My dad read Japanese

Datsun stand at industrial fair in Penang

Well, actually just katakana, not the full Japanese syllabary, which includes kanji, hiragana and some rōmaji. It came back to me today that my dad was able to translate electronics terms from repair manuals that I had and electronics trade magazines that my brother was subscribed to after returning from studies in Japan. I particularly remember トランジスタ (toranjisuta, transistor) and ラジオ (rajio, radio). Then there were components like コンデンサ (kondensa, condenser, an old synonym for capacitor). However they have contracted television to テレビ (terebi) something they have also done to animation.

Where did he learn katakana? It wasn't for work. In the late 60s Japanese companies had only begun to export their cars to Malaysia, and they had set up some manufacturing in Malaysia, but my dad had no dealings with those enterprises. Rather, it was because as a young man he had lived through the Japanese occupation of Malaya during WWII. Katakana is phonetic and used for foreign and loan words so relatively easy to learn. I suppose it was a survival skill, but he was also good at picking up knowledge. He even showed me the katakana scheme but I have let that knowledge lapse. He didn't tell me any war stories. Our family suffered the privations of wartime occupation, but emerged relatively unscathed, compared to far more unfortunate civilians.