Although it took decades for them to receive even a fraction of the respect and recognition they deserved, over 400 members of the Navajo nation heroically served as “code talkers” for the Marines during World War II. The story of Philip Johnston and the Navajo Code Talkers demonstrates how cross-cultural understanding, language skills, and innovation can strengthen the USA. I found myself curious as to how the program got started. That is how I learned the story of Philip Johnston (For an excellent, short read about the code talkers, click here.)
The Japanese military was brilliant at breaking codes. Developing an unbreakable code was crucial to the Marines as they fought in countless desperate battles across the Pacific. The solution was the brainchild of Philip Johnston, one of the very few non-Navajo people to speak their language. In 1942, with the help of four Navajo friends, Johnston demonstrated the feasibility of using the Navajo language as code to out with Japanese,
Philip Johnston and the Navajo Code talkers understood two critical elements of the Navajo 
language that would make it indecipherable to the Japanese. First, the language was unwritten. Therefore, there would be no books, letters, or newspapers that could have provided means of deciphering it. Second, the language was utterly unique, and only a handful of non-Navajo understood the complex language with no definite rules.
The Navajo Marines are the center of the story, of course. “Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima,” said Maj. Howard Connor, the signal officer at Iwo Jima in 1945. The Navajo Marines helped expedite the war’s end and saved countless American lives. All praise to them!
Philip Johnston And The Navajo Code Talkers
Johnston (1892 – 19798) was the son of missionaries who served on the Navajo Reservation ((hereafter referred to by its current name, Navajo Nation). The Navajo people highly respected his father after he peacefully settled a violent dispute between whites and Navajo. He then became a tireless advocate for the rights of the Navajo people, even going to Washington D.C. in an attempt to convince the federal government to give the Navajo more land! Philip, who was White, grew up in the isolated Navajo Nation. He loved the Navajo people, culture, and language. He was only nine when he served as the English/Navajo translator when his father and Navajo leaders successfully asked President Theodore Roosevelt to expand the land of the Navajo Nation!
Johnston left the Navajo Nation to attend college, served in World War, and earned a graduate degree in civil engineering from the University of Southern California. Although he lived and worked in Los Angeles, he maintained close relations with a number of his Navajo friends. At some point, he read how a handful of Comanche Marines served as code talkers in WWI. That gave him the idea that led to the Navajo code talker program.
Philip Johnston asked four Navajo friends working in Los Angeles to help him demonstrate how their 
language could serve as the basis of an unbreakable code. Although the Navajo language lacked words for specific military items, General Clayton Vogel immediately saw the idea’s potential. Philip Johnston, now 52, asked the Marines to appoint him a staff sergeant assigned to the Navajo code talker program. He served with distinction. After returning to the Navajo Navajo to recruit more potential code talkers, Staff Sergeant Philip Johnston USMCR oversaw the training program. He spent the remainder of the war teaching advanced codes and encryption techniques. The approximately 425 Navajo Code Talkers served with great distinction.
The program was top-secret to prevent the Japanese military from figuring out the unbreakable American “code.” As a result, it took decades before the brave, resourceful Navajo code talkers’ role became known. As of Aug. 29, 2019, only five of the code talkers were still alive. They lived long enough to see a memorial erected in their honor., President Reagan declared Aug. 14, 1982, “s “Navajo Code Talkers ”ay,” and that date is celebrated yearly by the people of Arizona.
PhilipJohnston, a kind, patriotic, and modest man, was honorably discharged after the war. He worked as a freelance photographer and writer for the Auto Club magazine Touring Topics as well as the Los Angeles Times and West Ways. He often wrote uplifting and respectful articles about the Navajo people and Navajo Nation. Johnston, a veteran of both World Wars, died in 1978. The most extensive obituary, filled with praise, ran in the newspaper on the Navajo Nation.