Blacks Japan

A 17-day American fact-finding trip by a Japanese family waging a do-it-yourself fight against anti-black racism in their country has had an unhappy ending in Los Angeles. Luggage containing journals and videotapes chronicling the family's visits with such prominent blacks as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, Coretta Scott King and Baltimore Orioles baseball manager Frank Robinson disappeared moments after their arrival at Los Angeles International Airport.

Kiichi Miyazawa was elected Japan's 49th prime minister on Tuesday and appointed as his foreign minister an outspoken politician who has offended blacks, Chinese, women and others with his off-the-cuff remarks. Highlighting Miyazawa's 20 Cabinet selections, the appointment of Michio Watanabe, 68, to serve as Japan's face to the world raised some eyebrows on both sides of the Pacific.

Missing luggage containing documents that chronicle a Japanese family's fight against black racism in their country has been recovered, Los Angeles officials said Friday. Bags containing journals and videotapes detailing the campaign led by the family of Toshiji Arita were found in a trash bin near Los Angeles International Airport, a spokeswoman for Mayor Tom Bradley said.

Immediately after the news hit that a Japanese company was selling Little Black Sambo beachwear and toys in Japan last year, Ron Wakabayashi began getting furious calls from blacks. One caller to the Japanese American Citizens League national headquarters in San Francisco threatened to circulate racist caricatures of Japanese. Others cursed the JACL national director and hung up.

Immediately after the news hit that a Japanese company was selling Little Black Sambo beachwear and toys in Japan last year, Ron Wakabayashi began getting furious calls from blacks. One caller to the Japanese American Citizens League national headquarters in San Francisco threatened to circulate racist caricatures of Japanese. Others cursed the JACL national director and hung up.

Kiichi Miyazawa was elected Japan's 49th prime minister on Tuesday and appointed as his foreign minister an outspoken politician who has offended blacks, Chinese, women and others with his off-the-cuff remarks. Highlighting Miyazawa's 20 Cabinet selections, the appointment of Michio Watanabe, 68, to serve as Japan's face to the world raised some eyebrows on both sides of the Pacific.

Drawing an analogy between prostitutes in Tokyo and blacks in America is ridiculous. Yet a Japanese cabinet official did that recently, in a most insulting manner. After a police roundup of foreign prostitutes over the weekend, Justice Minister Seiroku Kajiyama likened their presence in the Shinjuku district to black Americans who move into white neighborhoods and "ruin the atmosphere."

William Pfaff's commentary, "U.S. Talk, Fear, Bluster Won't Cut It" (Op-Ed Page, Nov. 13), doesn't cut it. I was amazed to see that Pfaff took seriously a piece of Japanese literature, "A Japan That Can Say No," that is overtly chauvinistic and biased. To call the United States racist because it dropped the atomic bomb on Japan rather than Nazi Germany skirts the facts. The bomb wasn't even tested until after Germany surrendered.

The NAACP last week quietly ended its "informational picket line" at the Japanese Embassy here after two months of demanding a halt to Japanese slurs against blacks, but the group intends to keep pressuring Japanese government and industry. The protest followed remarks by Japanese Justice Minister Seiroku Kajiyama comparing blacks to Tokyo prostitutes. Both "ruin the atmosphere (of neighborhoods) in the same way," he said.

Missing luggage containing documents that chronicle a Japanese family's fight against black racism in their country has been recovered, Los Angeles officials said Friday. Bags containing journals and videotapes detailing the campaign led by the family of Toshiji Arita were found in a trash bin near Los Angeles International Airport, a spokeswoman for Mayor Tom Bradley said.

A 17-day American fact-finding trip by a Japanese family waging a do-it-yourself fight against anti-black racism in their country has had an unhappy ending in Los Angeles. Luggage containing journals and videotapes chronicling the family's visits with such prominent blacks as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, Coretta Scott King and Baltimore Orioles baseball manager Frank Robinson disappeared moments after their arrival at Los Angeles International Airport.