WHEN I WAS A KID

When I was a kid, most everyone I knew despised the Japanese people.   It was a carryover from World War II.  I didn't feel the same enmity for the Germans - maybe because there were too many locals of German descent.

Of course, I knew no Japanese people.  Never even saw any on the streets of our town.  There were little, if any, Japanese products for sale in the U.S. in the 1940's and 50's. When they were eventually introduced, they were considered inferior - all small knock-offs of our good products.

It wasn't until the transistor became integral to radio receiving that Japanese products began to be accepted.  With this, the Japanese flare for making things small became very useful.  Companies like Sony took the work of Westinghouse, Bell Labs and Texas Instruments and produced useful, quality products at very low prices.

Honda, Nisan and Toyota started building automobile manufacturing plants in the U.S. in the 1960's and 70's.  They brought the reputation of being small copies of our great cars - more knock-offs. They couldn't shake that reputation until the mid 1980's.

Now, I've had nothing but Japanese name plate vehicles for over 20 years.
*o*