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I never knew the ‘why’… I only know it worked Why couldn't the Japanese break the Navajo code? Japan ran into hard problems -- The first was the language itself, Navajo is not like other languages. It is tonal; the meaning of a word changes with the pitch of the voice. Its grammar is a complex machine of verbs. With a structure completely alien to Japan or Europe - It was also an unwritten language. There were no books for the Japanese to study - An enemy cannot decipher a language he cannot first learn. The second problem was that the code was more than just the language, it was a two-part system. The code talkers had a memorized dictionary. Using Navajo words for military concepts; an “iron fish” for a submarine. For everything else, they used a substitution alphabet, with Navajo words for English letters. A man would have to learn the unwritten, complex language first, then guess the second layer of code - It was not possible.