Ariz. – Clad in bright yellow, the distinguished speaker bellowed
into the microphone and requested the audience to copy his words.
“Ya-kay!” was the command to which more than 200 people echoed “Ya-kay”
although not as crisp because the language was foreign.
“Congratulations,” said Dr. Samuel Billison, “You just broke the code!” as
the crowd erupted into polite laughter.
Dr. Billison is the president of the Navajo Code Talkers Association, the
organization of Indian Marines that was responsible for developing the now
highly-celebrated code. Four hundred and twenty Navajos operated a division
of communications along the Pacific front during World War II that
incorporated more than 400 words, eventually making up the Code Talkers
Dictionary.
Two years after Hollywood released the movie “Windtalkers,” the wave of
euphoria over this branch of the Marines has quieted down. Still, the
demand for these men to maintain a speaking circuit is stable and there are
about 30 who will take to the podium frequently around the country to
recant their war tales.
Starting in 1942, the first 29 Navajos were trained in California and the
success of the code was in part because of the indirect translation from
war-speak to the Native language. The word “plane” was translated into the
Navajo word for “bird” while “bombs” were “eggs.”
“Eventually the code was so systemized, so good, so perfect, it became the
main language that was used on Iwo Jima. That was the highlight of the
Navajo Code,” Billison said. “Who would think a bunch of sheep-herders
would develop a code nobody would break?”
While the history of this secret language provided the background for the
assembly, it was the personal war stories that had the audience members on
the edge of their seats. Silent and respectful when the quintet recounted
their trials, these soldiers often spoke in hushed tones, in part because
of their advanced ages.
“Just before we got off the landing boat, the skipper said ‘Do your
prayers,’ and I prayed to have a good landing,” said Samuel Tso, who
approached the microphone draped in an American flag. “The Japanese never
opened fire when we landed and why I didn’t get shot I’ll never know.”
With five Code Talkers speaking at this lecture at a suburban Phoenix
library on March 6, it was only the second time in five years this many
Navajos were assembled for a non-Native audience.
An interested observer was George Papa, an independent film script writer
who lived in Chinle on the Navajo Nation during the 1960s. He believes the
Code Talkers never really received full credit for the service they
performed for the United States and the hardships they had to overcome.
“The huge leap they were asked to take in the military service was a
dramatic accomplishment because it can’t be imagined how 60 years ago that
a 20-year-old Navajo [likely] couldn’t even speak English,” said Papa.
What surprised Tso was that no one asked about the use of the atom bombs.
As a soldier who was in the Pacific in 1945, Tso had his opinions at the
time.
“As a Native American, they used to call us savages and then I tell them
‘What about you people for dropping this bomb?’ That’s pure madness,” said
Tso, who has since accepted the idealism for the two attacks on Japan.
Though the general story of the Navajo Code Talkers is widely known, the
continued appearance of soldiers who were involved is still required said
Billison. Whether the audiences are young or old, the Navajos are glad to
remind the public about their accomplishments and the horrors of war.
“A lot of people have tears in their eyes and they cry because for many
this was very emotional,” he said.