Post by HenryWhy all the emphasis on American Indian languages? Surely there were
other languages that would have been obscure to the Japanese yet still
had fluent native speakers in America. Albanian or Armenian, for example.
A couple of reasons: first of all, the idea was first used in the First
World War in France, so any European language, no matter how obscure,
wouldn't be as good- the Germans would at least have prisoners who spoke
basically any European language you might chose; during the Second Big
Mistake the Army again used them in Europe, so again Native Americans
would be very much preferred over Europeans.[1]
Also, the US seems to have consistently overestimated how strong the
relationship was between Germany and Japan, and seems to have expected
the Axis to coordinate in dealing with this fairly minor tactical
matter, when they had a great deal of difficulty coordinating on much
more important issues. I think here the fairly close relationship
between the US and UK (by far the closest of any two of the top ten
powers) fooled the US: since their relationship with Britain was the
best example they had of major powers working together they seem to have
felt that everyone worked together like that, when they didn't.
Post by HenryAnd why would American Indian languages starting with 'C' be better
than, say, Ute or Sioux or Mohawk?
No reason, it was just a joke by the historian I was talking to, and it
helped him to remember the large number of tribes employed by the US
Army for code-talking. In fact the US Army did use some tribes that
didn't start with C, among them the Lakota (Sioux) and the Meskwaki
(Fox). The historian also mentioned that Canadians used First Nations
languages in a similar way.
[1]: According to Wiki the USMC thought about using Basque code talkers
in the Pacific, but even with this fairly obscure European language (far
more so than Albanian or Armenian), there was concern that some Jesuit
missionaries in Japan spoke the language. When you are trying to choose
a language that is unknown to millions of people, you have to be REALLY
obscure. Wiki also claims that the British would occasionally use Welsh,
but never as part of a systematic program, because of language knowledge
issues.
Chris Manteuffel--
"...the war situation has developed not necessarily
to Japan's advantage..." -Emperor Hirohito, August 14, 1945