Gender was extremely indicative of what role Americans played in the war. The men were given officer positions, extra privileges, and were able to be shipped overseas to fight in the trenches and on the islands. The women, meanwhile, were resigned to domestic jobs, and a select few were sent overseas to serve as nurses or in other support positions. By 1942 however, a domestic push had introduced women into the war effort as more than passive observers. The women initially were seamen who had fewer privileges than their male counterparts despite serving in the same positions. But eventually, as more men were shipped overseas, the female codebreakers(who had set up shop in Washington D.C.) outnumbered the male codebreakers, served in officer positions, and became more integral to the war effort as they deciphered a greater number of crucial Japanese messages.
Perhaps the most famous example of this rise of the WAVES unit(the female naval codebreakers), was the decryption of the itinerary. A greater number of Japanese messages began to be intercepted, and a group of women managed to decrypt parts of the itinerary of Admiral Yamamoto: the top Japanese commander who had orchestrated the attack on Pearl Harbor. As the days passed, the codebreakers were able to piece together the exact itinerary of the commander’s flight to certain Japanese islands, and Nimitz and other navy officials proposed a daring American plan, dubbed Operation vengeance, to intercept Yamamoto’s flight and kill him. On April 18, American jets managed to catch the Japanese by surprise, and in a turning point of the war, show down the Japanese bomber carrying Yamamoto.
The WAVES unit managed to keep quiet about their section of the war effort, and told outsiders that they merely worked in naval communication. Their persistence and effort eroded traditional gender stereotypes by proving that women could be capable in the military, and allowed women greater control and more freedom to participate in the war effort. Codebreaking was integral to the war, and female codebreakers especially played a crucial role in the Allied victory.
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