their country was facing such as the stronger Japanese offensives early on in the war, Americans needed to use all of its resources, and the Navajo pride in warriors and warfare ultimately led to the involvement of the Navajo in the Second World War.
Despite advances in American espionage, Japanese code-breaking technologies surpassed America, and, in order to win, the Americans needed an unbreakable code. The language of the Navajo itself is extremely hard to learn, with an entirely different grammatical structure from most other languages, and requires years of exposure at a young age to understand it. From a tactical point of view, Japan obviously had the advantage. As General Yamamoto of Japan stated he would “run wild and win victory upon victory…” and his forces controlled most of Southeastern Asia at the peak of Japan’s reign (Yamamoto). In terms of espionage, Japan was able to crack many of America’s codes at an alarming rate. Early on in the war, Japanese forces subjugated most of Southeast Asia by strategic planning, and defeated the Allies in every naval engagement until June of 1942. For almost 8 months since the US declared war on the Japanese, merely days after the Pearl Harbor attacks on Dec. 7, the Japanese were undefeated ("Timeline of Pacific War"). At such odds, the United States needed more wartime resources: troops to fight, workers to produce the war machines, an...

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...jo Code Talkers Foundation, 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.

This page gave me an idea of how the individual code talkers felt about their role in the war and how they served. Gives a brief history of the Navajo Code talkers and some of their personal stories from the Navajo Code Talkers Foundation. Also gave a quote from Keith Little, one of the original Code Talkers and gave some insight on the overall situation of the Code Talkers.

"World War II in the Pacific." World War II in the Pacific. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 10 June 2013. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
This site briefly describes the period of Japanese dominating the war in Southeast Asia.

"Timeline of Pacific War." The History Place - Timeline of Pacific War. The History Place, 1999. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.

Gives a timeline of events, helping to see the events of the war in context and to understand the war.