A classic column on the homepage answers the origin of ‘skosh’, meaning ‘a little bit’. It surprised me to see it there, as I thought everyone knew where it came from.
Personally, I’d like ‘dijobe’ (slang for Daijoubu desu ka?) to make a comeback. We used it all the time when I was a small child in Japan for a year, and all during my childhood and teen years.
Cecil hasn’t done much with word or phrase origins since the advent of the internet, since there are so many excellent, dedicated sites.
So what does “dijobe” mean?
It means ‘OK?’.
It’s (AFAIK) American slang for Daijoubu desu ka.
Of course. But I’d still like to hear ‘daijobe’ being used in meatspace.
It took a bit of searching to figure out the word you meant. It’s “daijobu,” not “dijobe.” Here’s the Urban Dictionary entry. It doesn’t appear to be that common among English speakers:
No, I meant ‘dijobe’. Daijoubu is Japanese, as in the OP. (Gaudere strikes! 
) ‘Dijobe’ (or ‘daijobe’ or other spelling) is an American slang version of it. Perhaps it was Navy-specific, or it was only used in the San Diego area; but it was quite common when I was growing up, and the ‘u’ was never used unless you were actually speaking Japanese.
Your link calls daijoubu ‘American slang’. That’s like saying verstehen is American slang for ‘Understand?’. To me, the word would have to be altered in some way (daijoubu ==> ‘dijobe’, or verstehen ==> ‘stehen’ or something) to be considered slang. Otherwise I consider it just using a foreign word.
Words(from the Japanese) that were picked up during the Korean War include dijobe(tia jobo), skosh and taksan, which was the opposite of skosh. I’ve seen them referred to as “Bamboo English.”
I can’t find evidence online that a word “dijobe” exists. That’s not to say that you and the people you know used such a word. It just says that it was rather rare.
I can find newspaper cites from 1953 that it did, although the spellings of such words varied widely.
And, I agree it was rather rare in most of the US. I think Johnny lived in a rarified atmosphere of concentrated service members in San Diego during that period.
Yeah, San Diego is a Navy town, and dad was in the Navy. But I know I’ve heard it in at least one film or TV show (probably film).