2661: Japanese Semaphore Mar 31, 2022

Things like semaphore and morse code word for alphabetic systems like the Latin alphabet, but it might not be obvious how Japanese writing might be adapted for it. Japanese semaphore for instance had to rethink the concept since there are about twice the number of characters compared to the Latin alphabet, and it is a syllabary. Instead, with a red flag in the right hand and white in the left, they had the semaphore signals roughly match the trajectory of how the strokes look in the characters but this would usually take two or more different motions complete. Semaphore already rotated the flags like the hands of a clock to sign letters and numbers with the same displays, owing to its clock-like mechanical origins, but Japanese semaphore had a different system for numbers to its letters.