We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Tim S saying
something like:

In the 70's, "jap" was not a term of endearment when referring to tools.

A hangover from when they were actually pretty crappy. By the 70s I had
bought, along with Snap-On, some Kamasa tools, which I still use.
Ironically, the later (90s onwards) Kamasa aren't as good.