Wind Speakers
By: RJ, Isaac, Alex, Amelia, Evelyn, and Jackson
How it started
During World War II, the US and Japan were doing their share of fighting
each other. The Americans were losing badly because the Japanese were
cracking every code thrown at them as easy as pie. Then in February 1442,
retired US Marine corps Philip Johnston had an idea. He visited Camp
Elliot with his idea. He managed to persuade Lieutenant Colonel James E.
Jones to try using the Navajo people as code talkers. They recruited 4
bilingual Navajo natives. On February 28th, they had a demonstration
for marine staff officers. The Navajo code talkers communicated with
radios. Normally, the Japanese and the Germans would intercept a radio
code and would crack the code if the sender used one, but with the new
code they could send the code without it being intercepted. At the time
the Americans were using a very complex code that was made using a
radio, but when the Navajos land started to get bombed some of them
joined the war and ended up becoming code talkers.
During World War II, the US and Japan were doing their share of fighting
each other. The Americans were losing badly because the Japanese were
cracking every code thrown at them as easy as pie. Then in February 1442,
retired US Marine corps Philip Johnston had an idea. He visited Camp
Elliot with his idea. He managed to persuade Lieutenant Colonel James E.
Jones to try using the Navajo people as code talkers. They recruited 4
bilingual Navajo natives. On February 28th, they had a demonstration
for marine staff officers. The Navajo code talkers communicated with
radios. Normally, the Japanese and the Germans would intercept a radio
code and would crack the code if the sender used one, but with the new
code they could send the code without it being intercepted. At the time
the Americans were using a very complex code that was made using a
radio, but when the Navajos land started to get bombed some of them
joined the war and ended up becoming code talkers.
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How it influenced cryptography
The Navajo code had two parts. The first part was a 26 part phonetic
alphabet. They used Navajo names for 18 animals that stood for the
letter they started with. However, for other letters, they had to use other
words. These codes were ice for ‘i’, nut for ‘n’, quiver for ‘q’, ute for ‘u’,
victor for ‘v’, cross for ‘x’, yucca for ‘y’, and zinc for ‘z’. The second
alphabet. They used Navajo names for 18 animals that stood for the
letter they started with. However, for other letters, they had to use other
words. These codes were ice for ‘i’, nut for ‘n’, quiver for ‘q’, ute for ‘u’,
victor for ‘v’, cross for ‘x’, yucca for ‘y’, and zinc for ‘z’. The second
part wasa 211 word english vocabulary with Navajo synonyms.
How did it get cracked?
Trick question. It never got cracked, they just released the code after
the war was over. The navajo code greatly affected WWII.If the code
was not made the US would have probably lost the battle of Iwo Jima.
That would mean the the US would have probably lost WWII because
the Japanese would have known what the US battle plan was. However,
if someone had eavesdropped on soldiers taking lessons on the code and
then used that knowledge to listen to the United States soldiers sending
messages then they could decipher the messages and crack the code easily.
Trick question. It never got cracked, they just released the code after
the war was over. The navajo code greatly affected WWII.If the code
was not made the US would have probably lost the battle of Iwo Jima.
That would mean the the US would have probably lost WWII because
the Japanese would have known what the US battle plan was. However,
if someone had eavesdropped on soldiers taking lessons on the code and
then used that knowledge to listen to the United States soldiers sending
messages then they could decipher the messages and crack the code easily.
Sources
Amelia D.
Evelyn B.
Alex T.
Isaac S.
RJ P.
Jackson K.
17 comments:
Were there any flaws in this code? And, how long (years) was Navajo language used in World War II?
How far into the war were they when they started to use the navajo's code? Also, how was the code created so that everyone on their side new what the codes meant?
Do you think that if the war went on longer the other people would of cracked it? And, When did the Navajo's first start using their language?
Do you know where Phillip Johnston got his idea? And, I really liked how you explained the two parts of the code. I also, liked how the Navajo people used animals for the letters in the code.
Do you think, that if they had time, they could crack the code? And did they get Navajo people at every station to translate, or did everyone who received the message have to learn Navajo?
I like how you were talking about it not getting cracked and the relation to WWII. Did you mean 1942 instead of 1442? Was it possible they knew how to crack it, but they didn't want the Germans to know?
I really like your information. It is really interesting! One question that I had was, how did they come up with the other letters name, such as, zinc for "z"?
Your information is very clear and makes it easy to understand. Also, was there really no flaw in the code?
Your information is very clear and makes it easy to understand. Also, was there really no flaw in the code?
Do you guys know if there are people developing something that makes a website or password completely un hackable if it is even possible?
This is a really cool blog. I really like the picture with the animal names. Did anybody every bring the wind speakers back after World War II
Has the Navajo code been used in the war against terrorists? Do ISIS and other terrorist groups use codes too?
The code had flaws but was not cracked. Also I think that the Germans would not have decoded it unless they forced it out of a code talker.
I liked how you told what the code for the first part was, animals for letters, and the letters without animals they used uncommon words for the code to be hard to crack. I wonder if anyone has created a code like this since.
This is very interesting and was fun to read. The information splattered me when I found that there really was no flaw in the code.
I liked how you told us how it worked. I also liked how the pictures really showed the time and how it was back then.
I like how they decided to use bilingual native indians to tell the code.
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