batu ha kibisikatta.

It is read ばつはきびしかった.

A breakdown:

• 罰 → ばつ
• は → pronounced wa when it is the topic particle
• 厳しかった → きびしかった

In normal Japanese writing, it would usually appear without spaces as 罰は厳しかった。

Because は is acting as a particle, not as part of a regular word.

As a topic particle, は is written with the kana は but pronounced wa. This is one of the first pronunciation quirks learners run into.

So:

• 罰は is pronounced ばつは in spelling
• but actually said as ばつわ

は marks the topic of the sentence.

So 罰は厳しかった means something like:

• As for the punishment, it was severe
• or more naturally, The punishment was severe

The structure is:

• 罰 = punishment
• は = topic marker
• 厳しかった = was severe / was harsh

Japanese often sets up a topic first and then comments on it.

Because 厳しい is an い-adjective.

For い-adjectives, the past tense is made by changing the final い to かった.

So:

• 厳しい = severe, harsh
• 厳しかった = was severe, was harsh

This is the normal pattern:

• 高い → 高かった
• 難しい → 難しかった
• 厳しい → 厳しかった

You do not use だった with an い-adjective.

It is an い-adjective, and in this sentence it functions as the predicate, meaning it finishes the sentence.

That is very common in Japanese. A sentence does not need a separate word meaning to be in the same way English does.

So:

• 罰は厳しかった。
• literally, As for the punishment, severe-was

Natural English becomes The punishment was severe.

Here, 厳しい means severe, harsh, or sometimes strict, depending on context.

With 罰, the most natural English idea is usually:

• severe punishment
• harsh punishment

So in this sentence, 厳しかった most likely means was severe or was harsh.

Yes, 罰が厳しかった is possible, but the nuance changes.

A simple way to think about it:

• 罰は厳しかった = speaking about the punishment as a topic
• 罰が厳しかった = putting more focus on the punishment as the thing that was severe

Very roughly:

• は can feel like as for
• が can feel like the one that or can mark the main subject more directly

In many contexts both are possible, but は often sounds more like a general statement about something already known in the conversation.

Yes, possibly a lot of context is left unstated, which is normal in Japanese.

For example, this sentence does not explicitly say:

• whose punishment it was
• what the punishment was for
• who gave the punishment
• when or in what situation this happened

Japanese often leaves that information out if it is already understood from context.

So 罰は厳しかった could be used in many situations, such as talking about a rule violation, a crime, a school penalty, or a historical event.

This is plain past style.

• 厳しかった = plain past
• 厳しかったです = polite past

So a polite version would be:

• 罰は厳しかったです。

The plain form is very common in everyday conversation, storytelling, writing, and informal speech.

Because Japanese is a language where the main predicate usually comes at the end.

In this sentence, the final word 厳しかった carries the main statement. Japanese often builds a sentence like this:

• topic or subject first
• main comment last

So:

• 罰は = as for the punishment
• 厳しかった = was severe

This end-of-sentence structure is one of the biggest word-order differences from English.

By itself, 罰 does not clearly mark singular or plural.

Depending on context, it could mean:

• the punishment
• a punishment
• punishments

In this sentence, English will usually translate it as the punishment if a specific punishment is already being discussed.

Japanese nouns generally do not require articles like a or the, so you have to get that from context.

Those spaces are usually just for learning purposes.

Normal Japanese writing would be:

• 罰は厳しかった。

Textbooks and beginner materials sometimes insert spaces to make the structure easier to see:

• 罰 / は / 厳しかった

But real Japanese normally does not use spaces between words like that.