Navajo Code Talkers

On Day One of their return visit to the battlefields of the Pacific, the six Code Talkers paused for a photograph.
From left to right: Albert Smith, Teddy Draper, Sr., Samuel Sandoval, Albert (Jesse) Smith, Keith Little and Samuel Tso.

NAVAJO CODE TALKERS: A JOURNEY OF REMEMBRANCE was taped on locations in Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Saipan, Guam and Tinian during two trips in 2005 and 2006 with six USMC World War II veterans and six younger family members.

OTHER LOCATIONS include their homes on the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico and at Camp Pendleton, CA where young Navajo recruits created a complex code in their unwritten language for battlefield use.

THE CODE created by the young Marines was never broken by the Japanese, giving American troops an upper hand in many battles during the Marines’ “island-hopping” campaign that ultimately led to Japan’s surrender in 1945.

THIS DOCUMENTARY provides viewers with highly personal insights from these Native American war heroes regarding their service on behalf of the United States and the Navajo Nation.