Pacific Rim

Recently in San Pedro a splendid monument honoring our merchant seamen was erected. This dramatic sculpture of two working sailors will remind us of our maritime history. It was designed by Jasper D'Ambrosi, born and raised in the harbor area. I cannot help but compare this successful work of art with the "Steel Cloud" monument proposed for downtown Los Angeles. That project, unfortunately, looks like a massive junkyard, and would overwhelm a dark freeway tunnel--more like a message of traffic despair.

Being part of a film franchise is the closest thing to having job security in Hollywood these days, so perhaps that's why so many folks in the creative community are engaging in wishful thinking regarding their upcoming or recent movies' sequel prospects. The current spate of sequel hopefuls started with Anne Hathaway's recent appearance on "Access Hollywood," in which she told her interviewer about her deep connection to the character Selina Kyle (a.k.a. Catwoman), who she played in this summer's "The Dark Knight Rises.

ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN, a never-ending war of maneuver is under way. It is a three-dimensional struggle--under sea, on the water and in the air--that pits the U.S. Navy against a Soviet fleet three times its size. The prize is control over half the world's surface. The weapons are multimillion-dollar ships and planes, as well as a vast array of sophisticated electronics that could provide the winning advantage if a conflict between the superpowers ever erupts.

Despite mounting pressure to cut the U.S. Defense budget, the Pentagon is investing in new weapons systems, expanding military alliances and formulating a combat doctrine to counter a modernizing China and other potential rivals in Asia, according to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. On the first stop of a round-the-world farewell tour before he retires at the end of the month, Gates sought to reassure allies and warn adversaries that the United States would not pull back forces from the Pacific Rim or scale back its military commitments.

The World Report of June 7 gave readers an excellent review of Pacific Rim trade. While it is true that Rome and China were trading via the Silk Road by 200 BC, seaborne trade also began over segments of the route from Europe to Japan. Trade became a regular activity from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf via the Indian Ocean to India; then, from India to Southeast Asia, and from Southeast Asia north to China and Japan. In fact, the volume of seaborne trade grew significantly as navigators learnedto make effective use of the monsoons.

The Pacific once conjured exotic images but now represents explosive change. In a special issue today, World Report looks at that change and the way it is redefining Power on the Pacific Rim.

Businesses must learn to respond to the diversity of "Pacific Rim peoples" if they are to be successful in selling their products in the various Asian communities, said business owner Lilly Lee, chairman of the United Way's Asian Pacific Research & Development Council.

Related reprints of Times stories on the Pacific Rim, including June 7's special World Report on Pacific Rim trade, are available by fax or mail from Times on Demand. For a free directory, call 808-8463 and enter *8630. Order item No. 6000. Among the stories listed: -- Pacific Rim Trade: Asian Dynamism Fills an Ocean of Commerce. The Pacific Ocean and the sky above it have become the modern equivalent of the storied Silk Road from the Orient to Europe in ancient times. No. 6012.

Strong aftershocks and a second sizable earthquake rattled Japan through the night after the island nation's worst quake in recorded history, but the tsunami waves that drowned hundreds in northeast Japan mostly spared other countries around the Pacific Rim. Tsunami warnings had been issued for the entire Pacific basin after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that toppled thousands of buildings and sent a 30-foot wall of water across the coastal area...

Last week in New York, I saw a Japanese tourist on the corner of 5th Avenue and 79th Street wearing a T-shirt satirizing the "I heart NY" marketing meme. His version read, "Heart Your Own City." That's great advice. As the home of the film industry along with huge chunks of the music and television industries, Los Angeles is always going to be a player among U.S. cities. But recent trends in politics and media have increasingly made Washington and New York the locus of much of our national culture.

Tears again filled the house that two days ago held so much pain. Only this time, they were tears of amazement, of wonder, of joy. This time, a figure skater wept gold, Korea's Kim Yuna setting a world record in both points and strength of standing ovation, spinning into history with an Olympic championship that will reverberate from Seoul to Los Angeles. Did you see it? Could you feel it? The breeze from hundreds of Korean flags that filled the Pacific Coliseum is still whipping through these Pacific Rim streets.

Lucie Cheng, a UCLA sociologist whose imaginative scholarship on Chinese Americans and other Asian immigrants helped propel the field of Asian American studies in new directions, examining such issues as class and gender in immigrant societies, died Jan. 27 in Taipei. She was 70 and had battled cancer for several years, a UCLA spokeswoman said. Cheng was director of UCLA's Asian American Studies Center from 1972 to 1987 and founding director of its Center for Pacific Rim Studies, which opened in 1985.

Rolling out his approach toward the Pacific Rim, President Obama stressed in Tokyo today that he wants a cooperative relationship with China in which the two nations act as responsible global powers, setting aside differences to cope with climate change, nuclear proliferation and economic instability. Obama said the U.S. has no wish to "contain" China, a strategy that grew out of the Cold War era when the American government strove to block the spread of communism. "I know there are many who question how the United States perceives China's emergence," he said.

Remember the Pacific Rim? The term isn't heard much in art circles anymore, but in the last dozen years of the 20th century, it was everywhere. The 1980s had seen the prominent return of European art (especially from Germany) and the lively resurgence of Los Angeles art to a contemporary scene long narrowly centered in New York.

SAN JOSE -- Paul Hamm took more than two years off from competition after winning the all-around gymnastics gold medal in a controversial decision at the Athens Olympics. Watching his daring release moves on the horizontal bar, powerful vault and precise parallel bars routine Friday at the Pacific Rim championships, it seemed as though he never left. Hamm, 25, overcame a slip off the pommel horse to win the all-around title and lead the U.S. men to victory at San Jose State's Event Center.

As officials work on the details of a much-heralded plan to combat pollution at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, the two ports are gearing up to fortify their dominance of the nation's Pacific Rim trade with long-delayed expansion projects. The projects call for enlarging terminals and rail yards, building a marine terminal for crude oil and widening roads.