#5738 - WWII Women Cryptologists

During World War II, some 11,000 women helped process and decipher an endless stream of intercepted enemy military messages. Both frustrating and exhilarating, their work was one of the conflict’s best-kept secrets. These women helped break and decipher the encryption systems that revealed vital shipping and diplomatic messages, built the machines that allowed cryptologists to break encrypted messages, and performed many other duties. Their war-time contributions helped open the door for women in the military and have helped shape information security efforts for future generations.

The stamp art uses an image from a World War II-era WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) recruitment poster with an overlay of characters from the “Purple” Japanese code. This code was used by the Japanese government to encrypt diplomatic messages that was cracked by Genevieve Grotjan, a cryptologist working with the U.S Army, letting the U.S read the Japanese messages.  Scott 5738 WWII Women Cryptologists