Japanese Language Systems

Japanese Language Systems

We started this thread with a discussion of the Japanese WWII Code "JN25", the decoding of which was extremely useful to the Americans at the Battle of Midway. We got curious about what the Japanese were tapping in "Morse" code - was it anglicized Japanese letters or what?

Turns out the Japanese had their own "Morse" system, using the katakana syllables plus "romaji" letters.

Example of Japanese codebooks at the famous top-secret British intelligence decoding outfit at "Bletchley Park"

Overview of Japanese writing

The Japanese writing tutor, with a little more detail.

Hiragana-Romaji translation, with clickable pronounciation
Katakana-Romaji translation, with clickable pronounciation

Kanji character drawing tool, with pronounciation help.