Those who answered no and yes, respectively, were recruited as \u201ccode girls\u201d to intercept and decrypt messages coming over the airwaves from Japan.<\/p>\n
Fran Pearlmutter (CAS\u201944) was one of them. Recruited by the US War Department just after graduation from BU, she and a cadre of codebreakers lived and worked in secret on a 100-acre campus in Arlington, Va. They deciphered tens of thousands of messages a month, and their expertise was instrumental in ending the war.<\/p>\n
Now 95, Pearlmutter is one of the last living codebreakers. Until about 20 years ago, no one, not even her husband and children, knew what she\u2019d done.<\/p>\n
Cracking the Code<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"\/cas\/files\/2018\/08\/collage-576x636.jpg\")
In 1944, Fran Pearlmutter was recruited as a \u201ccryptanalytic aide\u201d in the Army\u2019s codebreaking division, the Signal Intelligence Service (SIS). The aides were ordered to keep their work secret at the risk of committing treason. If asked what they did, they were told to say they sharpened pencils.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nPearlmutter grew up in Brookline, Mass. Her mother was a seamstress and her father manufactured men\u2019s overcoats; during the war, he donated jackets to the soldiers and sailors. A passion for languages drew Pearlmutter to BU, where she studied linguistics at a time when only 3.8 percent of American women were enrolled in higher education.<\/span><\/p>\nAfter graduation, in 1944, she was recruited as a \u201ccryptanalytic aide\u201d in the Army\u2019s codebreaking division, the Signal Intelligence Service<\/a> (SIS).<\/p>\nThe Army sent Pearlmutter a train ticket to Washington, D.C., picked her up at the station in a military car, and drove her six miles to Arlington Hall Junior College for Women<\/a>, which they had seized as their headquarters. Barbed-wire fences, barracks, and makeshift offices dominated the campus, home to 10,000 codebreakers, more than half of them women.<\/p>\nThey were ordered to keep their work secret at the risk of committing treason. If asked what they did at Arlington Hall, they were told to say they sharpened pencils.<\/p>\n
While Pearlmutter\u2019s parents knew about her covert work, they claimed ignorance when, for example, their mailman asked why Pearlmutter had gone away.<\/p>\n
At Arlington Hall, Pearlmutter was taken to a small room \u201cwhere I was told I must learn Japanese,\u201d she says. \u201cI stayed up until maybe midnight, and then 14 hours later I was still doing the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/cas\/files\/2018\/08\/18-1566-ASPERLMUTTER-001-636x490.jpg\")
Pearlmutter’s codebreaking work was critical in the Allied defeat of Japan, but it was only later, after she had stopped traveling the world, that she started taking stock of what she\u2019d accomplished. She joined the Jewish veterans group, \u201cproud that she had helped in the war effort,\u201d her daughter Debby says, and began sharing her wartime experiences with her family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe messages Pearlmutter would soon be interpreting were written in Japanese, then encrypted and transmitted as dots and dashes representing syllables, punctuation, and emphasis. While films like 2014\u2019s The Imitation Game<\/i><\/a> glamorize codebreaking, it was tedious statistical analysis work that involved searching for patterns in those dots and dashes and using a grid to translate them back into Japanese, and then into English.<\/p>\n\u201cTranslating from one language to another\u2014for instance, French into Spanish or French into English\u2014that I can do,\u201d Pearlmutter says. \u201cHowever, when you\u2019re working with Japanese on a large, 12-by-14-foot board balanced on a table or on your lap\u2014that was not easy. I learned to use the grid and when the dip dip dips<\/i> came over the airwaves, I was able to help crack the code.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every day, the code girls determined the location of the Japanese army on Pacific islands and composed an \u201corder of battle\u201d outlining their strategies. The information went straight to the Pentagon, where it was critical in the Allied defeat of Japan. Not only did their work bring the war to a close, but the women\u2019s codebreaking advancements helped establish the National Security Agency<\/a>, and their strategies for safeguarding data laid the groundwork for modern cybersecurity.<\/p>\nBut when the war ended in 1945, the code girls went home without fanfare.<\/p>\n
They \u201ccame from a generation when women did not expect\u2014or receive\u2014credit for achievement in public life,\u201d journalist Liza Mundy<\/a> writes in an article<\/a> for Politico<\/i>; she revealed the women\u2019s long-forgotten work in her book Code Girls<\/i>. \u201cThey did not constitute the top brass, and they did not write the histories afterward, nor the first-person memoirs. Their efforts were almost completely hidden for more than 70 years, their contributions mentioned only in passing.”<\/p>\n\nI was told I must learn Japanese. I stayed up until maybe midnight, and then 14 hours later I was still doing the same thing.<\/h3>\n
\u2014 Fran Pearlmutter \u2014<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nPearlmutter never spoke about codebreaking. As far as her children knew, their father, Bernard Pearlmutter, was the World War II hero. A lieutenant colonel, with Bronze and Silver Stars and a Purple Heart, he\u2019d received a key to the city of Feltre, Italy, where he had served as provisional governor when the war ended. His were the stories Pearlmutter\u2019s daughter, Debby, heard as a kid. \u201cI didn\u2019t hear her stories,\u201d Debby says.<\/p>\n
Pearlmutter was too busy traveling the world to think about the past. She worked as a travel agent, cruising down the Nile, rafting in Canada, taking groups to the Far East, Romania, Turkey, Greece, and what was then the Soviet Union. \u201cShe was nonstop traveling. I mean, nonstop<\/i>, for a number of years,\u201d Debby says. \u201cThere aren\u2019t many places in the world she hasn\u2019t been.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoyed taking people out on trips to show them the breadth and scope of our nation,\u201d Pearlmutter says. She often tells her daughters about a memorable trip to Alaska during the 1986 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race<\/a>, when she watched American dog musher Susan Butcher become the second woman to win. \u201cShe was holding the reins of these huge, wonderfully strong animals,\u201d Pearlmutter recalls. \u201cWhen she came by it was unbelievable; her legs were the size across of five women.\u201d<\/p>\nIt was later, after Pearlmutter had stopped traveling so much, that she started taking stock of what she\u2019d accomplished, her daughter says. She joined the Jewish veterans group, \u201cproud that she had helped in the war effort,\u201d Debby says, and began sharing her wartime experiences with her family. The details are still coming out in bits and pieces. \u201cI\u2019m glad that she used her abilities so she can look back and be proud of her accomplishments,\u201d Debby says.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/cas\/files\/2018\/08\/18-1566-ASPERLMUTTER-002-424x636.jpg\")
Pearlmutter always told her daughters, \u201cThere\u2019s no restrictions on what you can be or do. Be whatever you want to be, as a woman.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThunderbird<\/h3>\n
Pearlmutter grew up in Brookline, Mass. Her mother was a seamstress and her father manufactured men\u2019s overcoats; during the war, he donated jackets to the soldiers and sailors. A passion for languages drew Pearlmutter to BU, where she studied linguistics at a time when only 3.8 percent of American women were enrolled in higher education.<\/span><\/p>\n After graduation, in 1944, she was recruited as a \u201ccryptanalytic aide\u201d in the Army\u2019s codebreaking division, the Signal Intelligence Service<\/a> (SIS).<\/p>\n The Army sent Pearlmutter a train ticket to Washington, D.C., picked her up at the station in a military car, and drove her six miles to Arlington Hall Junior College for Women<\/a>, which they had seized as their headquarters. Barbed-wire fences, barracks, and makeshift offices dominated the campus, home to 10,000 codebreakers, more than half of them women.<\/p>\n They were ordered to keep their work secret at the risk of committing treason. If asked what they did at Arlington Hall, they were told to say they sharpened pencils.<\/p>\n While Pearlmutter\u2019s parents knew about her covert work, they claimed ignorance when, for example, their mailman asked why Pearlmutter had gone away.<\/p>\n At Arlington Hall, Pearlmutter was taken to a small room \u201cwhere I was told I must learn Japanese,\u201d she says. \u201cI stayed up until maybe midnight, and then 14 hours later I was still doing the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n The messages Pearlmutter would soon be interpreting were written in Japanese, then encrypted and transmitted as dots and dashes representing syllables, punctuation, and emphasis. While films like 2014\u2019s The Imitation Game<\/i><\/a> glamorize codebreaking, it was tedious statistical analysis work that involved searching for patterns in those dots and dashes and using a grid to translate them back into Japanese, and then into English.<\/p>\n \u201cTranslating from one language to another\u2014for instance, French into Spanish or French into English\u2014that I can do,\u201d Pearlmutter says. \u201cHowever, when you\u2019re working with Japanese on a large, 12-by-14-foot board balanced on a table or on your lap\u2014that was not easy. I learned to use the grid and when the dip dip dips<\/i> came over the airwaves, I was able to help crack the code.\u201d<\/p>\n Every day, the code girls determined the location of the Japanese army on Pacific islands and composed an \u201corder of battle\u201d outlining their strategies. The information went straight to the Pentagon, where it was critical in the Allied defeat of Japan. Not only did their work bring the war to a close, but the women\u2019s codebreaking advancements helped establish the National Security Agency<\/a>, and their strategies for safeguarding data laid the groundwork for modern cybersecurity.<\/p>\n But when the war ended in 1945, the code girls went home without fanfare.<\/p>\n They \u201ccame from a generation when women did not expect\u2014or receive\u2014credit for achievement in public life,\u201d journalist Liza Mundy<\/a> writes in an article<\/a> for Politico<\/i>; she revealed the women\u2019s long-forgotten work in her book Code Girls<\/i>. \u201cThey did not constitute the top brass, and they did not write the histories afterward, nor the first-person memoirs. Their efforts were almost completely hidden for more than 70 years, their contributions mentioned only in passing.”<\/p>\n \u2014 Fran Pearlmutter \u2014<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Pearlmutter never spoke about codebreaking. As far as her children knew, their father, Bernard Pearlmutter, was the World War II hero. A lieutenant colonel, with Bronze and Silver Stars and a Purple Heart, he\u2019d received a key to the city of Feltre, Italy, where he had served as provisional governor when the war ended. His were the stories Pearlmutter\u2019s daughter, Debby, heard as a kid. \u201cI didn\u2019t hear her stories,\u201d Debby says.<\/p>\n Pearlmutter was too busy traveling the world to think about the past. She worked as a travel agent, cruising down the Nile, rafting in Canada, taking groups to the Far East, Romania, Turkey, Greece, and what was then the Soviet Union. \u201cShe was nonstop traveling. I mean, nonstop<\/i>, for a number of years,\u201d Debby says. \u201cThere aren\u2019t many places in the world she hasn\u2019t been.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI enjoyed taking people out on trips to show them the breadth and scope of our nation,\u201d Pearlmutter says. She often tells her daughters about a memorable trip to Alaska during the 1986 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race<\/a>, when she watched American dog musher Susan Butcher become the second woman to win. \u201cShe was holding the reins of these huge, wonderfully strong animals,\u201d Pearlmutter recalls. \u201cWhen she came by it was unbelievable; her legs were the size across of five women.\u201d<\/p>\n It was later, after Pearlmutter had stopped traveling so much, that she started taking stock of what she\u2019d accomplished, her daughter says. She joined the Jewish veterans group, \u201cproud that she had helped in the war effort,\u201d Debby says, and began sharing her wartime experiences with her family. The details are still coming out in bits and pieces. \u201cI\u2019m glad that she used her abilities so she can look back and be proud of her accomplishments,\u201d Debby says.<\/p>\n\n
I was told I must learn Japanese. I stayed up until maybe midnight, and then 14 hours later I was still doing the same thing.<\/h3>\n
Thunderbird<\/h3>\n