Post Scripts: Windtalkers

MGM has produced a film called Windtalkers that should be of great interest to Americans. It is either just coming to theaters about now, or will be sometime this month. This World War II drama tells the story of the Navajo Indians who used a code to transmit military intelligence information. It was based upon their native language to confuse Japanese code-breakers. This was a well-kept secret in the Pacific Theater of War until V-J Day.

The film stars Nicolas Cage and Christian Slater as Marine bodyguards assigned to protect the so-called code talkers. The Defense Department gave the movie company considerable assistance in producing this film, but only after many, many script changes.

The original script, for example, described how the bodyguards had been instructed to kill the Navajo code-talkers if they were ever in danger of being captured by the Japanese. That’s what the whole movie is about, but the Marine Corps refused to let the movie reveal that directive. There are still living bodyguards and code talkers who say that, indeed, that was the truth, and that a bill passed by Congress ordered the code talkers to be awarded a Congressional medal for their great service — that they were so important to the success of the war in the Pacific they would have been killed in the event of eminent capture.

Had the Japanese been successful in obtaining the code, it would have set back U.S. successes in the Pacific war, and could have possibly altered its outcome.

The bill to award medals to the code talkers was signed into law by President Clinton. It states: Some Code Talkers were guarded by fellow Marines, whose role was to kill them in case of imminent capture. The Marines, however, balked at allowing that to be emphasized in the film. The Marines said it was never written down. Others said there was no such directive. In the end the producers had to tone down that angle considerably.

What ends up in the movie is that it was an "implied" order, not a direct order. The Department of Defense would not let them use the words "order to kill."

I remember only one incident involving the code talkers. I had barely arrived in New Guinea at GHQ when news sources revealed that Japanese Admiral Yamamoto was killed while flying off New Guinea on an inspection trip. His route was kept secret, of course, but American intelligence officers intercepted messages from Japanese military people which revealed the exact route the general would take.

The code talkers were given this information and they transmitted the intelligence data in the Navajo language to Air Force fighter pilots in the region — and he was shot out of the sky in flames. It was a major loss to the Japanese war effort.

So far as movies go, our military has refused to cooperate or approve numerous war movies that were very popular with the public. Some of the reasons are ludicrous! I’ll write about that sometime soon.