Who were the navajo code talkers?
The Navajo Indian language is one of the most complex in the world, on a par with Mandarin Chinese. Like Mandarin, the same word has an entirely different meaning when pronounced with a different inflection. Much Navajo humour is based on sly double entendres and puns. It takes a Navajo child up to 10 years to completely master his language. The language is Athabasca in origin, so anthropologists believe the tribe migrated from northwest Canada or Alaska. During World War II, the U.S. was having difficulty devising codes that weren’t immediately cracked by the Japanese. Navajo troops fighting for the U.S. Marines in the Pacific were enlisted to create a code based on their extremely complex and nuanced language — then scrambled. It is estimated at the time of the war, fewer than 30 non-Navajos understood the then-unwritten language. It became the only code the Japanese could not decipher. The Navajos contributed greatly to the war effort. Military strategists believe Iwo Jima would no
