Q: FROM MENTOR DENISE HARBERT IN IL
Student member Sanna R in VA recently asked a question about modern code
breaking and computers. Her question immediately made me think of a
not-so-modern code that I thought was really cool. However, the code I'm
thinking about had nothing to do with computers. As advanced as technology is
and as good as computers are, sometimes there are problems that can only be
solved by human creativity. Computers can only do what is programmed into
them, but humans can solve problems in completely unique ways.

For example, during World War II, the U.S. government desperately needed a
top-secret code that could be easily deciphered by U.S. soldiers, but could
not be broken by enemy forces. In a time when computers were still too large
to be portable and when no WWII country had a notable technological advantage
over the other countries, how could the U.S. create an easy but unbreakable
code? What knowledge did the U.S. have that none of the opposing forces had?
Click below to read about how 29 Native American men used the Navajo language
to create a code that was never broken and was used in three wars spanning
over 25 years.

June 23, 2004
A: FROM MENTOR DENISE HARBERT IN IL
Most of World War II was fought outside the U.S. by soldiers from a dozen
countries and multiple languages, so communication between leaders and
soldiers had to occur across oceans, languages, countries, and time zones.
Thus, communication had to be electronic and it had to be encrypted so the
opposing side could not understand it. This idea was easy in theory, but
nearly impossible in application. No single country had a clear technological
advantage over the others, so each side was able to consistently break the
codes/encryptions of the other side. Real messages could be intercepted by
enemy forces, allowing them time to plan a defense to any offensive attack.
Or, either side could use the codes they cracked to send fake messages that
could lead their enemies into a trap. Codes became increasingly complex. It
could take hours to translate a single message, even for people who knew the
key and were the legitimate recipients of the messages! The increasing time
delay in decrypting messages created a critical problem for the military,
particularly in active combat areas. The U.S. military began searching for a
code that could not be broken by the enemy, but was quick to decipher for
those who understood it.

An American named Philip Johnston came up with an idea. He was the son of a
missionary who had grown up on a Native American reservation, knew the Navajo
language, and was a veteran of World War I. He knew that Native American
languages like Choctaw had been used to encode messages in WWI and he thought
that the same concept could be used on a wider scale in WWII. He suggested
that a code be created from Navajo because the language was unwritten,
extremely complex, and was known only in very limited circles in the southwest
U.S. In the Navajo tradition, non-natives were not allowed to learn the
language unless they had invested considerable time proving loyalty and
trustworthiness to the tribe, a feat which few people ever accomplished.
Further limiting the language were centuries of broken treaties and culturally
insensitive sanctions by the ruling American governments, which had created an
environment where Native Americans were encouraged to speak English and
discouraged (sometimes brutally) from speaking their own languages.
Surprisingly, when the WWII marines arrived on reservations to recruit
soldiers as "Navajo Code Talkers", huge percentages of native men volunteered.
Some even lied about their age, saying they were older or younger than they
actually were just so they could qualify for service.

The first 29 Navajo recruits created the "Navajo code". It was based on
literally translating Navajo words into English, then extracting the first
letter of the English word. This confused the expert English-speaking
Japanese code-breakers, because the same message could be sent in thousands of
ways with radically different sounds, none of which were familiar to them.
The 29 men also invented new Navajo phrases for modern military words that did
not exist in their language. For example, there was no Navajo word for
submarine (not surprising for an ancient language), so they created the phrase
"besh-lo", which is literally translated as "iron fish". The Navajo code
allowed messages to be decrypted in "live-time" rather than hours. The code
was taught to several hundred Navajo marines who were stationed in critical
combat locations throughout the war. The Navajo code talkers are credited
with being the reason why U.S. forces were able to win several critical
battles, most notably at Iwo Jima. After WWII, the code continued to be used
in both the Korean and Vietnam wars. The code was created in 1942, but wasn't
decommissioned until 1968, making it one of the longest lasting active codes
in history.

Continually guarded as "top secret" for decades, the Navajo code became the
only wartime code of its time that was never broken. Because of the code's
long-term classified use, the Navajo code talkers lived all or most of their
lives without any recognition for what they had accomplished. By the time
they were formally honored with a Congressional Gold Medal in July 2001, only
5 of the first 29 were still alive. The other 24 received the award
posthumously (after death), so the medals were presented to their descendants.
The hundreds of WWII code talkers that followed the first 29 are being
presented with Congressional Silver Medals. Read more about their stories and
the movie that was based on their service at:
http://bingaman.senate.gov/code_talkers/
http://www.factmonster.com/spot/aihmcode1.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/07/20010726-5.html
http://www.mgm.com/windtalkers/