She decrypted the intercepted Japanese surrender message at the close of World War II on August 14, 1945.

][4] During World War II, Aderholdt worked at Arlington Hall decrypting and translating Japanese messages, particularly those in an older diplomatic code, JAH.

The decrypt was telephoned to military intelligence, and at 7 p.m. that evening, President Harry Truman announced the surrender.

[4] In November 1957 she delivered a talk on her work at United Lutheran Church, Langley Park, Maryland.

[7] She was married twice: first to Paul Wehrmeister McDole, a music teacher, and later to Aksel Christian Larsen, a Lutheran minister.