On December 7, 1941, the surface of the Pacific Ocean ushered in the sunrise as usual, and it seemed to be a quiet and peaceful day. On the U.S. destroyer, many officers were eating breakfast and then changing shifts with their comrades. Unexpectedly, a huge "sea python" was quietly approaching them.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor</h1>
At 7:35, the first bomber of the Japanese fleet arrived over Pearl Harbor, and at the same time sent a telegram of the successful sneak attack of "Tiger, Tiger, Tiger", and the pilot of this bomber, Fuchida Mizuo, was also recorded in history. Unfortunately, due to cloud cover at that time, some of the planes did not see Fuchida's first signal, and naturally, flight captain Fuchida fired a signal bomb again.
Two flares mean a strong attack.
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor
At 7:55 a.m., soldiers on the battleship NEVADA were raising the flag and playing the national anthem. A roar came from near and far, accompanied by the dive of the Japanese bomber group, and the lightning flew in. In order to ensure accurate bombing, Japanese bombers flew only a few hundred meters above the ground before starting to drop bombs. In an instant, the bullets over the US fleet rained down, dozens of heavy bombers instantly turned into a pile of scrap iron, and some US fighters that took off in a hurry just entered the state and were bombarded into slag by the Japanese "Zero" fighters who were "waiting for rabbits." At the same time, the battleships USS West Virginia and USS Oklahoma on the outside of the fleet were hit by two torpedoes, and more than 400 officers and men were buried in the belly of the fish under the bomb bombardment that followed.
Sunken Battleship Arizona
At 8:10 a.m., a "clear-code telegram" reached the U.S. Naval Headquarters with the message "Pearl Harbor was attacked by an airstrike, this is not an exercise." After an hour of bombing, a second wave of bombers led by Japanese Air Force Major Shimazaki arrived on Oahu and attacked the U.S. airfields of Kaneori, Hikheim, and Ford Island. The bombing continued until 9:40 a.m., and Fuchida Mizu hovered over Pearl Harbor in a bomber, watching the thick black smoke rising from the Pacific Ocean, and a strong sense of imperial pride filled his body and mind.
Smoke-filled Pearl Harbor
After landing, Fuchida strongly demanded a third round of bombing of Pearl Harbor, targeting oil tank farms and repair facilities. The commander of the First Aviation of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Nan yun Zhongyi, believed that the two bombings had exceeded the task, that there was not much point in continuing the bombing, and that the US troops on this trip were bound to be prepared and the risk was too great, so after careful consideration, he ordered a return voyage.
The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor caused heavy losses to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, killing more than 2,300 naval officers. In this battle, the Japanese army won a great victory at the same time, but also received a painful ultimatum from US President Roosevelt: declaring war on Japan.
Stills from the movie "Wind Whisperer"
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > whisperer</h1>
At the beginning of the war, the counterattack of the US military was not smooth, and the Japanese army used Japanese students who graduated from American universities to eavesdrop on the radio waves of the US military, so as to easily know the military operations of the US military. Most of the Pacific Wars were fought in open mountains, deserts and islands, and the movement and command of troops depended on radio communications. That is to say, radio communication is related to the survival of millions of soldiers, and the degree of secrecy of radio communication has become the top priority of this war, and whichever side controls the code of radio communication will also grasp the initiative of this war.
The early defeat caused an incomparable headache for the US military high-level, and how to ensure that the strategic orders were accurate and absolutely confidential became a problem they pondered day and night. At this critical moment, an engineer wearing gold wire glasses and sven demeanor walked into the U.S. military command and offered a key strategy to turn the tide of the war: to compile military codes in the Navajo language.
"Wind Whisperer" starred Nicolas Cage
Navajo is a special language that is the Aboriginal language of the American Indian tribesmen. This language has no writing, no norms, the grammar, tone, syllables are very complex, simply by the oral transmission of tribal people, the non-Navajo people who know this language do not exceed 30 people in the world, and none of these 30 people are Japanese.
In April 1942, U.S. Marines arrived at the border between Arizona and New Mexico and entered a huge, deep canyon in search of its owner, the Navajo people. In the 1860s, the Navajos were driven here by the U.S. armed forces to reduce the invasion of American land by this nomadic people due to overgrazing. Knowing the Marines' intentions, the Navajos convened a nationwide meeting and agreed that no one, as Native Americans, was more loyal to the United States than they were.
Navajo code
If there is no country, where is there a home? This is the consciousness of an indigenous people.
In May 1942, the first group of 29 Navajos was called into the army, formed the 383rd Marine Corps Platoon, and began rigorous cryptographic training, known as the "Wind Whisperers". In 2002, the film of the same name, directed by Wu Yusen and starring Hollywood film star Nicolas Cage, was based on the Pacific War, which reversed the decline of the US military.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > a goose that lays a golden egg but never barks</h1>
Here, 29 Marines broke with traditional cipher compositions to create a glossary of nearly 500 commonly used military terms and compiled them into a dictionary. However, this special dictionary cannot be carried with you, but must be firmly memorized in your mind.
According to the conventional radio code composition, the Germans would decipher the common roots of German and English, while the Japanese directly used international students to eavesdrop on U.S. military communications. However, the Navajo language is different, this language is derived from nature, the Navajo people will use the names of birds and beasts in nature to replace specific military terms, such as owls representing reconnaissance aircraft, hummingbirds meaning fighters, whales are battleships, sharks are destroyers...
A veteran of Navajo with great achievements
In this way, only trained Navajo people can understand the contents of the telegram, even if the exhausted Japanese codebreakers have no choice. At that time, the Japanese captured an untrained Navajo soldier and tortured him to force him to say the meaning of the code. Unfortunately, the Navajo soldier was untrained and could not be translated at all. With such an absolute superiority, the role of the Navajo ciphers in the Pacific War was infinitely magnified, winning the respect and admiration of all U.S. troops. In the Battle of Iwo Jima, The U.S. General Hol Connor, who led the Marine Landing Operation, commented on the Navajo code: The Navajo code saved the lives of millions of American soldiers and made a great contribution to the victory of the U.S. military in the Pacific War.
Navajo Code Warrior
For a long time after World War II, the Navajo Code was considered top secret, and neither the movie nor the war history was traced to the Navajo Code or the Navajo people. It was not until 1968 that the Navajo code was officially declassified and made public by the United States. Churchill once vividly called these "unsung heroes" "geese who lay golden eggs but never called."
On July 26, 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush met on Capitol Hill to personally award the U.S. government's highest honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the Indian Navajo ciphers who had been silent for half a century. Not only for the United States, but also for the entire victory in World War II, the Navajo code has an indelible impact and deserves the respect of the world.