DEREKH FROUDE/Arizona Daily Wildcat Samuel Tsosie, dressed in a Marine Corps uniform and turquoise necklace, speaks Friday about his experience in World War II as a code talker for the United States military. Tsosie was one of 400 code talkers who transmitted and received key combat messages during the war.

Complex language allowed U.S. to transmit combat messages

Samuel Tsosie carries Navajo corn pollen wherever he goes.

Tsosie, who served as a code talker in World War II, says the pollen reminds him of the battle for survival during the war.

"I still have it with me wherever I go," he said. "I guess it's what you believe that keeps you going."

Tsosie was one of about 400 code talkers, who transmitted and received combat messages based on the Navajo language during the war.

Dressed in a Marine Corps uniform and turquoise necklace, and carrying the corn pollen in his pocket, Tsosie spoke Friday to an audience at the Arizona Historical Society Museum.

Those clothes, he said, emphasized the balance between Navajo and Marine that he had to strike during the war.

"And the inside is me," Tsosie said.

During World War II, the Japanese cracked every code that the United States Marine Corps devised, except one - the Navajo Code.

With the complex, unwritten language of Navajo, more than 400 Navajo code talkers transmitted and received combat messages in crucial battles, including the Battle of Iwo Jima. Tsosie was one of them.

Before he left for the South Pacific, Tsosie and other Navajo code talkers had to learn and memorize more than 250 Navajo code words. They were not allowed to talk about the code or write about it.

"Good thing Navajos have computers up here," Tsosie said, pointing to his head.

Even when he was discharged in 1946, he could not talk about the Navajo code talk until it was declassified in 1968.

Tsosie's journey began on June 18, 1942, when he left for New Zealand and from there went to New Guinea and New Britian.

Tsosie was the only Navajo in his platoon but was treated the same as everyone else, he explained.

"They don't discriminate when you're in the Marine Corps," Tsosie said. "You are a Marine."

In New Britain, Tsosie saw a dead person for the first time in his life. When his ship, the Armed Personnel Destroyer, docked in New Britain, they found dead Japanese soldiers all over the beach.

Tsosie's regiment was ordered to secure the airport.

When they arrived there, machine guns were set up on the side of the hill, where they had just come from.

They went up to San Remo village for Easter and ate fruits and went fishing.

"But we don't use fishing poles," Tsosie said. "All you have to do is drop a grenade in the water, no problem there."

Meanwhile, the code talkers practiced, added and memorized more Navajo code words.

They were stationed at another airport in the Phillipines. As they traveled across the island, they were being fired at and had to hide in bomb craters.

"If you stuck your head out, they'd start shooting," Tsosie said.

The Navajo code talkers are the subjects of a new movie called "Windtalkers," opening this summer.