Description:
During World War II, approximately 11,000 women toiled day and night to help process and decipher a steady stream of enemy military messages. Their work was sometimes frustrating, sometimes exciting, and one of the war’s most closely guarded secrets. With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service honors all the female cryptanalysts of World War I, whose service played an invaluable role in the Allied victory.
The stamp features an image of a World War II-era WAVES (Women’s Voluntary Service) recruitment poster overlaid with the characters of the “Purple” code. The poster was designed by John Falter (1910-1982), who designed more than 300 recruitment posters during his military service. The Purple Code was used by the Japanese government to encrypt diplomatic messages, and Genevieve Grotien, a cryptanalyst with the U.S. Army’s Signal Intelligence Service, discovered the key to breaking the code in September 1940. Her breakthrough enabled the United States to read and exploit information conveyed in Japanese diplomatic messages during the war.
At the edge of the pane, seemingly random letters (ZRPH QF UB SWRORJLVWV RIZRUOGZDULL, FLSKHU, DODOBCH and VHFUHW) can be decrypted to reveal some key words. The pane on the back of the stamp reveals the code needed to read the text
Many female cryptanalysts were civilians recruited while in college or as schoolteachers. Thousands more were military personnel who enlisted as volunteers after the creation of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in May 1942 and the Women's Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) of the U.S. Naval Reserve in July 1942.
They deciphered the communications of the Japanese fleet, helped prevent German U-boats from sinking important cargo ships, and worked to crack encryption systems that revealed Japanese shipping routes and diplomatic information. They also built high-speed machines that enabled cryptanalysts to crack German messages encrypted by Enigma machines, intercept enemy communications, and keep encrypted American messages safe and sound—a form of cybersecurity.
Sworn to secrecy under oath of treason during World War II, female cryptologists remained silent for decades about their vital and far-reaching contributions. Today, they are widely recognized as STEM pioneers, especially because their wartime work coincided with the development of modern computer technology. Their contributions opened the door for women to join the military and contributed to intelligence and information security work for generations to come.